One soul leaned to sloth, sensual and selfish indulgence: one, with larger horizon, was for temperance, vigour, and Imperial duty. The curious feature of this critical stage in the fortunes of Rome is that the two tendencies are developed within the same family, and the Stoic yields to the Sybarite. Annia Galeria Faustina was born of the same parents as the father of Marcus Aurelius, and was reared in the same atmosphere of old Roman virtue, or manliness, as the word signifies. The great-grandfather of Marcus Aurelius was Annius Verus, a Senator of great merit and of Spanish extraction. His son Annius Verus was twice consul, and both his sons in turn--the father and uncle of Marcus Aurelius--were promoted to the consulate. Everything we know of the family suggests a fine and sober patrician type, and confirms the beautiful picture of it given us by Marcus Aurelius in his “Meditations.” The one element of possible weakness in the ancestry of the Faustinas and of Commodus is in the mother of Annia Galeria Faustina. Annius Verus had married Rupilia Faustina. Her family is obscure, and, though one must hesitate to trace to her this strain of weakness and vice on such slender grounds, one is disposed to believe that she was married for her beauty, and brought into that strong family the tainted germ which ripened in more than one of her descendants. It may, however, very well be that the strength of the stock was decaying--Marcus Aurelius himself was delicate--and its later descendants succumbed to the evil influences about them. A genealogical table will show how the fate of Rome hung on this family for more than a generation:-- [Illustration: FAUSTINA THE ELDER BUST IN THE LOUVRE] Annius Verus (twice consul) and Rupilia Faustina | +--------------------+----------------------------+ | | | Annius Libo Annius Verus (consul) Annia Galeria Faustina (consul) (marries Domitia Calvilla) (marries Antoninus Pius) | | +-----------------+ ------+------- | | Annia Cornificia Marcus Aurelius Annia Faustina (marries Annia Faustina) | | | +--------------+---------------+ | Commodus