The Emperor Marcus Aurelius : $b A study in ideals — Marcus Aurelius — John Shaqi
The Emperor Marcus Aurelius : $b A study in ideals
Marcus Aurelius · en
There are many controverted points in connexion with the details of
this story, and the use made of it by the Christian apologists, into
which this is not the place to enter. Certain it is that this Danube
legion got the title of _Fulminata_, at least for some time; even
though the twelfth legion, to whom it properly belonged since the time
of Augustus, were at this time at the Euphrates. It is certain, too,
that everyone, pagan and Christian, regarded the incident as a miracle.
Some attributed it to the prayers of the Emperor himself, and this
view was commemorated in bas-reliefs of the Antonine column, erected
after death to his memory and to be seen to this day. There one sees
represented in the air the winged figure of an old man with streaming
hair and beard, the god of rain, Jupiter Pluvius; while the Romans with
helmets and shields receive the torrents of rain, and their enemies lie
transfixed to the ground by the hail and lightning. Marcus Aurelius
himself was represented in pictures with hands uplifted and praying,
with strange forgetfulness of his barbarities against the Christians,
“Jove to thee do I lift this hand, which hath never shed blood.”
Others attributed this miracle to the Egyptian magician Arnouphis, who
accompanied the army.
That there were Christians “in Cæsar’s household” and round Marcus
Aurelius is certain. That there were many Christians in this legion
cannot reasonably be denied. But the great import of the event for
Tertullian and other Christian apologists, before and after him, was
based on a letter undoubtedly apocryphal, which Marcus Aurelius was
supposed to have written to the Senate, acknowledging that he had been
saved by Christian prayers and forbidding their further persecution.