thanks in large part to his quotability and accessible style. (quoted 7.38, 7.40–
42, 7.50–51, 11.6)
UTYCHES: Unknown; the comparison with SATYRON does not help us identify
him. (10.31)
UTYCHION: Not certainly identified, unless the name is a slip for the
grammarian Eutychius Proculus. (10.31)ABIUS: Unidentified, perhaps identical with FABIUS CATULLINUS. (4.50)
ABIUS CATULLINUS: Unknown. Perhaps to be identified with the FABIUS of
4.50. (12.27)
AUSTINA: Wife of ANTONINUS Pius (8.25). Marcus married their daughter,
also Faustina (1.17).
RONTO: Marcus Cornelius Fronto (c. 95–c. 166), rhetorician from Cirta in
North Africa, and a key figure in Marcus’s education. Portions of his letters
to Marcus survive in two palimpsest manuscripts discovered in the early
nineteenth century. (1.11)
ADRIAN (1): Prominent rhetorician; no relation to the emperor. (8.25)
ADRIAN (2): Roman emperor (117–138), best known for his travels and
cultural interests; adopted ANTONINUS as his heir on the condition that the
latter adopt Marcus and Lucius VERUS. (4.33, 8.5, 8.37, 10.27)
ELVIDIUS: Helvidius Priscus (died c. 75), son-in-law of THRASEA Paetus,
exiled and later executed for his opposition to the emperor VESPASIAN. (1.14)
ERACLITUS: Pre-Socratic philosopher (active c. 500 B.C.) from the city of
Ephesus, famous for his cryptic and paradoxical utterances. His exaltation of
the logos as a cosmic power and his identification of fire as the primal
substance were important influences on the Stoics (see also Introduction).
According to the third-century A.D. biographer Diogenes Laertius, he died of
dropsy, which he tried to cure by immersing himself in manure; this account