Already Marcus had the ritual instinct which marked him in later life and at the age of eight Hadrian appointed him chief of the College of Salii; a boy bishop of boy priests devoted to Mars, the god of War. In this office, in the early days of March, he led the patrician youth in their religious dances through the streets and presided at the Saliarian banquets. He was scrupulously exact in the fulfilment of these duties. He already knew by heart the antiquated formulas, couched in barbarous Latin, whose meaning most men had forgotten. In the complex ceremonies he never needed a prompter; such was his knowledge of their rubrics. In one of these rites the boys threw chaplets at the head of a reclining statue of Mars; but Marcus alone succeeded in crowning the god. It was an omen of the wars which later were to break in upon his peace. At the age of eleven Marcus adopted the _pallium_ or cloak of the Stoics--thus consecrating his life to divine philosophy. Hadrian knew Greek and loved Greek thoughts and Greek ways; he knew Plato and Plato’s ideal--the Philosopher-King. Here was an opportunity of realising the ideal; why not make Marcus Emperor? His fanciful mind would have a keen delight in speculating on the future of the Empire under such a rule. After me the deluge; and he resolved to let posterity have the benefit of the experiment, and lay the blame or merit of the result not on him but on Plato. He at first had adopted as his successor Lucius Verus, the handsome and dissolute father of the equally handsome and dissolute Lucius Verus, who was afterwards Marcus’ colleague as Emperor. But Lucius died before Hadrian, and he then chose a worthier successor. This was the best of Senators--a Roman of Cato’s school but free from the absurdities of that school--Antoninus Pius. In making this second choice Hadrian provided for the succession of the boy Marcus in due time. He ordered Antoninus to adopt as his sons and successors Marcus and the younger Lucius Verus. Thus began the lifelong attachment between Antoninus and Marcus--the rulers of the Golden Age--the most admirably virtuous, though far from being the ablest of the Roman Emperors.