74 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



of gods, Lucius Commodus was versed in a more elegant 

 kind of learning, and Marcus was surnamed the philoso 

 pher. These princes excelled the rest in virtue and good 

 ness as much as they surpassed them in learning. Nerva 

 was a mild philosopher, and who, if he had done nothing 

 else than give Trajan to the world, would have sufficiently 

 distinguished himself. Trajan was most famous and re 

 nowned above all the emperors for the arts both of peace 

 and war. He enlarged the bounds of empire, marked out 

 its limits and its power. He was, in addition, so great 

 a builder, that Constantine used to call him Parietaria, or 

 Wallflower,&quot; his name being carved upon so many walls. 

 Adrian strove with time for the palm of duration, and re 

 paired its decays and ruins wherever the touch of its scythe 

 had appeared. . Antoninus was pious in name and nature. 

 His nature and innate goodness gained him the reverence 

 and affection of all classes, ages, and conditions; and his 

 reign, like his life, was long and unruffled by storms. Lu 

 cius Commodus, though not so perfect as his brother, ex 

 ceeded many of the emperors in virtue. Marcus, formed 

 by nature to be the model of every excellence, was so fault 

 less, that Silenus, when he took his seat at the banquet of 

 the gods, found nothing to carp at in him but his patience 

 in humoring his wife. 100 Thus, in the succession of these 

 six princes, we may witness the happy fruits of learning in 

 sovereignty painted in the great table of the world. 



Nor has learning a less influence on military genius than 

 on merit employed in the state, as may be observed in the 

 lives of Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, a few ex 

 amples of which it will not be impertinent here to notice. 



Alexander was bred under Aristotle, 101 certainly a great 

 philosopher, who dedicated several of his treatises to him. 

 He was accompanied by Calisthenes and several other learned 

 persons both in his travels and conquests. The value this 



99 Borai Tj TOIXOV. He Called Adrian epya\aov 



100 Julian. Caesares. 



101 For these anecdotes see Plutarch s life of Alex. 



