father Antoninus Pius, and he has recorded in his word (i. 16; vi. 30)
the virtues of the excellent man and prudent ruler. Like many young
Romans he tried his hand at poetry and studied rhetoric. Herodes Atticus
and M. Cornelius Fronto were his teachers in eloquence. There are extant
letters between Fronto and Marcus,[A] which show the great affection of
the pupil for the master, and the master's great hopes of his
industrious pupil. M. Antoninus mentions Fronto (i. 11) among those to
whom he was indebted for his education.

[A] M. Cornelii Frontonis Reliquiae, Berlin, 1816. There are a
few letters between Fronto and Antoninus Pius.

When he was eleven years old, he assumed the dress of philosophers,
something plain and coarse, became a hard student, and lived a most
laborious, abstemious life, even so far as to injure his health.
Finally, he abandoned poetry and rhetoric for philosophy, and he
attached himself to the sect of the Stoics. But he did not neglect the
study of law, which was a useful preparation for the high place which he
was designed to fill. His teacher was L. Volusianus Maecianus, a
distinguished jurist. We must suppose that he learned the Roman
discipline of arms, which was a necessary part of the education of a man
who afterwards led his troops to battle against a warlike race.

Antoninus has recorded in his first book the names of his teachers, and
the obligations which he owed to each of them. The way in which he
speaks of what he learned from them might seem to savor of vanity or
self-praise, if we look carelessly at the way in which he has expressed
himself; but if any one draws this conclusion, he will be mistaken.
Antoninus means to commemorate the merits of his several teachers, what
they taught, and what a pupil might learn from them. Besides, this book,