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Marcus Aurelius

April 26, 2023

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: [ˈmaːr.kus̠ auˈreː.li.us̠ an.toː.ˈniː.nus̠]; English: /ɔːˈriːliəs/ aw-REE-lee-əs;[2] 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known, noncontemporaneously, as the Five Good Emperors and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace, calmness and stability for the Roman Empire lasting from 27 BC to 180 AD. He served as Roman consul in 140, 145, and 161.

Marcus Aurelius
Roman emperor
Reign7 March 161 – 17 March 180
PredecessorAntoninus Pius
SuccessorCommodus
Co-emperor
Born(121-04-26)26 April 121
Rome, Italy
Died17 March 180(180-03-17) (aged 58)
Vindobona, Pannonia Superior or
Sirmium, Pannonia Inferior
Burial
Hadrian's Mausoleum
SpouseFaustina the Younger
(m. 145; died 175)
Issue
Detail		14, including Commodus, Marcus Annius Verus Caesar, Lucilla, Annia Galeria Aurelia Faustina, Fadilla, Annia Cornificia Faustina Minor, and Vibia Aurelia Sabina
Names
Marcus Annius Catilius Severus (birth)
Marcus Annius Verus (124)
Marcus Aelius Aurelius Verus Caesar (138)
(see section Name for details)
Regnal name
Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus
DynastyNerva–Antonine
Father
MotherDomitia Calvilla
ReligionAncient Roman religion
Philosophy career
Notable workMeditations
EraHellenistic philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolStoicism
Main interests
Ethics
Notable ideas
Memento mori[1]
Influences
Influenced

Marcus Aurelius was born during the reign of Hadrian to the emperor's nephew, the praetor Marcus Annius Verus, and the heiress Domitia Calvilla. His father died when he was three, and he was raised by his mother and paternal grandfather. After Hadrian's adoptive son, Aelius Caesar, died in 138, the emperor adopted Marcus's uncle Antoninus Pius as his new heir. In turn, Antoninus adopted Marcus and Lucius, the son of Aelius. Hadrian died that year, and Antoninus became emperor. Now heir to the throne, Marcus studied Greek and Latin under tutors such as Herodes Atticus and Marcus Cornelius Fronto. He married Antoninus' daughter Faustina in 145.

After Antoninus died in 161, Marcus Aurelius acceded to the throne alongside his adoptive brother, who reigned under the name Lucius Verus. Under his rule the Roman Empire witnessed heavy military conflict. In the East, the Romans fought successfully with a revitalized Parthian Empire and the rebel Kingdom of Armenia. Marcus defeated the Marcomanni, Quadi, and Sarmatian Iazyges in the Marcomannic Wars; however, these and other Germanic peoples began to represent a troubling reality for the Empire. He modified the silver purity of the Roman currency, the denarius. The persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire appears to have increased during his reign, but his involvement in this is unlikely since there is no record of early Christians in the 2nd century calling him a persecutor, and Tertullian even called Marcus a "protector of Christians".[3] The Antonine Plague broke out in 165 or 166 and devastated the population of the Roman Empire, causing the deaths of five to ten million people. Lucius Verus may have died from the plague in 169.

Unlike some of his predecessors, Marcus chose not to adopt an heir. His children included Lucilla, who married Lucius, and Commodus, whose succession after Marcus has been a subject of debate among both contemporary and modern historians. The Column and Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius still stand in Rome, where they were erected in celebration of his military victories. Meditations, the writings of "the philosopher" – as contemporary biographers called Marcus – are a significant source of the modern understanding of ancient Stoic philosophy. These writings have been praised by fellow writers, philosophers, monarchs, and politicians centuries after his death.

Sources

The major sources depicting the life and rule of Marcus Aurelius are patchy and frequently unreliable. The most important group of sources, the biographies contained in the Historia Augusta, claimed to be written by a group of authors at the turn of the 4th century AD, but it is believed they were in fact written by a single author (referred to here as 'the biographer') from about AD 395.[4] The later biographies and the biographies of subordinate emperors and usurpers are unreliable, but the earlier biographies, derived primarily from now-lost earlier sources (Marius Maximus or Ignotus), are much more accurate.[5] For Marcus's life and rule, the biographies of Hadrian, Antoninus, Marcus, and Lucius are largely reliable, but those of Aelius Verus and Avidius Cassius are not.[6]

A body of correspondence between Marcus's tutor Fronto and various Antonine officials survives in a series of patchy manuscripts, covering the period from c. 138 to 166.[7][8] Marcus's own Meditations offer a window on his inner life, but are largely undateable and make few specific references to worldly affairs.[9] The main narrative source for the period is Cassius Dio, a Greek senator from Bithynian Nicaea who wrote a history of Rome from its founding to 229 in eighty books. Dio is vital for the military history of the period, but his senatorial prejudices and strong opposition to imperial expansion obscure his perspective.[10] Some other literary sources provide specific details: the writings of the physician Galen on the habits of the Antonine elite, the orations of Aelius Aristides on the temper of the times, and the constitutions preserved in the Digest and Codex Justinianeus on Marcus' legal work.[11] Inscriptions and coin finds supplement the literary sources.[12]

Early life

Main article: Early life of Marcus Aurelius

Name

Marcus was born in Rome on 26 April 121. His birth name is sometimes given as Marcus Annius Verus,[13] but sources assign this name to him upon his father's death and unofficial adoption by his grandfather, upon his coming of age.[14][15][16][17] He may have been known as Marcus Annius Catilius Severus,[18] at birth or some point in his youth,[14][17] or Marcus Catilius Severus Annius Verus. Upon his adoption by Antoninus as heir to the throne, he was known as Marcus Aelius Aurelius Verus Caesar and, upon his ascension, he was Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus until his death;[19] Epiphanius of Salamis, in his chronology of the Roman emperors included in his On Weights and Measures, calls him Marcus Aurelius Verus.[20]

Family origins

Marcus' paternal family was of Roman Italo-Hispanic origins. His father was Marcus Annius Verus (III).[21] The gens Annia was of Italic origins (with legendary claims of descendance from Numa Pompilius) and a branch of it, the Annii Veri, moved to Ucubi, a small town south east of Córdoba in Iberian Baetica.[22][23] This branch rose to prominence in Rome in the late 1st century AD. Marcus's great-grandfather Marcus Annius Verus (I) was a senator and (according to the Historia Augusta) ex-praetor; his grandfather Marcus Annius Verus (II) was made patrician in 73–74.[24] Through his grandmother Rupilia Faustina, Marcus was a member of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty; the emperor Trajan's sororal niece Salonia Matidia was the step-mother of Rupilia and her step-sister, Hadrian's wife Sabina.[25][26][note 1]

Marcus's mother, Domitia Lucilla Minor (also known as Domitia Calvilla), was the daughter of the Roman patrician P. Calvisius Tullus and inherited a great fortune (described at length in one of Pliny's letters) from her parents and grandparents. Her inheritance included large brickworks on the outskirts of Rome – a profitable enterprise in an era when the city was experiencing a construction boom – and the Horti Domitia Calvillae (or Lucillae), a villa on the Caelian hill of Rome.[31][32] Marcus himself was born and raised in the Horti and referred to the Caelian hill as 'My Caelian'.[33][34][35]

The adoptive family of Marcus was of Roman Italo-Gallic origins: the gens Aurelia, into which Marcus was adopted at the age of 17, was a Sabine gens; Antoninus Pius, his adoptive father, came from the Aurelii Fulvi, a branch of the Aurelii based in Roman Gaul.

Childhood

Marcus's sister, Annia Cornificia Faustina, was probably born in 122 or 123.[36] His father probably died in 124, when Marcus was three years old during his praetorship.[37][note 2] Though he can hardly have known his father, Marcus wrote in his Meditations that he had learned 'modesty and manliness' from his memories of his father and the man's posthumous reputation.[39] His mother Lucilla did not remarry[37] and, following prevailing aristocratic customs, probably did not spend much time with her son. Instead, Marcus was in the care of 'nurses',[40] and was raised after his father's death by his grandfather Marcus Annius Verus (II), who had always retained the legal authority of patria potestas over his son and grandson. Technically this was not an adoption, the creation of a new and different patria potestas. Lucius Catilius Severus, described as Marcus's maternal great-grandfather, also participated in his upbringing; he was probably the elder Domitia Lucilla's stepfather.[17] Marcus was raised in his parents' home on the Caelian Hill, an upscale area with few public buildings but many aristocratic villas. Marcus's grandfather owned a palace beside the Lateran, where he would spend much of his childhood.[41] Marcus thanks his grandfather for teaching him 'good character and avoidance of bad temper'.[42] He was less fond of the mistress his grandfather took and lived with after the death of his wife Rupilia.[43] Marcus was grateful that he did not have to live with her longer than he did.[44]

 
A bust of young Marcus Aurelius (Capitoline Museum). Anthony Birley, his modern biographer, writes of the bust: 'This is certainly a grave young man'.[45]

From a young age, Marcus displayed enthusiasm for wrestling and boxing. He trained in wrestling as a youth and into his teenage years, learned to fight in armour and joined the Salii, an order of priests dedicated to the god Mars that were responsible for the sacred shields, called Ancilia, and possibly for heralding war season's beginning and end. Marcus was educated at home, in line with contemporary aristocratic trends;[46] he thanks Catilius Severus for encouraging him to avoid public schools.[47] One of his teachers, Diognetus, a painting master, proved particularly influential; he seems to have introduced Marcus Aurelius to the philosophic way of life.[48] In April 132, at the behest of Diognetus, Marcus took up the dress and habits of the philosopher: he studied while wearing a rough Greek cloak, and would sleep on the ground until his mother convinced him to sleep on a bed.[49] A new set of tutors – the Homeric scholar Alexander of Cotiaeum along with Trosius Aper and Tuticius Proculus, teachers of Latin[50][note 3] – took over Marcus's education in about 132 or 133.[52] Marcus thanks Alexander for his training in literary styling.[53] Alexander's influence – an emphasis on matter over style and careful wording, with the occasional Homeric quotation – has been detected in Marcus' Meditations.[54]

Succession to Hadrian

In late 136, Hadrian almost died from a hemorrhage. Convalescent in his villa at Tivoli, he selected Lucius Ceionius Commodus, Marcus's intended father-in-law, as his successor and adopted son,[55] according to the biographer 'against the wishes of everyone'.[56] While his motives are not certain, it would appear that his goal was to eventually place the then-too-young Marcus on the throne.[57] As part of his adoption, Commodus took the name, Lucius Aelius Caesar. His health was so poor that, during a ceremony to mark his becoming heir to the throne, he was too weak to lift a large shield on his own.[58] After a brief stationing on the Danube frontier, Aelius returned to Rome to make an address to the Senate on the first day of 138. However, the night before the scheduled speech, he grew ill and died of a hemorrhage later in the day.[59][note 4]

 
Coin (AD 136–138) of Hadrian (obverse) and his adoptive son, Lucius Aelius (reverse). Hadrian is wearing the laurel crown. Inscription: HADRIANVS ... / LVCIVS CAESAR.

On 24 January 138, Hadrian selected Aurelius Antoninus, the husband of Marcus's aunt Faustina the Elder, as his new successor.[61] As part of Hadrian's terms, Antoninus, in turn, adopted Marcus and Lucius Commodus, the son of Lucius Aelius.[62] Marcus became M. Aelius Aurelius Verus, and Lucius became L. Aelius Aurelius Commodus. At Hadrian's request, Antoninus' daughter Faustina was betrothed to Lucius.[63] Marcus reportedly greeted the news that Hadrian had become his adoptive grandfather with sadness, instead of joy. Only with reluctance did he move from his mother's house on the Caelian to Hadrian's private home.[64]

At some time in 138, Hadrian requested in the Senate that Marcus be exempt from the law barring him from becoming quaestor before his twenty-fourth birthday. The Senate complied, and Marcus served under Antoninus, the consul for 139.[65] Marcus's adoption diverted him from the typical career path of his class. If not for his adoption, he probably would have become triumvir monetalis, a highly regarded post involving token administration of the state mint; after that, he could have served as tribune with a legion, becoming the legion's nominal second-in-command. Marcus probably would have opted for travel and further education instead. As it was, Marcus was set apart from his fellow citizens. Nonetheless, his biographer attests that his character remained unaffected: 'He still showed the same respect to his relations as he had when he was an ordinary citizen, and he was as thrifty and careful of his possessions as he had been when he lived in a private household'.[66]

After a series of suicide attempts, all thwarted by Antoninus, Hadrian left for Baiae, a seaside resort on the Campanian coast. His condition did not improve, and he abandoned the diet prescribed by his doctors, indulging himself in food and drink. He sent for Antoninus, who was at his side when he died on 10 July 138.[67] His remains were buried quietly at Puteoli.[68] The succession to Antoninus was peaceful and stable: Antoninus kept Hadrian's nominees in office and appeased the senate, respecting its privileges and commuting the death sentences of men charged in Hadrian's last days.[69] For his dutiful behaviour, Antoninus was asked to accept the name 'Pius'.[70]

Heir to Antoninus Pius (138–145)

 
Sestertius of Antoninus Pius (AD 140–144). It celebrates the betrothal of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina the Younger in 139, pictured below Antoninus, who is holding a statuette of Concordia and clasping hands with Faustina the Elder. Inscription: ANTONINVS AVG. PIVS P. P., TR. P., CO[N]S. III / CONCORDIAE S.C.[71]
 
Denarius of Antoninus Pius (AD 139), with a portrait of Marcus Aurelius on the reverse. Inscription: ANTONINVS AVG. PIVS P. P. / AVRELIVS CAES. AVG. PII F. CO[N]S. DES.[72]

