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<p>[QUOTE="kevin McGonigal, post: 4529420, member: 72790"]I have often thought that Pius had acquired, from somewhere, the old Roman Republic virtue of "disciplina", poorly translated as our discipline. To the earlier Romans the exercise of disciplina was a part of "virtus", the sum of all the qualities' that made a male Roman a man (vir). What disciplina meant to a Roman was the willingness to do what had to be done, simply because it had to be done. Not because you would be censured if you did not, not that you would be rewarded if you did, not because you were being watched but solely because something had to be done and you would do it, for that reason alone. I think that was one of the secrets of early Roman successes on the battlefield and at the rostrum of governing themselves as well as others. Virgil well noted that ability in the Aeneid when he reminded Romans that this was an essential part of their genius, their ability to govern others. When disciplina became more of an aspiration than a norm, Rome suffered from that loss. Whether Antoninus Pius would have recognized that he possessed that hallowed disciplina or not I don't know, but I think he and the likes of Cinncinatus or Cato, if they met in the Elysian Fields, would have discovered that they had much in common and this may have helped account for his success as a ruler.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="kevin McGonigal, post: 4529420, member: 72790"]I have often thought that Pius had acquired, from somewhere, the old Roman Republic virtue of "disciplina", poorly translated as our discipline. To the earlier Romans the exercise of disciplina was a part of "virtus", the sum of all the qualities' that made a male Roman a man (vir). What disciplina meant to a Roman was the willingness to do what had to be done, simply because it had to be done. Not because you would be censured if you did not, not that you would be rewarded if you did, not because you were being watched but solely because something had to be done and you would do it, for that reason alone. I think that was one of the secrets of early Roman successes on the battlefield and at the rostrum of governing themselves as well as others. Virgil well noted that ability in the Aeneid when he reminded Romans that this was an essential part of their genius, their ability to govern others. When disciplina became more of an aspiration than a norm, Rome suffered from that loss. Whether Antoninus Pius would have recognized that he possessed that hallowed disciplina or not I don't know, but I think he and the likes of Cinncinatus or Cato, if they met in the Elysian Fields, would have discovered that they had much in common and this may have helped account for his success as a ruler.[/QUOTE]
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