MARCUS AURELIUS
My mother Faustina exhorted your father Pius, on the revolt of [the same] Celsus, that he should shew loyalty in the first place to his own family and then to others. For an Emperor cannot be called Pius who does not think of wife and children. You see how young our Commodus is: Pompeianus, our son-in-law,[1] is both aged and a provincial. See how you deal with Avidius Cassius and his accomplices. Spare not men who have not spared you, and would have spared neither me nor your children, had they succeeded. I will myself soon follow you on your journey. As our Fadilla[2] was ill, I could not come to the Formian Villa.[3] But if I cannot find you at Formiae, I will go on to Capua, a place which is likely to benefit my health and our childrens'. I beseech you send Soteridas the physician to the Formian Villa. I have no faith in Pisitheus, who does not know how to cure our little maid.[4] Calpurnius gave me the sealed letter to which I will send an answer. If I fail to get it off at once, by Caecilius the old eunuch, a man, as you know, to be relied on, I will entrust him with an oral message of what the wife of Avidius Cassius and his children and son-in-law are reported to say about you.
Answer of Marcus to Faustina
The anxiety which you shew for your husband and our children, my Faustina, is natural. For I have
- ↑ He married Lucilla, the daughter of Marcus and widow of Lucius Verus. He was Consul II. in 173.
- ↑ Born about 150. She married Claud. Severus.
- ↑ We know of no imperial villa here.
- ↑ An inscription (Corp. Inscr. Graec. 1124 b) found at Tibur was dedicated to Artemis ὑπὲρ σωτηρίας Μάρκου καὶ Φαδίλλας.