Immediately after Hadrian's death, Antoninus approached Marcus and requested that his marriage arrangements be amended: Marcus's betrothal to Ceionia Fabia would be annulled, and he would be betrothed to Faustina, Antoninus' daughter, instead. Faustina's betrothal to Ceionia's brother Lucius Commodus would also have to be annulled. Marcus consented to Antoninus's proposal.[73] He was made consul for 140 with Antoninus as his colleague, and was appointed as a seviri, one of the knights' six commanders, at the order's annual parade on 15 July 139. As the heir apparent, Marcus became princeps iuventutis, head of the equestrian order. He now took the name Marcus Aelius Aurelius Verus Caesar.[74] Marcus would later caution himself against taking the name too seriously: 'See that you do not turn into a Caesar; do not be dipped into the purple dye – for that can happen'.[75] At the senate's request, Marcus joined all the priestly colleges (pontifices, augures, quindecimviri sacris faciundis, septemviri epulonum, etc.);[76] direct evidence for membership, however, is available only for the Arval Brethren.[77]

Antoninus demanded that Marcus reside in the House of Tiberius, the imperial palace on the Palatine, and take up the habits of his new station, the aulicum fastigium or 'pomp of the court', against Marcus' objections.[76] Marcus would struggle to reconcile the life of the court with his philosophic yearnings. He told himself it was an attainable goal – 'Where life is possible, then it is possible to live the right life; life is possible in a palace, so it is possible to live the right life in a palace'[78] – but he found it difficult nonetheless. He would criticize himself in the Meditations for 'abusing court life' in front of company.[79]

As quaestor, Marcus would have had little real administrative work to do. He would read imperial letters to the senate when Antoninus was absent and would do secretarial work for the senators.[80] But he felt drowned in paperwork and complained to his tutor, Marcus Cornelius Fronto: 'I am so out of breath from dictating nearly thirty letters'.[81] He was being 'fitted for ruling the state', in the words of his biographer.[82] He was required to make a speech to the assembled senators as well, making oratorical training essential for the job.[83]

On 1 January 145, Marcus was made consul a second time. Fronto urged him in a letter to have plenty of sleep 'so that you may come into the Senate with a good colour and read your speech with a strong voice'.[84] Marcus had complained of an illness in an earlier letter: 'As far as my strength is concerned, I am beginning to get it back; and there is no trace of the pain in my chest. But that ulcer [...][note 5] I am having treatment and taking care not to do anything that interferes with it'.[85] Never particularly healthy or strong, Marcus was praised by Cassius Dio, writing of his later years, for behaving dutifully in spite of his various illnesses.[86] In April 145, Marcus married Faustina, legally his sister, as had been planned since 138.[87] Little is specifically known of the ceremony, but the biographer calls it 'noteworthy'.[88] Coins were issued with the heads of the couple, and Antoninus, as Pontifex Maximus, would have officiated. Marcus makes no apparent reference to the marriage in his surviving letters, and only sparing references to Faustina.[89]

Fronto and further education

After taking the toga virilis in 136, Marcus probably began his training in oratory.[90] He had three tutors in Greek (Aninus Macer, Caninius Celer, and Herodes Atticus) and one in Latin (Marcus Cornelius Fronto). The latter two were the most esteemed orators of their time,[91] but probably did not become his tutors until his adoption by Antoninus in 138. The preponderance of Greek tutors indicates the importance of the Greek language to the aristocracy of Rome.[92] This was the age of the Second Sophistic, a renaissance in Greek letters. Although educated in Rome, in his Meditations Marcus would write his inmost thoughts in Greek.[93]

Atticus was controversial: an enormously rich Athenian (probably the richest man in the eastern half of the empire), he was quick to anger and resented by his fellow Athenians for his patronizing manner.[94] Atticus was an inveterate opponent of Stoicism and philosophic pretensions.[95] He thought the Stoics' desire for apatheia was foolish: they would live a 'sluggish, enervated life', he said.[96] In spite of the influence of Atticus, Marcus would later become a Stoic. He would not mention Herodes at all in his Meditations, in spite of the fact that they would come into contact many times over the following decades.[97]

Fronto was highly esteemed: in the self-consciously antiquarian world of Latin letters,[98] he was thought of as second only to Cicero, perhaps even an alternative to him.[99][note 6] He did not care much for Atticus, though Marcus was eventually to put the pair on speaking terms. Fronto exercised a complete mastery of Latin, capable of tracing expressions through the literature, producing obscure synonyms, and challenging minor improprieties in word choice.[99]

A significant amount of the correspondence between Fronto and Marcus has survived.[103] The pair were very close, using intimate language such as 'Farewell my Fronto, wherever you are, my most sweet love and delight. How is it between you and me? I love you and you are not here' in their correspondence.[104] Marcus spent time with Fronto's wife and daughter, both named Cratia, and they enjoyed light conversation.[105]

He wrote Fronto a letter on his birthday, claiming to love him as he loved himself, and calling on the gods to ensure that every word he learnt of literature, he would learn 'from the lips of Fronto'.[106] His prayers for Fronto's health were more than conventional, because Fronto was frequently ill; at times, he seems to be an almost constant invalid, always suffering[107] – about one-quarter of the surviving letters deal with the man's sicknesses.[108] Marcus asks that Fronto's pain be inflicted on himself, 'of my own accord with every kind of discomfort'.[109]

Fronto never became Marcus's full-time teacher and continued his career as an advocate. One notorious case brought him into conflict with Atticus.[110] Marcus pleaded with Fronto, first with 'advice', then as a 'favour', not to attack Atticus; he had already asked Atticus to refrain from making the first blows.[111] Fronto replied that he was surprised to discover Marcus counted Atticus as a friend (perhaps Atticus was not yet Marcus' tutor), and allowed that Marcus might be correct,[112] but nonetheless affirmed his intent to win the case by any means necessary: '[T]he charges are frightful and must be spoken of as frightful. Those in particular that refer to the beating and robbing I will describe so that they savour of gall and bile. If I happen to call him an uneducated little Greek it will not mean war to the death'.[113] The outcome of the trial is unknown.[114]

By the age of twenty-five (between April 146 and April 147), Marcus had grown disaffected with his studies in jurisprudence, and showed some signs of general malaise. His master, he writes to Fronto, was an unpleasant blowhard, and had made 'a hit at' him: 'It is easy to sit yawning next to a judge, he says, but to be a judge is noble work'.[115] Marcus had grown tired of his exercises, of taking positions in imaginary debates. When he criticized the insincerity of conventional language, Fronto took to defend it.[116] In any case, Marcus' formal education was now over. He had kept his teachers on good terms, following them devotedly. It 'affected his health adversely', his biographer writes, to have devoted so much effort to his studies. It was the only thing the biographer could find fault with in Marcus's entire boyhood.[117]

Fronto had warned Marcus against the study of philosophy early on: "It is better never to have touched the teaching of philosophy [...] than to have tasted it superficially, with the edge of the lips, as the saying is".[118] He disdained philosophy and philosophers and looked down on Marcus's sessions with Apollonius of Chalcedon and others in this circle.[103] Fronto put an uncharitable interpretation of Marcus's 'conversion to philosophy': 'In the fashion of the young, tired of boring work', Marcus had turned to philosophy to escape the constant exercises of oratorical training.[119] Marcus kept in close touch with Fronto, but would ignore Fronto's scruples.[120]

Apollonius may have introduced Marcus to Stoic philosophy, but Quintus Junius Rusticus would have the strongest influence on the boy.[121][note 7] He was the man Fronto recognized as having 'wooed Marcus away' from oratory.[123] He was older than Fronto and twenty years older than Marcus. As the grandson of Arulenus Rusticus, one of the martyrs to the tyranny of Domitian (r. 81–96), he was heir to the tradition of 'Stoic Opposition' to the 'bad emperors' of the 1st century;[124] the true successor of Seneca (as opposed to Fronto, the false one).[125] Marcus thanks Rusticus for teaching him 'not to be led astray into enthusiasm for rhetoric, for writing on speculative themes, for discoursing on moralizing texts.... To avoid oratory, poetry, and 'fine writing''.[126]

Philostratus describes how even when Marcus was an old man, in the latter part of his reign, he studied under Sextus of Chaeronea:

The Emperor Marcus was an eager disciple of Sextus the Boeotian philosopher, being often in his company and frequenting his house. Lucius, who had just come to Rome, asked the Emperor, whom he met on his way, where he was going to and on what errand, and Marcus answered, ' it is good even for an old man to learn; I am now on my way to Sextus the philosopher to learn what I do not yet know.' And Lucius, raising his hand to heaven, said, ' O Zeus, the king of the Romans in his old age takes up his tablets and goes to school.'[127]

Births and deaths

On 30 November 147, Faustina gave birth to a girl named Domitia Faustina. She was the first of at least thirteen children (including two sets of twins) that Faustina would bear over the next twenty-three years. The next day, 1 December, Antoninus gave Marcus the tribunician power and the imperium – authority over the armies and provinces of the emperor. As tribune, he had the right to bring one measure before the senate after the four Antoninus could introduce. His tribunician powers would be renewed with Antoninus's on 10 December 147.[128] The first mention of Domitia in Marcus's letters reveals her as a sickly infant. 'Caesar to Fronto. If the gods are willing we seem to have a hope of recovery. The diarrhea has stopped, the little attacks of fever have been driven away. But the emaciation is still extreme and there is still quite a bit of coughing'. He and Faustina, Marcus wrote, had been 'pretty occupied' with the girl's care.[129] Domitia would die in 151.[130]

 
The Mausoleum of Hadrian, where the children of Marcus and Faustina were buried

In 149, Faustina gave birth again, to twin sons. Contemporary coinage commemorates the event, with crossed cornucopiae beneath portrait busts of the two small boys, and the legend temporum felicitas, 'the happiness of the times'. They did not survive long. Before the end of the year, another family coin was issued: it shows only a tiny girl, Domitia Faustina, and one boy baby. Then another: the girl alone. The infants were buried in the Mausoleum of Hadrian, where their epitaphs survive. They were called Titus Aurelius Antoninus and Tiberius Aelius Aurelius.[131] Marcus steadied himself: 'One man prays: 'How I may not lose my little child', but you must pray: 'How I may not be afraid to lose him'.[132] He quoted from the Iliad what he called the "briefest and most familiar saying [...] enough to dispel sorrow and fear":[133]

 leaves,
the wind scatters some on the face of the ground;
like unto them are the children of men.

– Iliad vi.146[133]

Another daughter was born on 7 March 150, Annia Aurelia Galeria Lucilla. At some time between 155 and 161, probably soon after 155, Marcus's mother Domitia Lucilla died.[134] Faustina probably had another daughter in 151, but the child, Annia Galeria Aurelia Faustina, might not have been born until 153.[135] Another son, Tiberius Aelius Antoninus, was born in 152. A coin issue celebrates fecunditati Augustae, 'to Augusta's fertility', depicting two girls and an infant. The boy did not survive long, as evidenced by coins from 156, only depicting the two girls. He might have died in 152, the same year as Marcus's sister Cornificia.[136] By 28 March 158, when Marcus replied, another of his children was dead. Marcus thanked the temple synod, 'even though this turned out otherwise'. The child's name is unknown.[137] In 159 and 160, Faustina gave birth to daughters: Fadilla and Cornificia, named respectively after Faustina's and Marcus's dead sisters.[138]

Antoninus Pius's last years

Lucius started his political career as a quaestor in 153. He was consul in 154,[139] and was consul again with Marcus in 161.[140] Lucius had no other titles, except that of 'son of Augustus'. Lucius had a markedly different personality from Marcus: he enjoyed sports of all kinds, but especially hunting and wrestling; he took obvious pleasure in the circus games and gladiatorial fights.[141][note 8] He did not marry until 164.[145]

In 156, Antoninus turned 70. He found it difficult to keep himself upright without stays. He started nibbling on dry bread to give him the strength to stay awake through his morning receptions. As Antoninus aged, Marcus would take on more administrative duties, more still when he became the praetorian prefect (an office that was as much secretarial as military) when Marcus Gavius Maximus died in 156 or 157.[146] In 160, Marcus and Lucius were designated joint consuls for the following year. Antoninus may have already been ill.[138]

Two days before his death, the biographer reports, Antoninus was at his ancestral estate at Lorium, in Etruria,[147] about 19 kilometres (12 mi) from Rome.[148] He ate Alpine cheese at dinner quite greedily. In the night he vomited; he had a fever the next day. The day after that, 7 March 161,[149] he summoned the imperial council, and passed the state and his daughter to Marcus. The emperor gave the keynote to his life in the last word that he uttered when the tribune of the night-watch came to ask the password – 'aequanimitas' (equanimity).[150] He then turned over, as if going to sleep, and died.[151] His death closed out the longest reign since Augustus, surpassing Tiberius by a couple of months.[152]

Emperor

Main article: Reign of Marcus Aurelius

Accession of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus (161)

 
Busts of the co-emperors Marcus Aurelius (left) and Lucius Verus (right), British Museum

After Antoninus died in 161, Marcus was effectively sole ruler of the Empire. The formalities of the position would follow. The Senate would soon grant him the name Augustus and the title imperator, and he would soon be formally elected as pontifex maximus, chief priest of the official cults. Marcus made some show of resistance: the biographer writes that he was 'compelled' to take imperial power.[153] This may have been a genuine horror imperii, 'fear of imperial power'. Marcus, with his preference for the philosophic life, found the imperial office unappealing. His training as a Stoic however, had made the choice clear to him that it was his duty.[154]

Although Marcus showed no personal affection for Hadrian (significantly, he does not thank him in the first book of his Meditations), he presumably believed it his duty to enact the man's succession plans.[155] Thus, although the Senate planned to confirm Marcus alone, he refused to take office unless Lucius received equal powers.[156] The Senate accepted, granting Lucius the imperium, the tribunician power, and the title Augustus.[157] Marcus became, in official titulature, Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus; Lucius, forgoing his name Commodus and taking Marcus's family name Verus, became Imperator Caesar Lucius Aurelius Verus Augustus.[158][note 9] It was the first time that Rome was ruled by two emperors.[161][note 10]

In spite of their nominal equality, Marcus held more auctoritas, or 'authority', than Lucius. He had been consul once more than Lucius, he had shared in Antoninus's rule, and he alone was pontifex maximus.[162] It would have been clear to the public which emperor was the more senior.[161] As the biographer wrote: "Verus obeyed Marcus [...] as a lieutenant obeys a proconsul or a governor obeys the emperor".[163]

Immediately after their Senate confirmation, the emperors proceeded to the Castra Praetoria, the camp of the Praetorian Guard. Lucius addressed the assembled troops, which then acclaimed the pair as imperatores. Then, like every new emperor since Claudius, Lucius promised the troops a special donativum.[164] This donative, however, was twice the size of those past: 20,000 sesterces (5,000 denarii) per capita, with more to officers. In return for this bounty, equivalent to several years' pay, the troops swore an oath to protect the emperors.[165] The ceremony was perhaps not entirely necessary, given that Marcus's accession had been peaceful and unopposed, but it was good insurance against later military troubles.[166] Upon his accession he also devalued the Roman currency. He decreased the silver purity of the denarius from 83.5% to 79% – the silver weight dropping from 2.68 g (0.095 oz) to 2.57 g (0.091 oz).[167]

Antoninus's funeral ceremonies were, in the words of the biographer, 'elaborate'.[168] If his funeral followed those of his predecessors, his body would have been cremated on a pyre at the Campus Martius, and his spirit would have been seen as ascending to the gods' home in the heavens. Marcus and Lucius nominated their father for deification. In contrast to their behaviour during Antoninus's campaign to deify Hadrian, the Senate did not oppose the emperors' wishes. A flamen, or cultic priest, was appointed to minister the cult of the deified Divus Antoninus. Antoninus's remains were laid to rest in Hadrian's mausoleum, beside the remains of Marcus's children and of Hadrian himself.[169] The temple he had dedicated to his wife, Diva Faustina, became the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina. It survives as the church of San Lorenzo in Miranda.[166]

In accordance with his will, Antoninus's fortune passed on to Faustina.[170] (Marcus had little need of his wife's fortune. Indeed, at his accession, Marcus transferred part of his mother's estate to his nephew, Ummius Quadratus.[171]) Faustina was three months pregnant at her husband's accession. During the pregnancy she dreamed of giving birth to two serpents, one fiercer than the other.[172] On 31 August, she gave birth at Lanuvium to twins: T. Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus and Lucius Aurelius Commodus.[173][note 11] Aside from the fact that the twins shared Caligula's birthday, the omens were favorable, and the astrologers drew positive horoscopes for the children.[175] The births were celebrated on the imperial coinage.[176]

Early rule

Soon after the emperor's accession, Marcus's eleven-year-old daughter, Annia Lucilla, was betrothed to Lucius (in spite of the fact that he was, formally, her uncle).[177] At the ceremonies commemorating the event, new provisions were made for the support of poor children, along the lines of earlier imperial foundations.[178] Marcus and Lucius proved popular with the people of Rome, who strongly approved of their civiliter ("lacking pomp") behaviour. The emperors permitted free speech, evidenced by the fact that the comedy writer Marullus was able to criticize them without suffering retribution. As the biographer wrote, "No one missed the lenient ways of Pius".[179]

Marcus replaced a number of the empire's major officials. The ab epistulis Sextus Caecilius Crescens Volusianus, in charge of the imperial correspondence, was replaced with Titus Varius Clemens. Clemens was from the frontier province of Pannonia and had served in the war in Mauretania. Recently, he had served as procurator of five provinces. He was a man suited for a time of military crisis.[180] Lucius Volusius Maecianus, Marcus's former tutor, had been prefectural governor of Egypt at Marcus's accession. Maecianus was recalled, made senator, and appointed prefect of the treasury (aerarium Saturni). He was made consul soon after.[181] Fronto's son-in-law, Gaius Aufidius Victorinus, was appointed governor of Germania Superior.[182]

Fronto returned to his Roman townhouse at dawn on 28 March, having left his home in Cirta as soon as news of his pupils' accession reached him. He sent a note to the imperial freedman Charilas, asking if he could call on the emperors. Fronto would later explain that he had not dared to write the emperors directly.[183] The tutor was immensely proud of his students. Reflecting on the speech he had written on taking his consulship in 143, when he had praised the young Marcus, Fronto was ebullient: "There was then an outstanding natural ability in you; there is now perfected excellence. There was then a crop of growing corn; there is now a ripe, gathered harvest. What I was hoping for then, I have now. The hope has become a reality".[184] Fronto called on Marcus alone; neither thought to invite Lucius.[185]

Lucius was less esteemed by Fronto than his brother, as his interests were on a lower level. Lucius asked Fronto to adjudicate in a dispute he and his friend Calpurnius were having on the relative merits of two actors.[186] Marcus told Fronto of his reading – Coelius and a little Cicero – and his family. His daughters were in Rome with their great-great-aunt Matidia; Marcus thought the evening air of the country was too cold for them. He asked Fronto for 'some particularly eloquent reading matter, something of your own, or Cato, or Cicero, or Sallust or Gracchus – or some poet, for I need distraction, especially in this kind of way, by reading something that will uplift and diffuse my pressing anxieties.'[187] Marcus's early reign proceeded smoothly; he was able to give himself wholly to philosophy and the pursuit of popular affection.[188] Soon, however, he would find he had many anxieties. It would mean the end of the felicitas temporum ('happy times') that the coinage of 161 had proclaimed.[189]

 
 
Tiber Island seen at a forty-year high-water mark of the Tiber, December 2008

In either autumn 161 or spring 162,[note 12] the Tiber overflowed its banks, flooding much of Rome. It drowned many animals, leaving the city in famine. Marcus and Lucius gave the crisis their personal attention.[191][note 13] In other times of famine, the emperors are said to have provided for the Italian communities out of the Roman granaries.[193]

Fronto's letters continued through Marcus's early reign. Fronto felt that, because of Marcus's prominence and public duties, lessons were more important now than they had ever been before. He believed Marcus was 'beginning to feel the wish to be eloquent once more, in spite of having for a time lost interest in eloquence'.[194] Fronto would again remind his pupil of the tension between his role and his philosophic pretensions: 'Suppose, Caesar, that you can attain to the wisdom of Cleanthes and Zeno, yet, against your will, not the philosopher's woolen cape'.[195]

The early days of Marcus's reign were the happiest of Fronto's life: Marcus was beloved by the people of Rome, an excellent emperor, a fond pupil, and perhaps most importantly, as eloquent as could be wished.[196] Marcus had displayed rhetorical skill in his speech to the senate after an earthquake at Cyzicus. It had conveyed the drama of the disaster, and the Senate had been awed: "Not more suddenly or violently was the city stirred by the earthquake than the minds of your hearers by your speech". Fronto was hugely pleased.[197]

War with Parthia (161–166)

Main article: Roman–Parthian War of 161–166
See also: Roman–Persian Wars
 
Coin of Vologases IV of Parthia. Inscription: above ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΝ ΔΟΥ, right ΑΡΣΑΚΟΥ ΒΟΛΑΓΑΣΟΥ, left ΕΠΙΦΑΝΟΥΣ ΦΙΛΕΛΛΗΝΟΣ, below ΔΙΟΥ (Greek inscription for KING OF KINGS – ARSAKIS VOLAGASES – ILLUSTRIUS PHILELLENE). Year ΔΟΥ = ΥΟΔ΄ = 474 = 162–163.

On his deathbed, Antoninus spoke of nothing but the state and the foreign kings who had wronged him.[198] One of those kings, Vologases IV of Parthia, made his move in late summer or early autumn 161.[199] Vologases entered the Kingdom of Armenia (then a Roman client state), expelled its king and installed his own – Pacorus, an Arsacid like himself.[200] The governor of Cappadocia, the frontline in all Armenian conflicts, was Marcus Sedatius Severianus, a Gaul with much experience in military matters.[201]

Convinced by the prophet Alexander of Abonoteichus that he could defeat the Parthians easily and win glory for himself,[202] Severianus led a legion (perhaps the IX Hispana[203]) into Armenia, but was trapped by the great Parthian general Chosrhoes at Elegeia, a town just beyond the Cappadocian frontiers, high up past the headwaters of the Euphrates. After Severianus made some unsuccessful efforts to engage Chosrhoes, he committed suicide, and his legion was massacred. The campaign had lasted only three days.[204]

There was threat of war on other frontiers as well – in Britain, and in Raetia and Upper Germany, where the Chatti of the Taunus mountains had recently crossed over the limes.[205] Marcus was unprepared. Antoninus seems to have given him no military experience; the biographer writes that Marcus spent the whole of Antoninus's twenty-three-year reign at his emperor's side and not in the provinces, where most previous emperors had spent their early careers.[206][note 14]

More bad news arrived: the Syrian governor's army had been defeated by the Parthians, and retreated in disarray.[208] Reinforcements were dispatched for the Parthian frontier. P. Julius Geminius Marcianus, an African senator commanding X Gemina at Vindobona (Vienna), left for Cappadocia with detachments from the Danubian legions.[209] Three full legions were also sent east: I Minervia from Bonn in Upper Germany,[210] II Adiutrix from Aquincum,[211] and V Macedonica from Troesmis.[212]

The northern frontiers were strategically weakened; frontier governors were told to avoid conflict wherever possible.[213] M. Annius Libo, Marcus's first cousin, was sent to replace the Syrian governor. His first consulship was in 161, so he was probably in his early thirties,[214] and as a patrician, he lacked military experience. Marcus had chosen a reliable man rather than a talented one.[215]

 
Aureus of Marcus Aurelius (AD 166). On the reverse, Victoria is holding a shield inscribed 'VIC(toria) PAR(thica)', referring to his victory against the Parthians. Inscription: M. ANTONINVS AVG. / TR. P. XX, IMP. IIII, CO[N]S. III.[216]

Marcus took a four-day public holiday at Alsium, a resort town on the coast of Etruria. He was too anxious to relax. Writing to Fronto, he declared that he would not speak about his holiday.[217] Fronto replied: 'What? Do I not know that you went to Alsium with the intention of devoting yourself to games, joking, and complete leisure for four whole days?'[218] He encouraged Marcus to rest, calling on the example of his predecessors (Antoninus had enjoyed exercise in the palaestra, fishing, and comedy),[219] going so far as to write up a fable about the gods' division of the day between morning and evening – Marcus had apparently been spending most of his evenings on judicial matters instead of at leisure.[220] Marcus could not take Fronto's advice. 'I have duties hanging over me that can hardly be begged off', he wrote back.[221] Marcus Aurelius put on Fronto's voice to chastise himself: ''Much good has my advice done you', you will say!' He had rested, and would rest often, but 'this devotion to duty! Who knows better than you how demanding it is!'[222]

 
The dissolute Syrian army spent more time in Antioch's open-air taverns than with their units[223] (engraving by William Miller after a drawing by H. Warren from a sketch by Captain Byam Martin, R.N., 1866).
 
The Euphrates River near Raqqa, Syria

Fronto sent Marcus a selection of reading material,[224] and, to settle his unease over the course of the Parthian war, a long and considered letter, full of historical references. In modern editions of Fronto's works, it is labeled De bello Parthico (On the Parthian War). There had been reverses in Rome's past, Fronto writes,[225] but in the end, Romans had always prevailed over their enemies: 'Always and everywhere [Mars] has changed our troubles into successes and our terrors into triumphs'.[226]

Over the winter of 161–162, news that a rebellion was brewing in Syria arrived and it was decided that Lucius should direct the Parthian war in person. He was stronger and healthier than Marcus, the argument went, and thus more suited to military activity.[227] Lucius's biographer suggests ulterior motives: to restrain Lucius's debaucheries, to make him thrifty, to reform his morals by the terror of war, and to realize that he was an emperor.[228][note 15] Whatever the case, the senate gave its assent, and, in the summer of 162, Lucius left. Marcus would remain in Rome, as the city 'demanded the presence of an emperor'.[230]

Lucius spent most of the campaign in Antioch, though he wintered at Laodicea and summered at Daphne, a resort just outside Antioch.[231] Critics declaimed Lucius's luxurious lifestyle,[232] saying that he had taken to gambling, would 'dice the whole night through',[233] and enjoyed the company of actors.[234][note 16] Libo died early in the war; perhaps Lucius had murdered him.[236]

 
Marble statue of Lucilla, AD 150–200, Bardo National Museum, Tunisia

In the middle of the war, perhaps in autumn 163 or early 164, Lucius made a trip to Ephesus to be married to Marcus's daughter Lucilla.[237] Marcus moved up the date; perhaps he had already heard of Lucius's mistress Panthea.[238] Lucilla's thirteenth birthday was in March 163; whatever the date of her marriage, she was not yet fifteen.[239] Lucilla was accompanied by her mother Faustina and Lucius's uncle (his father's half-brother) M. Vettulenus Civica Barbarus,[240] who was made comes Augusti, 'companion of the emperors'. Marcus may have wanted Civica to watch over Lucius, the job Libo had failed at.[241] Marcus may have planned to accompany them all the way to Smyrna (the biographer says he told the senate he would), but this did not happen.[242] He only accompanied the group as far as Brundisium, where they boarded a ship for the east.[243] He returned to Rome immediately thereafter, and sent out special instructions to his proconsuls not to give the group any official reception.[244]

The Armenian capital Artaxata was captured in 163.[245] At the end of the year, Lucius took the title Armeniacus, despite having never seen combat; Marcus declined to accept the title until the following year.[246] When Lucius was hailed as imperator again, however, Marcus did not hesitate to take the Imperator II with him.[247]

Occupied Armenia was reconstructed on Roman terms. In 164, a new capital, Kaine Polis ('New City'), replaced Artaxata.[248] A new king was installed: a Roman senator of consular rank and Arsacid descent, Gaius Julius Sohaemus. He may not even have been crowned in Armenia; the ceremony may have taken place in Antioch, or even Ephesus.[249] Sohaemus was hailed on the imperial coinage of 164 under the legend Rex armeniis Datus: Lucius sat on a throne with his staff while Sohaemus stood before him, saluting the emperor.[250]

In 163, the Parthians intervened in Osroene, a Roman client in upper Mesopotamia centred on Edessa, and installed their own king on its throne.[251] In response, Roman forces were moved downstream, to cross the Euphrates at a more southerly point.[252] Before the end of 163, however, Roman forces had moved north to occupy Dausara and Nicephorium on the northern, Parthian bank.[253] Soon after the conquest of the north bank of the Euphrates, other Roman forces moved on Osroene from Armenia, taking Anthemusia, a town southwest of Edessa.[254]

In 165, Roman forces moved on Mesopotamia. Edessa was re-occupied, and Mannus, the king deposed by the Parthians, was re-installed.[255] The Parthians retreated to Nisibis, but this too was besieged and captured. The Parthian army dispersed in the Tigris.[256] A second force, under Avidius Cassius and the III Gallica, moved down the Euphrates, and fought a major battle at Dura.[257]

By the end of the year, Cassius's army had reached the twin metropolises of Mesopotamia: Seleucia on the right bank of the Tigris and Ctesiphon on the left. Ctesiphon was taken and its royal palace set to flame. The citizens of Seleucia, still largely Greek (the city had been commissioned and settled as a capital of the Seleucid Empire, one of Alexander the Great's successor kingdoms), opened its gates to the invaders. The city was sacked nonetheless, leaving a black mark on Lucius's reputation. Excuses were sought, or invented: the official version had it that the Seleucids broke faith first.[258]

Cassius's army, although suffering from a shortage of supplies and the effects of a plague contracted in Seleucia, made it back to Roman territory safely.[259] Lucius took the title Parthicus Maximus, and he and Marcus were hailed as imperatores again, earning the title 'imp. III'.[260] Cassius's army returned to the field in 166, crossing over the Tigris into Media. Lucius took the title 'Medicus',[261] and the emperors were again hailed as imperatores, becoming 'imp. IV' in imperial titulature. Marcus took the Parthicus Maximus now, after another tactful delay.[262] On 12 October of that year, Marcus proclaimed two of his sons, Annius and Commodus, as his heirs.[263]

War with Germanic tribes (166–180)

Main article: Marcomannic Wars
Scenes from the Marcomannic Wars, AD 176–180 (bas reliefs from the Arch of Marcus Aurelius, now in the Capitoline Museums)
 
Marcus Aurelius receiving the submission of the vanquished, with raised vexillum standards
 
Marcus Aurelius celebrating his triumph over Rome's enemies in AD 176, riding in a quadriga chariot

During the early 160s, Fronto's son-in-law Victorinus was stationed as a legate in Germany. He was there with his wife and children (another child had stayed with Fronto and his wife in Rome).[264] The condition on the northern frontier looked grave. A frontier post had been destroyed, and it looked like all the peoples of central and northern Europe were in turmoil. There was corruption among the officers: Victorinus had to ask for the resignation of a legionary legate who was taking bribes.[265]

Experienced governors had been replaced by friends and relatives of the imperial family. Lucius Dasumius Tullius Tuscus, a distant relative of Hadrian, was in Upper Pannonia, succeeding the experienced Marcus Nonius Macrinus. Lower Pannonia was under the obscure Tiberius Haterius Saturnius. Marcus Servilius Fabianus Maximus was shuffled from Lower Moesia to Upper Moesia when Marcus Iallius Bassus had joined Lucius in Antioch. Lower Moesia was filled by Pontius Laelianus's son. The Dacias were still divided in three, governed by a praetorian senator and two procurators. The peace could not hold long; Lower Pannonia did not even have a legion.[266]

Starting in the 160s, Germanic tribes, and other nomadic people launched raids along the northern border, particularly into Gaul and across the Danube. This new impetus westwards was probably due to attacks from tribes further east. A first invasion by the Chatti in the province of Germania Superior was repulsed in 162.[267]

 
Bronze medallion of Marcus Aurelius (AD 168). The reverse depicts Jupiter, flanked by Marcus and Lucius Verus. Inscription: M. ANTONINVS AVG. ARM. PARTH. MAX. / TR. P. XXII, IMP. IIII, COS III.[268]
 
Aureus of Marcus Aurelius (AD 176–177). The pile of trophies on the reverse celebrates the end of the Marcomannic Wars. Inscription: M. ANTONINVS AVG. GERM. SARM. / TR. P. XXXI, IMP. VIII, CO[N]S. III, P. P.[269]

Far more dangerous was the invasion of 166, when the Marcomanni of Bohemia, clients of the Roman Empire since AD 19, crossed the Danube together with the Lombards and other Germanic tribes.[270] Soon thereafter, the Iranian Sarmatian Iazyges attacked between the Danube and the Theiss rivers.[271]

The Costoboci, coming from the Carpathian area, invaded Moesia, Macedonia, and Greece. After a long struggle, Marcus managed to push back the invaders. Numerous members of Germanic tribes settled in frontier regions like Dacia, Pannonia, Germany, and Italy itself. This was not a new thing, but this time the numbers of settlers required the creation of two new frontier provinces on the left shore of the Danube, Sarmatia and Marcomannia, including today's Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. Some Germanic tribes who settled in Ravenna revolted and managed to seize possession of the city. For this reason, Marcus decided not only against bringing more barbarians into Italy, but even banished those who had previously been brought there.[272]

Legal and administrative work

Like many emperors, Marcus spent most of his time addressing matters of law such as petitions and hearing disputes,[273] but unlike many of his predecessors, he was already proficient in imperial administration when he assumed power.[274] He took great care in the theory and practice of legislation. Professional jurists called him "an emperor most skilled in the law"[275] and "a most prudent and conscientiously just emperor".[276] He showed marked interest in three areas of the law: the manumission of slaves, the guardianship of orphans and minors, and the choice of city councillors (decuriones).[277]

Marcus showed a great deal of respect to the Roman Senate and routinely asked them for permission to spend money even though he did not need to do so as the absolute ruler of the Empire.[278] In one speech, Marcus himself reminded the Senate that the imperial palace where he lived was not truly his possession but theirs.[279] In 168, he revalued the denarius, increasing the silver purity from 79% to 82% – the actual silver weight increasing from 2.57–2.67 g (0.091–0.094 oz). However, two years later he reverted to the previous values because of the military crises facing the empire.[167]

Trade with Han China and outbreak of plague

Main articles: Sino-Roman relations and Antonine Plague

A possible contact with Han China occurred in 166 when a Roman traveller visited the Han court, claiming to be an ambassador representing a certain Andun (Chinese: 安 敦), ruler of Daqin, who can be identified either with Marcus or his predecessor Antoninus.[280][281][282] In addition to Republican-era Roman glasswares found at Guangzhou along the South China Sea,[283] Roman golden medallions made during the reign of Antoninus and perhaps even Marcus have been found at Óc Eo, Vietnam, then part of the Kingdom of Funan near the Chinese province of Jiaozhi (in northern Vietnam). This may have been the port city of Kattigara, described by Ptolemy (c. 150) as being visited by a Greek sailor named Alexander and lying beyond the Golden Chersonese (i.e. Malay Peninsula).[284][note 17] Roman coins from the reigns of Tiberius to Aurelian have been found in Xi'an, China (site of the Han capital Chang'an), although the far greater amount of Roman coins in India suggests the Roman maritime trade for purchasing Chinese silk was centred there, not in China or even the overland Silk Road running through Persia.[285]

The Antonine Plague started in Mesopotamia in 165 or 166 at the end of Lucius's campaign against the Parthians. It may have continued into the reign of Commodus. Galen, who was in Rome when the plague spread to the city in 166,[286] mentioned that "fever, diarrhoea, and inflammation of the pharynx, along with dry or pustular eruptions of the skin after nine days" were among the symptoms.[287] It is believed that the plague was smallpox.[286] In the view of historian Rafe de Crespigny, the plagues afflicting the Eastern Han empire of China during the reigns of Emperor Huan of Han (r. 146–168) and Emperor Ling of Han (r. 168–189), which struck in 151, 161, 171, 173, 179, 182, and 185, were perhaps connected to the plague in Rome.[288] Raoul McLaughlin writes that the travel of Roman subjects to the Han Chinese court in 166 may have started a new era of Roman–Far East trade. However, it was also a "harbinger of something much more ominous". According to McLaughlin, the disease caused "irreparable" damage to the Roman maritime trade in the Indian Ocean as proven by the archaeological record spanning from Egypt to India, as well as significantly decreased Roman commercial activity in Southeast Asia.[289]

Death and succession (180)

Marcus Aurelius died at the age of 58 on 17 March 180[290] of unknown causes in his military quarters either in the city of Vindobona (province of Pannonia Superior, today Vienna) or near of Sirmium (province of Pannonia Inferior, modern Sremska Mitrovica).[note 18] He was immediately deified and his ashes were returned to Rome, where they rested in Hadrian's mausoleum (modern Castel Sant'Angelo) until the Visigoth sack of the city in 410. His campaigns against Germans and Sarmatians were also commemorated by a column and a temple built in Rome.[291] Some scholars consider his death to be the end of the Pax Romana.[292]

 
The Roman Empire at the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180, represented in purple. His annexation of lands of the Marcomanni and the Jazyges – perhaps to be provincially called Marcomannia and Sarmatia[293] – was cut short in 175 by the revolt of Avidius Cassius and by his death.[294] The light pink territory represents Roman dependencies: Armenia, Colchis, Iberia, and Albania.

Marcus was succeeded by his son Commodus, whom he had named Caesar in 166 and with whom he had jointly ruled since 177.[295] Biological sons of the emperor, if there were any, were considered heirs;[296] however, it was only the second time that a "non-adoptive" son had succeeded his father, the only other having been a century earlier when Vespasian was succeeded by his son Titus. Historians have criticized the succession to Commodus, citing Commodus's erratic behaviour and lack of political and military acumen.[295] At the end of his history of Marcus's reign, Cassius Dio wrote an encomium to the emperor, and described the transition to Commodus in his own lifetime with sorrow:[297]

[Marcus] did not meet with the good fortune that he deserved, for he was not strong in body and was involved in a multitude of troubles throughout practically his entire reign. But for my part, I admire him all the more for this very reason, that amid unusual and extraordinary difficulties he both survived himself and preserved the empire. Just one thing prevented him from being completely happy, namely, that after rearing and educating his son in the best possible way he was vastly disappointed in him. This matter must be our next topic; for our history now descends from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust, as affairs did for the Romans of that day.

–Dio lxxi. 36.3–4[297]

Dio adds that from Marcus's first days as counsellor to Antoninus to his final days as emperor of Rome, "he remained the same [person] and did not change in the least."[298]

Michael Grant, in The Climax of Rome, writes of Commodus:[299]

The youth turned out to be very erratic, or at least so anti-traditional that disaster was inevitable. But whether or not Marcus ought to have known this to be so, the rejections of his son's claims in favour of someone else would almost certainly have involved one of the civil wars which were to proliferate so disastrously around future successions.[299]

Attitude towards Christians

In the first two centuries of the Christian era, it was local Roman officials who were largely responsible for the persecution of Christians. In the second century, the emperors treated Christianity as a local problem to be dealt with by their subordinates.[300] The number and severity of persecutions of Christians in various locations of the empire seemingly increased during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. The extent to which the emperor himself directed, encouraged, or was aware of these persecutions is unclear and much debated by historians.[301] The early Christian apologist Justin Martyr includes within his First Apology (written between AD 140 and 150) a letter from Marcus Aurelius to the Roman Senate (prior to his reign) describing a battlefield incident in which Marcus believed Christian prayer had saved his army from thirst when "water poured from heaven" after which, "immediately we recognized the presence of God." Marcus goes on to request the Senate desist from earlier courses of Christian persecution by Rome.[302] However, this letter was one of three from Roman emperors included by Martyr, two of which (including the Aurelius letter) are regarded as spurious.[303]

Marriage and children

 
Coin of Commodus and Annius, 161–165. Inscription: [ΝΕΩ]ΚΟΡΟΙ CΕΒΑCΤΟΥ i.e. the city (of Tarsus in Cilicia) had a temple of Augustus.
 
Bust of Vibia Aurelia Sabina, Prado Museum

Marcus and his cousin-wife Faustina had at least 14 children[304] during their 30-year marriage,[128][305] including two sets of twins.[128][306] One son and four daughters outlived their father.[307] Their children included:

Nerva–Antonine family tree

Writings

Main article: Meditations
 
First page of the 1811 English translation by Richard Graves

While on campaign between 170 and 180, Marcus wrote his Meditations in Greek as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement. The original title of this work, if it had one, is unknown. 'Meditations' – as well as other titles including 'To Himself' – were adopted later. He had a logical mind, and his notes were representative of Stoic philosophy and spirituality. Meditations is still revered as a literary monument to a government of service and duty. George Long's English translation of Meditations was included in Volume 2 of the Harvard Classics. According to Hays, the book was a favourite of Christina of Sweden, Frederick the Great, John Stuart Mill, Matthew Arnold, and Goethe, and is admired by modern figures such as Wen Jiabao and Bill Clinton.[315] It has been considered by many commentators to be one of the greatest works of philosophy.[316]

It is not known how widely Marcus's writings were circulated after his death. There are stray references in the ancient literature to the popularity of his precepts, and Julian the Apostate was well aware of his reputation as a philosopher, though he does not specifically mention Meditations.[317] It survived in the scholarly traditions of the Eastern Church, and the first surviving quotes of the book, as well as the first known reference of it by name ('Marcus's writings to himself') are from Arethas of Caesarea in the 10th century and in the Byzantine Suda (perhaps inserted by Arethas himself). It was first published in 1558 in Zurich by Wilhelm Xylander (né Holzmann), from a manuscript reportedly lost shortly afterwards.[318] The oldest surviving complete manuscript copy is in the Vatican library and dates to the 14th century.[319]

Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius

Main article: Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius
 
Aureus of Marcus Aurelius (AD December 173 – June 174), with his equestrian statue on the reverse. inscription: M. ANTONINVS AVG. TR. P. XXVIII / IMP. VI, CO[N]S III.[320]

The Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome is the only Roman equestrian statue which has survived into the modern period.[321] This may be due to it being wrongly identified during the Middle Ages as a depiction of the Christian emperor Constantine the Great, and spared the destruction which statues of pagan figures suffered.

 
The original Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius, 2nd century AD, now located in the Palazzo dei Conservatori

Crafted of bronze in c. 175, it stands 11.6 ft (3.5 m) and is now located in the Capitoline Museums of Rome. The emperor's hand is outstretched in an act of clemency offered to a bested enemy, while his weary facial expression due to the stress of leading Rome into nearly constant battles perhaps represents a break with the classical tradition of sculpture.[322]

Column of Marcus Aurelius

Main article: Column of Marcus Aurelius

Marcus's victory column, established in Rome either in his last few years of life or after his reign and completed in 193, was built to commemorate his victory over the Sarmatians and Germanic tribes in 176. A spiral of carved reliefs wraps around the column, showing scenes from his military campaigns. A statue of Marcus had stood atop the column but disappeared during the Middle Ages. It was replaced with a statue of Saint Paul in 1589 by Pope Sixtus V.[323] The column of Marcus and the column of Trajan are often compared by scholars given how they are both Doric in style, had a pedestal at the base, had sculpted friezes depicting their respective military victories, and a statue on top.[324]

Legacy and reputation

 
A portrait of Marcus Aurelius, which captures the pensive temperament of the philosopher-emperor

Marcus acquired the reputation of a philosopher king within his lifetime, and the title would remain after his death; both Dio and the biographer call him "the philosopher".[325][326] Christians such as Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, and Eusebius also gave him the title.[327] The latter went so far as to call him "more philanthropic and philosophic" than Antoninus and Hadrian, and set him against the persecuting emperors Domitian and Nero to make the contrast bolder.[328]

The historian Herodian wrote:

Alone of the emperors, he gave proof of his learning not by mere words or knowledge of philosophical doctrines but by his blameless character and temperate way of life.[329]

Iain King explains that Marcus's legacy was tragic:

[The emperor's] Stoic philosophy – which is about self-restraint, duty, and respect for others – was so abjectly abandoned by the imperial line he anointed on his death.[330]

In popular culture

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Dio asserts that the Annii were near-kin of Hadrian, and that it was to these familial ties that they owed their rise to power.[27] The precise nature of these kinship ties is nowhere stated, but is believed that Rupilia Faustina was the daughter of the consular senator Libo Rupilius Frugi and Vitellia, daughter of emperor Vitellius.[28][29][30]
  2. ^ Farquharson dates his death to 130 when Marcus was nine.[38]
  3. ^ Birley amends the text of the HA Marcus from 'Eutychius' to 'Tuticius'.[51]
  4. ^ Commodus was a known consumptive at the time of his adoption, so Hadrian may have intended Marcus's eventual succession anyway.[60]
  5. ^ The manuscript is corrupt here.[83]
  6. ^ Modern scholars have not offered as positive an assessment. His second modern editor, Niebhur, thought him stupid and frivolous; his third editor, Naber, found him contemptible.[100] Historians have seen him as a 'pedant and a bore', his letters offering neither the running political analysis of a Cicero or the conscientious reportage of a Pliny.[101] Recent prosopographic research has rehabilitated his reputation, though not by much.[102]
  7. ^ Champlin notes that Marcus's praise of Rusticus in the Meditations is out of order (he is praised immediately after Diognetus, who had introduced Marcus to philosophy), giving him special emphasis.[122]
  8. ^ Although part of the biographer's account of Lucius is fictionalized (probably to mimic Nero, whose birthday Lucius shared[142]) and another part poorly compiled from a better biographical source,[143] scholars have accepted these biographical details as accurate.[144]
  9. ^ These name-swaps have proven so confusing that even the Historia Augusta, our main source for the period, cannot keep them straight.[159] The 4th-century ecclesiastical historian Eusebius of Caesarea shows even more confusion.[160] The mistaken belief that Lucius had the name 'Verus' before becoming emperor has proven especially popular.[161]
  10. ^ There was, however, much precedent. The consulate was a twin magistracy, and earlier emperors had often had a subordinate lieutenant with many imperial offices (under Antoninus, the lieutenant had been Marcus). Many emperors had planned a joint succession in the past: Augustus planned to leave Gaius and Lucius Caesar as joint emperors on his death; Tiberius wished to have Gaius Caligula and Tiberius Gemellus do so as well; Claudius left the empire to Nero and Britannicus, imagining that they would accept equal rank. All of these arrangements had ended in failure, either through premature death (Gaius and Lucius Caesar) or judicial murder (Gemellus by Caligula and Britannicus by Nero).[161]
  11. ^ The biographer relates the scurrilous (and, in the judgment of Anthony Birley, untrue) rumor that Commodus was an illegitimate child born of a union between Faustina and a gladiator.[174]
  12. ^ Because both Lucius and Marcus are said to have taken active part in the recovery (HA Marcus viii. 4–5), the flood must have happened before Lucius's departure for the east in 162; because it appears in the biographer's narrative after Antoninus's funeral has finished and the emperors have settled into their offices, it must not have occurred in the spring of 161. A date in autumn 161 or spring 162 is probable, and, given the normal seasonal distribution of Tiber flooding, the most probable date is in spring 162.[190] (Birley dates the flood to autumn 161.[185])
  13. ^ Since AD 15, the river had been administered by a Tiber Conservancy Board, with a consular senator at its head and a permanent staff. In 161, the curator alevi Tiberis et riparum et cloacarum urbis ('Curator of the Tiber Bed and Banks and the City Sewers') was A. Platorius Nepos, son or grandson of the builder of Hadrian's Wall, whose name he shares. He probably had not been particularly incompetent. A more likely candidate for that incompetence is Nepos's likely predecessor, M. Statius Priscus. A military man and consul for 159, Priscus probably looked on the office as little more than 'paid leave'.[192]
  14. ^ Alan Cameron adduces the 5th-century writer Sidonius Apollinaris's comment that Marcus commanded 'countless legions' vivente Pio (while Antoninus was alive) while contesting Birley's contention that Marcus had no military experience. (Neither Apollinaris nor the Historia Augusta (Birley's source) are particularly reliable on 2nd-century history.[207])
  15. ^ Birley believes there is some truth in these considerations.[229]
  16. ^ The whole section of the vita dealing with Lucius's debaucheries (HA Verus iv. 4–6.6), however, is an insertion into a narrative otherwise entirely cribbed from an earlier source. Most of the details are fabricated by the biographer himself, relying on nothing better than his own imagination.[235]
  17. ^ For further information on Óc Eo, see Osborne, Milton. The Mekong: Turbulent Past, Uncertain Future. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2006, revised edition, first published in 2000. pp. 24–25. ISBN 978-1741148930.
  18. ^ Vindobona as Marc Aurel's death place is mentioned by Aurelius Victor in his De Caesaribus (16.14), Sirmium on the other hand in Tertullian's Apologeticum (25)

Citations

All citations to the Historia Augusta are to individual biographies, and are marked with a 'HA'. Citations to the works of Fronto are cross-referenced to C.R. Haines's Loeb edition.

