Marcus Antonius Aurelius.

Marcus Antonius Aurelius.

Born in Rome, April 26th, A.D. 121; became Emperor at the request of
the Senate against his own inclination A.D. 161, and died A.D. 180.
I
Contemptible how often been earth’s kings
And emperors; but we revere in thee,
Aurelius! a man of probity
And wise old Stoic; and history brings
Too few like thee before us. Sorrowings, 5
And not rejoicings, for the rule they bore
Too often compell’d their subjects to deplore
Their lives, but not their deaths. Each Kerus[1] flings
Shame on mankind; and all posterity
Must wonder Rome could patiently submit 10
To such a sensual tyrant’s cruel bit
When thou too wert in power. Men should be free
Alike in mind and body; but ’t is clear
That to her crafty priest Rome lent a willing ear.
II
Aurelius never wish’d for regal power; 15
But, by the Senate urged, the people took
To rule imperial Rome. In vain we look
At all her other Emperors—so poor
In true nobility—for one like him.
He may indeed be truly call’d the flower 20
Of Roman manhood: others seem to cower
Before him; his name’s brightness does not dim
Through seventeen centuries. For the people’s good,
He gave up learnêd leisure; but that age
Was too corrupt for one—however sage 25
His precepts and his practise—to stem the flood
Of ignorance and vice, which fast did sweep
Rome to that ruin wicked nations all are sure to reap.

George Markham Tweddell
[1 Kerus; Greek for ‘heart’ or ‘passion’]
[Unnumbered pages at end of Miscellaneous Sonnets–notionally pp.
143 & 144.]
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More information here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius