Gibbon on Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius:

"Their united reigns are possibly the only period in history in which the happiness of a great people was the sole object of government."

And on Gordian II:

"Twenty-two acknowledged concubines, and a library of sixty-two thousand volumes attested the variety of his inclinations; and from the productions which he left behind him, it appears that the former as well as the latter were designed for use rather than for ostentation."