  1. ^ Henry Albert Fischel, Rabbinic Literature and Greco-Roman Philosophy: A Study of Epicurea and Rhetorica in Early Midrashic Writings, E. J. Brill, 1973, p. 95.
  2. ^ 'Marcus Aurelius' 28 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Dictionary.com.
  3. ^ Keresztes, Paul (July 1968). "Marcus Aurelius a Persecutor?". Harvard Theological Review. 61 (3): 321–341. doi:10.1017/S0017816000029230. ISSN 1475-4517. S2CID 159950967.
  4. ^ Rohrbacher, p. 5.
  5. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 229–230. The thesis of single authorship was first proposed in H. Dessau's 'Über Zeit und Persönlichkeit der Scriptores Historiae Augustae' (in German), Hermes 24 (1889), pp. 337ff.
  6. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 230. On the HA Verus, see Barnes, 'Hadrian and Lucius Verus', pp. 65–74.
  7. ^ Fleury, P. 2012. "Marcus Aurelius’ Letters." In A Companion to Marcus Aurelius. Edited by M. van Ackeren, 62–76. Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell.
  8. ^ Freisenbruch, A. 2007. "Back to Fronto: Doctor and Patient in His Correspondence with an Emperor." In Ancient Letters: Classical and Late Antique Epistolography. Edited by R. Morello and A. D. Morrison, 235–256. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
  9. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 227.
  10. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 228–229, 253.
  11. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 227–228.
  12. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 228.
  13. ^ Magill, p. 693.
  14. ^ a b Historia MA I.9–10. "Marcus Antoninus was named Catilius Severus, after his mother's grand-father. After the death of his real father [...] he assumed the toga virilis, Annius Verus."
  15. ^ Dio 69.21.1. "Marcus Annius, earlier named Catilius."
  16. ^ Van Ackeren, p. 139.
  17. ^ a b c Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 33.
  18. ^ Dio lxix.21.1; HA Marcus i. 9; McLynn, Marcus Aurelius: Warrior, Philosopher, Emperor, p. 24.
  19. ^ Van Ackeren, p. 78.
  20. ^ Dean, p. 32.
  21. ^ Knight, Charles (1856). The English Cyclopædia: A New Dictionary of Universal Knowledge. Biography. Bradbury & Evans. p. 439. Marcus Aurelius Malennius and Numa.
  22. ^ Sánchez, p. 165.
  23. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 29; McLynn, Marcus Aurelius: Warrior, Philosopher, Emperor, p. 14.
  24. ^ HA Marcus i. 2, 4; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 28; McLynn, Marcus Aurelius: A Life, p. 14.
  25. ^ Giacosa, p. 8.
  26. ^ Levick, pp. 161, 163.
  27. ^ Dio 69.21.2, 71.35.2–3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 31.
  28. ^ Rupilius. Strachan stemma.
  29. ^ Settipani, Christian (2000). Continuité gentilice et continuité familiale dans les familles sénatoriales romaines à l'époque impériale: mythe et réalité. Prosopographica et genealogica (in Italian). Vol. 2 (illustrated ed.). Unit for Prosopographical Research, Linacre College, University of Oxford. p. 278. ISBN 978-1900934022.
  30. ^ Codex Inscriptionum Latinarum 14.3579 . Archived from the original on 29 April 2012. Retrieved 15 November 2011.; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 29; McLynn, Marcus Aurelius: Warrior, Philosopher, Emperor, pp. 14, 575 n. 53, citing Ronald Syme, Roman Papers 1.244.
  31. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 29, citing Pliny, Epistulae 8.18.
  32. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 30.
  33. ^ "M. Cornelius Fronto: Epistulae".
  34. ^ l. Richardson, jr; Richardson, Professor of Latin (Emeritus) L. (October 1992). A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. JHU Press. p. 198. ISBN 978-0801843006. horti domizia lucilla.
  35. ^ Ad Marcum Caesarem ii. 8.2 (= Haines 1.142), qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 31.
  36. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 31, 44.
  37. ^ a b Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 31.
  38. ^ Farquharson, 1.95–96.
  39. ^ Meditations 1.1, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 31.
  40. ^ HA Marcus ii. 1 and Meditations v. 4, qtd. in Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 32.
  41. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 31–32.
  42. ^ Meditations i. 1, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 35.
  43. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 35.
  44. ^ Meditations i. 17.2; Farquharson, 1.102; McLynn, Marcus Aurelius: Warrior, Philosopher, Emperor, p. 23; cf. Meditations i. 17.11; Farquharson, 1.103.
  45. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 49.
  46. ^ McLynn, Marcus Aurelius: Warrior, Philosopher, Emperor, 20–21.
  47. ^ Meditations 1.4; McLynn, Marcus Aurelius: Warrior, Philosopher, Emperor, p. 20.
  48. ^ HA Marcus ii. 2, iv. 9; Meditations i. 3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 37; McLynn, Marcus Aurelius: Warrior, Philosopher, Emperor, pp. 21–22.
  49. ^ HA Marcus ii. 6; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 38; McLynn, Marcus Aurelius: Warrior, Philosopher, Emperor, p. 21.
  50. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 40, citing Aristides, Oratio 32 K; McLynn, Marcus Aurelius: Warrior, Philosopher, Emperor, p. 21.
  51. ^ Magie & Birley, Lives of the later Caesars, pp. 109, 109 n.8; Marcus Aurelius, pp. 40, 270 n.27, citing Bonner Historia-Augusta Colloquia 1966/7, pp. 39ff.
  52. ^ HA Marcus ii. 3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 40, 270 n.27.
  53. ^ Meditations i. 10; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 40; McLynn, Marcus Aurelius: Warrior, Philosopher, Emperor, p. 22.
  54. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 40, 270 n.28, citing A.S.L. Farquharson, The Meditations of Marcus Antoninus (Oxford, 1944) ii. 453.
  55. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 41–42.
  56. ^ HA Hadrian xiii. 10, qtd. in Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 42.
  57. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 42. Van Ackeren, 142. On the succession to Hadrian, see also: T.D. Barnes, 'Hadrian and Lucius Verus', Journal of Roman Studies 57:1–2 (1967): 65–79; J. VanderLeest, 'Hadrian, Lucius Verus, and the Arco di Portogallo', Phoenix 49:4 (1995): pp. 319–330.
  58. ^ HA Aelius vi. 2–3
  59. ^ HA Hadrian xxiii. 15–16; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 45; 'Hadrian to the Antonines', 148.
  60. ^ Dio, lxix.17.1; HA Aelius, iii. 7, iv. 6, vi. 1–7; Birley, 'Hadrian to the Antonines', p. 147.
  61. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 46. Date: Birley, 'Hadrian to the Antonines', p. 148.
  62. ^ Weigel, Richard D. 'Antoninus Pius (A.D. 138–161)'. Roman Emperors.
  63. ^ Dio 69.21.1; HA Hadrian xxiv. 1; HA Aelius vi. 9; HA Antoninus Pius iv. 6–7; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 48–49.
  64. ^ HA Marcus v. 3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 49.
  65. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 49–50.
  66. ^ HA Marcus v. 6–8, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 50.
  67. ^ Dio 69.22.4; HA Hadrian xxv. 5–6; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 50–51. Hadrian's suicide attempts: Dio, lxix. 22.1–4; HA Hadrian xxiv. 8–13.
  68. ^ HA Hadrian xxv. 7; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 53.
  69. ^ HA Antoninus Pius v. 3, vi. 3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 55–56; 'Hadrian to the Antonines', p. 151.
  70. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 55; 'Hadrian to the Antonines', p. 151.
  71. ^ Mattingly & Sydenham, Roman imperial coinage, vol. III, p. 108.
  72. ^ Mattingly & Sydenham, Roman imperial coinage, vol. III, p. 77.
  73. ^ HA Marcus vi. 2; Verus ii. 3–4; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 53–54.
  74. ^ Dio 71.35.5; HA Marcus vi. 3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 56.
  75. ^ Meditations vi. 30, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 57; cf. Marcus Aurelius, p. 270 n.9, with notes on the translation.
  76. ^ a b HA Marcus vi. 3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 57.
  77. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 57, 272 n.10, citing Codex Inscriptionum Latinarum , , cf. Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae .
  78. ^ Meditations 5.16, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 57.
  79. ^ Meditations 8.9, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 57.
  80. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 57–58.
  81. ^ Ad Marcum Caesarem iv. 7, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 90.
  82. ^ HA Marcus vi. 5; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 58.
  83. ^ a b Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 89.
  84. ^ Ad Marcum Caesarem v. 1, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 89.
  85. ^ Ad Marcum Caesarem 4.8, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 89.
  86. ^ Dio 71.36.3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 89.
  87. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 90–91.
  88. ^ HA Antoninus Pius x. 2, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 91.
  89. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 91.
  90. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 61.
  91. ^ HA Marcus iii. 6; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 62.
  92. ^ HA Marcus ii. 4; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 62.
  93. ^ Alan Cameron, review of Anthony Birley's Marcus Aurelius, Classical Review 17:3 (1967): p. 347.
  94. ^ Vita Sophistae 2.1.14; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 63–64.
  95. ^ Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 9.2.1–7; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 64–65.
  96. ^ Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 19.12, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 65.
  97. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 65.
  98. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 67–68, citing Champlin, Fronto and Antonine Rome, esp. chs. 3 and 4.
  99. ^ a b Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 65–67.
  100. ^ Champlin, Fronto, pp. 1–2.
  101. ^ Mellor, p. 460.
  102. ^ Cf., e.g.: Mellor, p. 461 and passim.
  103. ^ a b Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 69.
  104. ^ Ad Marcum Caesarem iv. 6 (= Haines 1.80ff), qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 76.
  105. ^ Ad Marcum Caesarem iv. 6 (= Haines 1.80ff); Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 76–77.
  106. ^ Ad Marcum Caesarem iii. 10–11 (= Haines 1.50ff), qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 73.
  107. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 73.
  108. ^ Champlin, 'Chronology of Fronto', p. 138.
  109. ^ Ad Marcum Caesarem v. 74 ( =Haines 2.52ff), qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 73.
  110. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 77. On the date, see Champlin, 'Chronology of Fronto', p. 142, who (with Bowersock, Greek Sophists in the Roman Empire (1964), 93ff) argues for a date in the 150s; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 78–79, 273 n.17 (with Ameling, Herodes Atticus (1983), 1.61ff, 2.30ff) argues for 140.
  111. ^ Ad Marcum Caesarem iii. 2 (= Haines 1.58ff), qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 77–78.
  112. ^ Ad Marcum Caesarem iii. 3 (= Haines 1.62ff); Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 78.
  113. ^ Ad Marcum Caesarem iii. 3 (= Haines 1.62ff), qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 79.
  114. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 80.
  115. ^ Ad Marcum Caesarem iv. 13 (= Haines 1.214ff), qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 93.
  116. ^ Ad Marcum Caesarem iv. 3.1 (= Haines 1.2ff); Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 94.
  117. ^ HA Marcus iii. 5–8, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 94.
  118. ^ Ad Marcum Caesarem iv. 3, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 69.
  119. ^ De Eloquentia iv. 5 (= Haines 2.74), qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 95. Alan Cameron, in his review of Birley's biography (The Classical Review 17:3 (1967): p. 347), suggests a reference to chapter 11 of Arthur Darby Nock's Conversion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933, rept. 1961): 'Conversion to Philosophy'.
  120. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 94, 105.
  121. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 95; Champlin, Fronto, p. 120.
  122. ^ Champlin, Fronto, p. 174 n. 12.
  123. ^ Ad Antoninum Imperatorem i.2.2 (= Haines 2.36), qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 95.
  124. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 94–95, 101.
  125. ^ Champlin, Fronto, p. 120.
  126. ^ Meditations i.7, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 94–95.
  127. ^ Philostratus, Vitae sophistorum ii. 9 (557); cf. Suda, Markos
  128. ^ a b c d Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 103.
  129. ^ Ad Marcum Caesarem 4.11 (= Haines 1.202ff), qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 105.
  130. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 247 F.1.
  131. ^ a b c Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 206–207.
  132. ^ Meditations ix.40, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 207.
  133. ^ a b Meditations x.34, tr. Farquharson, pp. 78, 224.
  134. ^ a b Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 107.
  135. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 107–108.
  136. ^ a b c Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 108.
  137. ^ Inscriptiones Graecae ad Res Romanas pertinentes 4.1399, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 114.
  138. ^ a b c d e Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 114.
  139. ^ Reed, p. 194.
  140. ^ a b c d e f g h Lendering, Jona. 'Marcus Aurelius' 25 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine. Livius.org.
  141. ^ HA Verus 2.9–11; 3.4–7; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 108.
  142. ^ Suetonius, Nero 6.1; HA Verus 1.8; Barnes, 'Hadrian and Lucius Verus', 67; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 158. See also: Barnes, 'Hadrian and Lucius Verus', pp. 69–70; Pierre Lambrechts, 'L'empereur Lucius Verus. Essai de réhabilitation' (in French), Antiquité Classique 3 (1934), pp. 173ff.
  143. ^ Barnes, 'Hadrian and Lucius Verus', p. 66. Poorly compiled: e.g. Barnes, 'Hadrian and Lucius Verus', p. 68.
  144. ^ Barnes, 'Hadrian and Lucius Verus', pp. 68–69.
  145. ^ HA Verus 2.9–11; 3.4–7; Barnes, 'Hadrian and Lucius Verus', 68; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 108.
  146. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 112.
  147. ^ Bowman, 156; Victor, 15:7
  148. ^ Victor, 15:7
  149. ^ Dio 71.33.4–5; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 114.
  150. ^ Bury, p. 532.
  151. ^ HA Antoninus Pius 12.4–8; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 114.
  152. ^ Bowman, p. 156.
  153. ^ HA Marcus vii. 5, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 116.
  154. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 116. Birley takes the phrase horror imperii from HA Pert. xiii. 1 and xv. 8.
  155. ^ Birley, 'Hadrian to the Antonines', p. 156.
  156. ^ HA Verus iii.8; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 116; 'Hadrian to the Antonines', p. 156.
  157. ^ HA Verus iv.1; Marcus vii.5; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 116.
  158. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 116–117.
  159. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 117; 'Hadrian to the Antonines', p. 157 n.53.
  160. ^ Birley, 'Hadrian to the Antonines', p. 157 n.53.
  161. ^ a b c d Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 117.
  162. ^ Christer Bruun, J. C. Edmondson (2015). The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy. Oxford University Press. p. 191. ISBN 978-0-19-533646-7.
  163. ^ HA Verus iv.2, tr. Magie, cited in Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 117, 278 n.4.
  164. ^ HA Marcus vii. 9; Verus iv.3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 117–118.
  165. ^ HA Marcus vii. 9; Verus iv.3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 117–118. 'twice the size': Duncan-Jones, p. 109.
  166. ^ a b Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 118.
  167. ^ a b . Tulane.edu. Archived 10 February 2001.
  168. ^ HA Marcus vii. 10, tr. Magie, cited in Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 118, 278 n.6.
  169. ^ HA Marcus vii. 10–11; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 118.
  170. ^ HA Antoninus Pius xii.8; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 118–119.
  171. ^ HA Marcus vii. 4; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 119.
  172. ^ HA Comm. i.3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 119.
  173. ^ HA Comm. i.2; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 119.
  174. ^ HA Marcus xix. 1–2; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 278 n.9.
  175. ^ HA Commodus. i.4, x.2; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 119.
  176. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 119, citing H. Mattingly, Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum IV: Antoninus Pius to Commodus (London, 1940), Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, nos. 155ff.; 949ff.
  177. ^ HA Marcus vii. 7; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 118.
  178. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 118, citing Werner Eck, Die Organization Italiens (1979), pp. 146ff.
  179. ^ HA Marcus viii. 1, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 119; 'Hadrian to the Antonines', p. 157.
  180. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 122–123, citing H.G. Pfalum, Les carrières procuratoriennes équestres sous le Haut-Empire romain I–III (Paris, 1960–61); Supplément (Paris, 1982), nos. 142; 156; Eric Birley, Roman Britain and the Roman Army (1953), pp. 142ff., 151ff.
  181. ^ Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 123, citing H.G. Pfalum, Les carrières procuratoriennes équestres sous le Haut-Empire romain I–III (Paris, 1960–61); Supplément (Paris, 1982), no. 141.
  182. ^ HA Marcus viii. 8; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 123, citing W. Eck, Die Satthalter der germ. Provinzen (1985), pp. 65ff.
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External links

Marcus Aurelius
Born: 26 April 121 Died: 17 March 180
Regnal titles
Preceded by Roman emperor
161–180
With: Lucius Verus (161–169)
Commodus (177–180) 		Succeeded by
Commodus
Political offices
Preceded by
M. Ceccius Justinus
G. Julius Bassus
as suffect consuls 		Roman consul
January–April 140
With: Antoninus Pius 		Succeeded by
Q. Antonius Isauricus
L. Aurelius Flaccus
Preceded byas suffect consuls Roman consul
January–February 145
With: Antoninus Pius 		Succeeded by
L. Plautius Lamia Silvanus
L. Poblicola Priscus
Preceded by
Ti. Oclatius Severus
Novius Sabinianus
 Roman consul
January 161
With: Lucius Verus 		Succeeded by

April 26, 2023
marcus, aurelius, antoninus, latin, ˈmaːr, auˈreː, toː, ˈniː, english, ɔː, april, march, roman, emperor, from, stoic, philosopher, last, rulers, known, noncontemporaneously, five, good, emperors, last, emperor, romana, relative, peace, calmness, stability, rom. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Latin ˈmaːr kus auˈreː li us an toː ˈniː nus English ɔː ˈ r iː l i e s aw REE lee es 2 26 April 121 17 March 180 was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher He was the last of the rulers known noncontemporaneously as the Five Good Emperors and the last emperor of the Pax Romana an age of relative peace calmness and stability for the Roman Empire lasting from 27 BC to 180 AD He served as Roman consul in 140 145 and 161 Marcus AureliusMarble bust Musee Saint RaymondRoman emperorReign7 March 161 17 March 180PredecessorAntoninus PiusSuccessorCommodusCo emperorLucius Verus 161 169 Commodus 177 180 Born 121 04 26 26 April 121Rome ItalyDied17 March 180 180 03 17 aged 58 Vindobona Pannonia Superior orSirmium Pannonia InferiorBurialHadrian s MausoleumSpouseFaustina the Younger m 145 died 175 IssueDetail14 including Commodus Marcus Annius Verus Caesar Lucilla Annia Galeria Aurelia Faustina Fadilla Annia Cornificia Faustina Minor and Vibia Aurelia SabinaNamesMarcus Annius Catilius Severus birth Marcus Annius Verus 124 Marcus Aelius Aurelius Verus Caesar 138 see section Name for details Regnal nameImperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus AugustusDynastyNerva AntonineFatherMarcus Annius VerusAntoninus Pius adoptive MotherDomitia CalvillaReligionAncient Roman religionPhilosophy careerNotable workMeditationsEraHellenistic philosophyRegionWestern philosophySchoolStoicismMain interestsEthicsNotable ideasMemento mori 1 Influences Heraclitus Socrates Seneca Plutarch Epictetus Quintus Apollonius Sextus of Chaeronea FrontoInfluenced Virtually all of subsequent Stoic philosophyMarcus Aurelius was born during the reign of Hadrian to the emperor s nephew the praetor Marcus Annius Verus and the heiress Domitia Calvilla His father died when he was three and he was raised by his mother and paternal grandfather After Hadrian s adoptive son Aelius Caesar died in 138 the emperor adopted Marcus s uncle Antoninus Pius as his new heir In turn Antoninus adopted Marcus and Lucius the son of Aelius Hadrian died that year and Antoninus became emperor Now heir to the throne Marcus studied Greek and Latin under tutors such as Herodes Atticus and Marcus Cornelius Fronto He married Antoninus daughter Faustina in 145 After Antoninus died in 161 Marcus Aurelius acceded to the throne alongside his adoptive brother who reigned under the name Lucius Verus Under his rule the Roman Empire witnessed heavy military conflict In the East the Romans fought successfully with a revitalized Parthian Empire and the rebel Kingdom of Armenia Marcus defeated the Marcomanni Quadi and Sarmatian Iazyges in the Marcomannic Wars however these and other Germanic peoples began to represent a troubling reality for the Empire He modified the silver purity of the Roman currency the denarius The persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire appears to have increased during his reign but his involvement in this is unlikely since there is no record of early Christians in the 2nd century calling him a persecutor and Tertullian even called Marcus a protector of Christians 3 The Antonine Plague broke out in 165 or 166 and devastated the population of the Roman Empire causing the deaths of five to ten million people Lucius Verus may have died from the plague in 169 Unlike some of his predecessors Marcus chose not to adopt an heir His children included Lucilla who married Lucius and Commodus whose succession after Marcus has been a subject of debate among both contemporary and modern historians The Column and Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius still stand in Rome where they were erected in celebration of his military victories Meditations the writings of the philosopher as contemporary biographers called Marcus are a significant source of the modern understanding of ancient Stoic philosophy These writings have been praised by fellow writers philosophers monarchs and politicians centuries after his death Contents 1 Sources 2 Early life 2 1 Name 2 2 Family origins 2 3 Childhood 2 4 Succession to Hadrian 2 5 Heir to Antoninus Pius 138 145 2 6 Fronto and further education 2 7 Births and deaths 2 8 Antoninus Pius s last years 3 Emperor 3 1 Accession of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus 161 3 2 Early rule 3 3 War with Parthia 161 166 3 4 War with Germanic tribes 166 180 3 5 Legal and administrative work 3 5 1 Trade with Han China and outbreak of plague 3 6 Death and succession 180 4 Attitude towards Christians 5 Marriage and children 6 Nerva Antonine family tree 7 Writings 8 Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius 9 Column of Marcus Aurelius 10 Legacy and reputation 11 In popular culture 12 See also 13 Notes 14 Citations 15 Bibliography 15 1 Ancient 15 2 Modern 16 External linksSources EditThe major sources depicting the life and rule of Marcus Aurelius are patchy and frequently unreliable The most important group of sources the biographies contained in the Historia Augusta claimed to be written by a group of authors at the turn of the 4th century AD but it is believed they were in fact written by a single author referred to here as the biographer from about AD 395 4 The later biographies and the biographies of subordinate emperors and usurpers are unreliable but the earlier biographies derived primarily from now lost earlier sources Marius Maximus or Ignotus are much more accurate 5 For Marcus s life and rule the biographies of Hadrian Antoninus Marcus and Lucius are largely reliable but those of Aelius Verus and Avidius Cassius are not 6 A body of correspondence between Marcus s tutor Fronto and various Antonine officials survives in a series of patchy manuscripts covering the period from c 138 to 166 7 8 Marcus s own Meditations offer a window on his inner life but are largely undateable and make few specific references to worldly affairs 9 The main narrative source for the period is Cassius Dio a Greek senator from Bithynian Nicaea who wrote a history of Rome from its founding to 229 in eighty books Dio is vital for the military history of the period but his senatorial prejudices and strong opposition to imperial expansion obscure his perspective 10 Some other literary sources provide specific details the writings of the physician Galen on the habits of the Antonine elite the orations of Aelius Aristides on the temper of the times and the constitutions preserved in the Digest and Codex Justinianeus on Marcus legal work 11 Inscriptions and coin finds supplement the literary sources 12 Early life EditMain article Early life of Marcus Aurelius Name Edit Marcus was born in Rome on 26 April 121 His birth name is sometimes given as Marcus Annius Verus 13 but sources assign this name to him upon his father s death and unofficial adoption by his grandfather upon his coming of age 14 15 16 17 He may have been known as Marcus Annius Catilius Severus 18 at birth or some point in his youth 14 17 or Marcus Catilius Severus Annius Verus Upon his adoption by Antoninus as heir to the throne he was known as Marcus Aelius Aurelius Verus Caesar and upon his ascension he was Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus until his death 19 Epiphanius of Salamis in his chronology of the Roman emperors included in his On Weights and Measures calls him Marcus Aurelius Verus 20 Family origins Edit Marcus paternal family was of Roman Italo Hispanic origins His father was Marcus Annius Verus III 21 The gens Annia was of Italic origins with legendary claims of descendance from Numa Pompilius and a branch of it the Annii Veri moved to Ucubi a small town south east of Cordoba in Iberian Baetica 22 23 This branch rose to prominence in Rome in the late 1st century AD Marcus s great grandfather Marcus Annius Verus I was a senator and according to the Historia Augusta ex praetor his grandfather Marcus Annius Verus II was made patrician in 73 74 24 Through his grandmother Rupilia Faustina Marcus was a member of the Nerva Antonine dynasty the emperor Trajan s sororal niece Salonia Matidia was the step mother of Rupilia and her step sister Hadrian s wife Sabina 25 26 note 1 Marcus s mother Domitia Lucilla Minor also known as Domitia Calvilla was the daughter of the Roman patrician P Calvisius Tullus and inherited a great fortune described at length in one of Pliny s letters from her parents and grandparents Her inheritance included large brickworks on the outskirts of Rome a profitable enterprise in an era when the city was experiencing a construction boom and the Horti Domitia Calvillae or Lucillae a villa on the Caelian hill of Rome 31 32 Marcus himself was born and raised in the Horti and referred to the Caelian hill as My Caelian 33 34 35 The adoptive family of Marcus was of Roman Italo Gallic origins the gens Aurelia into which Marcus was adopted at the age of 17 was a Sabine gens Antoninus Pius his adoptive father came from the Aurelii Fulvi a branch of the Aurelii based in Roman Gaul Childhood Edit Marcus s sister Annia Cornificia Faustina was probably born in 122 or 123 36 His father probably died in 124 when Marcus was three years old during his praetorship 37 note 2 Though he can hardly have known his father Marcus wrote in his Meditations that he had learned modesty and manliness from his memories of his father and the man s posthumous reputation 39 His mother Lucilla did not remarry 37 and following prevailing aristocratic customs probably did not spend much time with her son Instead Marcus was in the care of nurses 40 and was raised after his father s death by his grandfather Marcus Annius Verus II who had always retained the legal authority of patria potestas over his son and grandson Technically this was not an adoption the creation of a new and different patria potestas Lucius Catilius Severus described as Marcus s maternal great grandfather also participated in his upbringing he was probably the elder Domitia Lucilla s stepfather 17 Marcus was raised in his parents home on the Caelian Hill an upscale area with few public buildings but many aristocratic villas Marcus s grandfather owned a palace beside the Lateran where he would spend much of his childhood 41 Marcus thanks his grandfather for teaching him good character and avoidance of bad temper 42 He was less fond of the mistress his grandfather took and lived with after the death of his wife Rupilia 43 Marcus was grateful that he did not have to live with her longer than he did 44 A bust of young Marcus Aurelius Capitoline Museum Anthony Birley his modern biographer writes of the bust This is certainly a grave young man 45 From a young age Marcus displayed enthusiasm for wrestling and boxing He trained in wrestling as a youth and into his teenage years learned to fight in armour and joined the Salii an order of priests dedicated to the god Mars that were responsible for the sacred shields called Ancilia and possibly for heralding war season s beginning and end Marcus was educated at home in line with contemporary aristocratic trends 46 he thanks Catilius Severus for encouraging him to avoid public schools 47 One of his teachers Diognetus a painting master proved particularly influential he seems to have introduced Marcus Aurelius to the philosophic way of life 48 In April 132 at the behest of Diognetus Marcus took up the dress and habits of the philosopher he studied while wearing a rough Greek cloak and would sleep on the ground until his mother convinced him to sleep on a bed 49 A new set of tutors the Homeric scholar Alexander of Cotiaeum along with Trosius Aper and Tuticius Proculus teachers of Latin 50 note 3 took over Marcus s education in about 132 or 133 52 Marcus thanks Alexander for his training in literary styling 53 Alexander s influence an emphasis on matter over style and careful wording with the occasional Homeric quotation has been detected in Marcus Meditations 54 Succession to Hadrian Edit In late 136 Hadrian almost died from a hemorrhage Convalescent in his villa at Tivoli he selected Lucius Ceionius Commodus Marcus s intended father in law as his successor and adopted son 55 according to the biographer against the wishes of everyone 56 While his motives are not certain it would appear that his goal was to eventually place the then too young Marcus on the throne 57 As part of his adoption Commodus took the name Lucius Aelius Caesar His health was so poor that during a ceremony to mark his becoming heir to the throne he was too weak to lift a large shield on his own 58 After a brief stationing on the Danube frontier Aelius returned to Rome to make an address to the Senate on the first day of 138 However the night before the scheduled speech he grew ill and died of a hemorrhage later in the day 59 note 4 Coin AD 136 138 of Hadrian obverse and his adoptive son Lucius Aelius reverse Hadrian is wearing the laurel crown Inscription HADRIANVS LVCIVS CAESAR On 24 January 138 Hadrian selected Aurelius Antoninus the husband of Marcus s aunt Faustina the Elder as his new successor 61 As part of Hadrian s terms Antoninus in turn adopted Marcus and Lucius Commodus the son of Lucius Aelius 62 Marcus became M Aelius Aurelius Verus and Lucius became L Aelius Aurelius Commodus At Hadrian s request Antoninus daughter Faustina was betrothed to Lucius 63 Marcus reportedly greeted the news that Hadrian had become his adoptive grandfather with sadness instead of joy Only with reluctance did he move from his mother s house on the Caelian to Hadrian s private home 64 At some time in 138 Hadrian requested in the Senate that Marcus be exempt from the law barring him from becoming quaestor before his twenty fourth birthday The Senate complied and Marcus served under Antoninus the consul for 139 65 Marcus s adoption diverted him from the typical career path of his class If not for his adoption he probably would have become triumvir monetalis a highly regarded post involving token administration of the state mint after that he could have served as tribune with a legion becoming the legion s nominal second in command Marcus probably would have opted for travel and further education instead As it was Marcus was set apart from his fellow citizens Nonetheless his biographer attests that his character remained unaffected He still showed the same respect to his relations as he had when he was an ordinary citizen and he was as thrifty and careful of his possessions as he had been when he lived in a private household 66 After a series of suicide attempts all thwarted by Antoninus Hadrian left for Baiae a seaside resort on the Campanian coast His condition did not improve and he abandoned the diet prescribed by his doctors indulging himself in food and drink He sent for Antoninus who was at his side when he died on 10 July 138 67 His remains were buried quietly at Puteoli 68 The succession to Antoninus was peaceful and stable Antoninus kept Hadrian s nominees in office and appeased the senate respecting its privileges and commuting the death sentences of men charged in Hadrian s last days 69 For his dutiful behaviour Antoninus was asked to accept the name Pius 70 Heir to Antoninus Pius 138 145 Edit Sestertius of Antoninus Pius AD 140 144 It celebrates the betrothal of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina the Younger in 139 pictured below Antoninus who is holding a statuette of Concordia and clasping hands with Faustina the Elder Inscription ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P CO N S III CONCORDIAE S C 71 Denarius of Antoninus Pius AD 139 with a portrait of Marcus Aurelius on the reverse Inscription ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P AVRELIVS CAES AVG PII F CO N S DES 72 Immediately after Hadrian s death Antoninus approached Marcus and requested that his marriage arrangements be amended Marcus s betrothal to Ceionia Fabia would be annulled and he would be betrothed to Faustina Antoninus daughter instead Faustina s betrothal to Ceionia s brother Lucius Commodus would also have to be annulled Marcus consented to Antoninus s proposal 73 He was made consul for 140 with Antoninus as his colleague and was appointed as a seviri one of the knights six commanders at the order s annual parade on 15 July 139 As the heir apparent Marcus became princeps iuventutis head of the equestrian order He now took the name Marcus Aelius Aurelius Verus Caesar 74 Marcus would later caution himself against taking the name too seriously See that you do not turn into a Caesar do not be dipped into the purple dye for that can happen 75 At the senate s request Marcus joined all the priestly colleges pontifices augures quindecimviri sacris faciundis septemviri epulonum etc 76 direct evidence for membership however is available only for the Arval Brethren 77 Antoninus demanded that Marcus reside in the House of Tiberius the imperial palace on the Palatine and take up the habits of his new station the aulicum fastigium or pomp of the court against Marcus objections 76 Marcus would struggle to reconcile the life of the court with his philosophic yearnings He told himself it was an attainable goal Where life is possible then it is possible to live the right life life is possible in a palace so it is possible to live the right life in a palace 78 but he found it difficult nonetheless He would criticize himself in the Meditations for abusing court life in front of company 79 As quaestor Marcus would have had little real administrative work to do He would read imperial letters to the senate when Antoninus was absent and would do secretarial work for the senators 80 But he felt drowned in paperwork