Gradually Cassius had been strengthening his forces; and at length in A.D. 175 openly raised the standard of revolt against the reign of the philosophers. His manifesto shows how deeply the military party resented the ascendancy of men who seemed to have no qualification for office except their long beards and eccentric life. Jibes such as this were common: “His beard is worth ten thousand sesterces to him; come, we shall have to pay goats a salary next!” Avidius admits that Marcus is a worthy man, but he is letting the State go to ruin, while “hungry blood-suckers batten on her vitals.” He longs for the old strict regime of Cato. “Marcus Antoninus is a scholar; he enacts the philosopher; and he tries conclusions concerning the four elements and upon the nature of the soul; and he discourses learnedly upon the _Honestum_; and concerning the _Summum Bonum_ he is unanswerable. Meanwhile, is he learned in the interests of the State? Can he argue a point upon the public economy?” And he adds: “You see what a host of sabres is required, what a host of impeachments, sentences, executions, before the commonwealth can resume its ancient integrity!” A rumour that Marcus was dead hastened the outbreak of the revolt and won support for Cassius. But it was quickly contradicted; and this caused the collapse of his forces. Officers and men deserted him, and he was at length assassinated by one of his own followers. Meanwhile Marcus was coming with all haste from the Danube, accompanied by Faustina. When they reached Cappadocia, at the foot of Mount Taurus, Faustina died, to his great grief, and the tongues of the slanderers were silent at length. The last accusation against her was that she had been privy to this very revolt, and had promised to marry Cassius in the event of its success. But to all these charges we must give a verdict of “not proven”; they are for the most part unreliable gossip of the most gossiping of historians. But even though she was not guilty of all that was laid to her charge, yet she seems to have wearied of the over-wisdom of Marcus and his friends: she lived a different life and had different tastes from his. Yet even after her death Marcus cherished her memory. He had a temple built to her honour on the spot where she died, and at his request the Senate decreed her deification. The visitor to Rome may still see in the Capitoline Museum a bas-relief in which she is represented being borne up to heaven by Fame, while Marcus follows her from the earth with that look of tender, wistful pathos which characterises most of the representations of him. In decreeing these honours, as also in establishing an institute for orphans to be called _Faustinianæ_, after her name, he was but following step by step the action of his father Antoninus on the death of the elder Faustina.