and complained to his tutor Marcus Cornelius Fronto I am so out of breath from dictating nearly thirty letters 81 He was being fitted for ruling the state in the words of his biographer 82 He was required to make a speech to the assembled senators as well making oratorical training essential for the job 83 On 1 January 145 Marcus was made consul a second time Fronto urged him in a letter to have plenty of sleep so that you may come into the Senate with a good colour and read your speech with a strong voice 84 Marcus had complained of an illness in an earlier letter As far as my strength is concerned I am beginning to get it back and there is no trace of the pain in my chest But that ulcer note 5 I am having treatment and taking care not to do anything that interferes with it 85 Never particularly healthy or strong Marcus was praised by Cassius Dio writing of his later years for behaving dutifully in spite of his various illnesses 86 In April 145 Marcus married Faustina legally his sister as had been planned since 138 87 Little is specifically known of the ceremony but the biographer calls it noteworthy 88 Coins were issued with the heads of the couple and Antoninus as Pontifex Maximus would have officiated Marcus makes no apparent reference to the marriage in his surviving letters and only sparing references to Faustina 89 Fronto and further education Edit After taking the toga virilis in 136 Marcus probably began his training in oratory 90 He had three tutors in Greek Aninus Macer Caninius Celer and Herodes Atticus and one in Latin Marcus Cornelius Fronto The latter two were the most esteemed orators of their time 91 but probably did not become his tutors until his adoption by Antoninus in 138 The preponderance of Greek tutors indicates the importance of the Greek language to the aristocracy of Rome 92 This was the age of the Second Sophistic a renaissance in Greek letters Although educated in Rome in his Meditations Marcus would write his inmost thoughts in Greek 93 Atticus was controversial an enormously rich Athenian probably the richest man in the eastern half of the empire he was quick to anger and resented by his fellow Athenians for his patronizing manner 94 Atticus was an inveterate opponent of Stoicism and philosophic pretensions 95 He thought the Stoics desire for apatheia was foolish they would live a sluggish enervated life he said 96 In spite of the influence of Atticus Marcus would later become a Stoic He would not mention Herodes at all in his Meditations in spite of the fact that they would come into contact many times over the following decades 97 Fronto was highly esteemed in the self consciously antiquarian world of Latin letters 98 he was thought of as second only to Cicero perhaps even an alternative to him 99 note 6 He did not care much for Atticus though Marcus was eventually to put the pair on speaking terms Fronto exercised a complete mastery of Latin capable of tracing expressions through the literature producing obscure synonyms and challenging minor improprieties in word choice 99 A significant amount of the correspondence between Fronto and Marcus has survived 103 The pair were very close using intimate language such as Farewell my Fronto wherever you are my most sweet love and delight How is it between you and me I love you and you are not here in their correspondence 104 Marcus spent time with Fronto s wife and daughter both named Cratia and they enjoyed light conversation 105 He wrote Fronto a letter on his birthday claiming to love him as he loved himself and calling on the gods to ensure that every word he learnt of literature he would learn from the lips of Fronto 106 His prayers for Fronto s health were more than conventional because Fronto was frequently ill at times he seems to be an almost constant invalid always suffering 107 about one quarter of the surviving letters deal with the man s sicknesses 108 Marcus asks that Fronto s pain be inflicted on himself of my own accord with every kind of discomfort 109 Fronto never became Marcus s full time teacher and continued his career as an advocate One notorious case brought him into conflict with Atticus 110 Marcus pleaded with Fronto first with advice then as a favour not to attack Atticus he had already asked Atticus to refrain from making the first blows 111 Fronto replied that he was surprised to discover Marcus counted Atticus as a friend perhaps Atticus was not yet Marcus tutor and allowed that Marcus might be correct 112 but nonetheless affirmed his intent to win the case by any means necessary T he charges are frightful and must be spoken of as frightful Those in particular that refer to the beating and robbing I will describe so that they savour of gall and bile If I happen to call him an uneducated little Greek it will not mean war to the death 113 The outcome of the trial is unknown 114 By the age of twenty five between April 146 and April 147 Marcus had grown disaffected with his studies in jurisprudence and showed some signs of general malaise His master he writes to Fronto was an unpleasant blowhard and had made a hit at him It is easy to sit yawning next to a judge he says but to be a judge is noble work 115 Marcus had grown tired of his exercises of taking positions in imaginary debates When he criticized the insincerity of conventional language Fronto took to defend it 116 In any case Marcus formal education was now over He had kept his teachers on good terms following them devotedly It affected his health adversely his biographer writes to have devoted so much effort to his studies It was the only thing the biographer could find fault with in Marcus s entire boyhood 117 Fronto had warned Marcus against the study of philosophy early on It is better never to have touched the teaching of philosophy than to have tasted it superficially with the edge of the lips as the saying is 118 He disdained philosophy and philosophers and looked down on Marcus s sessions with Apollonius of Chalcedon and others in this circle 103 Fronto put an uncharitable interpretation of Marcus s conversion to philosophy In the fashion of the young tired of boring work Marcus had turned to philosophy to escape the constant exercises of oratorical training 119 Marcus kept in close touch with Fronto but would ignore Fronto s scruples 120 Apollonius may have introduced Marcus to Stoic philosophy but Quintus Junius Rusticus would have the strongest influence on the boy 121 note 7 He was the man Fronto recognized as having wooed Marcus away from oratory 123 He was older than Fronto and twenty years older than Marcus As the grandson of Arulenus Rusticus one of the martyrs to the tyranny of Domitian r 81 96 he was heir to the tradition of Stoic Opposition to the bad emperors of the 1st century 124 the true successor of Seneca as opposed to Fronto the false one 125 Marcus thanks Rusticus for teaching him not to be led astray into enthusiasm for rhetoric for writing on speculative themes for discoursing on moralizing texts To avoid oratory poetry and fine writing 126 Philostratus describes how even when Marcus was an old man in the latter part of his reign he studied under Sextus of Chaeronea The Emperor Marcus was an eager disciple of Sextus the Boeotian philosopher being often in his company and frequenting his house Lucius who had just come to Rome asked the Emperor whom he met on his way where he was going to and on what errand and Marcus answered it is good even for an old man to learn I am now on my way to Sextus the philosopher to learn what I do not yet know And Lucius raising his hand to heaven said O Zeus the king of the Romans in his old age takes up his tablets and goes to school 127 Births and deaths Edit On 30 November 147 Faustina gave birth to a girl named Domitia Faustina She was the first of at least thirteen children including two sets of twins that Faustina would bear over the next twenty three years The next day 1 December Antoninus gave Marcus the tribunician power and the imperium authority over the armies and provinces of the emperor As tribune he had the right to bring one measure before the senate after the four Antoninus could introduce His tribunician powers would be renewed with Antoninus s on 10 December 147 128 The first mention of Domitia in Marcus s letters reveals her as a sickly infant Caesar to Fronto If the gods are willing we seem to have a hope of recovery The diarrhea has stopped the little attacks of fever have been driven away But the emaciation is still extreme and there is still quite a bit of coughing He and Faustina Marcus wrote had been pretty occupied with the girl s care 129 Domitia would die in 151 130 The Mausoleum of Hadrian where the children of Marcus and Faustina were buried In 149 Faustina gave birth again to twin sons Contemporary coinage commemorates the event with crossed cornucopiae beneath portrait busts of the two small boys and the legend temporum felicitas the happiness of the times They did not survive long Before the end of the year another family coin was issued it shows only a tiny girl Domitia Faustina and one boy baby Then another the girl alone The infants were buried in the Mausoleum of Hadrian where their epitaphs survive They were called Titus Aurelius Antoninus and Tiberius Aelius Aurelius 131 Marcus steadied himself One man prays How I may not lose my little child but you must pray How I may not be afraid to lose him 132 He quoted from the Iliad what he called the briefest and most familiar saying enough to dispel sorrow and fear 133 leaves the wind scatters some on the face of the ground like unto them are the children of men Iliad vi 146 133 Another daughter was born on 7 March 150 Annia Aurelia Galeria Lucilla At some time between 155 and 161 probably soon after 155 Marcus s mother Domitia Lucilla died 134 Faustina probably had another daughter in 151 but the child Annia Galeria Aurelia Faustina might not have been born until 153 135 Another son Tiberius Aelius Antoninus was born in 152 A coin issue celebrates fecunditati Augustae to Augusta s fertility depicting two girls and an infant The boy did not survive long as evidenced by coins from 156 only depicting the two girls He might have died in 152 the same year as Marcus s sister Cornificia 136 By 28 March 158 when Marcus replied another of his children was dead Marcus thanked the temple synod even though this turned out otherwise The child s name is unknown 137 In 159 and 160 Faustina gave birth to daughters Fadilla and Cornificia named respectively after Faustina s and Marcus s dead sisters 138 Antoninus Pius s last years Edit Bust of Antoninus Pius British Museum Lucius started his political career as a quaestor in 153 He was consul in 154 139 and was consul again with Marcus in 161 140 Lucius had no other titles except that of son of Augustus Lucius had a markedly different personality from Marcus he enjoyed sports of all kinds but especially hunting and wrestling he took obvious pleasure in the circus games and gladiatorial fights 141 note 8 He did not marry until 164 145 In 156 Antoninus turned 70 He found it difficult to keep himself upright without stays He started nibbling on dry bread to give him the strength to stay awake through his morning receptions As Antoninus aged Marcus would take on more administrative duties more still when he became the praetorian prefect an office that was as much secretarial as military when Marcus Gavius Maximus died in 156 or 157 146 In 160 Marcus and Lucius were designated joint consuls for the following year Antoninus may have already been ill 138 Two days before his death the biographer reports Antoninus was at his ancestral estate at Lorium in Etruria 147 about 19 kilometres 12 mi from Rome 148 He ate Alpine cheese at dinner quite greedily In the night he vomited he had a fever the next day The day after that 7 March 161 149 he summoned the imperial council and passed the state and his daughter to Marcus The emperor gave the keynote to his life in the last word that he uttered when the tribune of the night watch came to ask the password aequanimitas equanimity 150 He then turned over as if going to sleep and died 151 His death closed out the longest reign since Augustus surpassing Tiberius by a couple of months 152 Emperor EditMain article Reign of Marcus Aurelius Accession of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus 161 Edit Busts of the co emperors Marcus Aurelius left and Lucius Verus right British Museum After Antoninus died in 161 Marcus was effectively sole ruler of the Empire The formalities of the position would follow The Senate would soon grant him the name Augustus and the title imperator and he would soon be formally elected as pontifex maximus chief priest of the official cults Marcus made some show of resistance the biographer writes that he was compelled to take imperial power 153 This may have been a genuine horror imperii fear of imperial power Marcus with his preference for the philosophic life found the imperial office unappealing His training as a Stoic however had made the choice clear to him that it was his duty 154 Although Marcus showed no personal affection for Hadrian significantly he does not thank him in the first book of his Meditations he presumably believed it his duty to enact the man s succession plans 155 Thus although the Senate planned to confirm Marcus alone he refused to take office unless Lucius received equal powers 156 The Senate accepted granting Lucius the imperium the tribunician power and the title Augustus 157 Marcus became in official titulature Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus Lucius forgoing his name Commodus and taking Marcus s family name Verus became Imperator Caesar Lucius Aurelius Verus Augustus 158 note 9 It was the first time that Rome was ruled by two emperors 161 note 10 In spite of their nominal equality Marcus held more auctoritas or authority than Lucius He had been consul once more than Lucius he had shared in Antoninus s rule and he alone was pontifex maximus 162 It would have been clear to the public which emperor was the more senior 161 As the biographer wrote Verus obeyed Marcus as a lieutenant obeys a proconsul or a governor obeys the emperor 163 Immediately after their Senate confirmation the emperors proceeded to the Castra Praetoria the camp of the Praetorian Guard Lucius addressed the assembled troops which then acclaimed the pair as imperatores Then like every new emperor since Claudius Lucius promised the troops a special donativum 164 This donative however was twice the size of those past 20 000 sesterces 5 000 denarii per capita with more to officers In return for this bounty equivalent to several years pay the troops swore an oath to protect the emperors 165 The ceremony was perhaps not entirely necessary given that Marcus s accession had been peaceful and unopposed but it was good insurance against later military troubles 166 Upon his accession he also devalued the Roman currency He decreased the silver purity of the denarius from 83 5 to 79 the silver weight dropping from 2 68 g 0 095 oz to 2 57 g 0 091 oz 167 Antoninus s funeral ceremonies were in the words of the biographer elaborate 168 If his funeral followed those of his predecessors his body would have been cremated on a pyre at the Campus Martius and his spirit would have been seen as ascending to the gods home in the heavens Marcus and Lucius nominated their father for deification In contrast to their behaviour during Antoninus s campaign to deify Hadrian the Senate did not oppose the emperors wishes A flamen or cultic priest was appointed to minister the cult of the deified Divus Antoninus Antoninus s remains were laid to rest in Hadrian s mausoleum beside the remains of Marcus s children and of Hadrian himself 169 The temple he had dedicated to his wife Diva Faustina became the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina It survives as the church of San Lorenzo in Miranda 166 In accordance with his will Antoninus s fortune passed on to Faustina 170 Marcus had little need of his wife s fortune Indeed at his accession Marcus transferred part of his mother s estate to his nephew Ummius Quadratus 171 Faustina was three months pregnant at her husband s accession During the pregnancy she dreamed of giving birth to two serpents one fiercer than the other 172 On 31 August she gave birth at Lanuvium to twins T Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus and Lucius Aurelius Commodus 173 note 11 Aside from the fact that the twins shared Caligula s birthday the omens were favorable and the astrologers drew positive horoscopes for the children 175 The births were celebrated on the imperial coinage 176 Early rule Edit Soon after the emperor s accession Marcus s eleven year old daughter Annia Lucilla was betrothed to Lucius in spite of the fact that he was formally her uncle 177 At the ceremonies commemorating the event new provisions were made for the support of poor children along the lines of earlier imperial foundations 178 Marcus and Lucius proved popular with the people of Rome who strongly approved of their civiliter lacking pomp behaviour The emperors permitted free speech evidenced by the fact that the comedy writer Marullus was able to criticize them without suffering retribution As the biographer wrote No one missed the lenient ways of Pius 179 Marcus replaced a number of the empire s major officials The ab epistulis Sextus Caecilius Crescens Volusianus in charge of the imperial correspondence was replaced with Titus Varius Clemens Clemens was from the frontier province of Pannonia and had served in the war in Mauretania Recently he had served as procurator of five provinces He was a man suited for a time of military crisis 180 Lucius Volusius Maecianus Marcus s former tutor had been prefectural governor of Egypt at Marcus s accession Maecianus was recalled made senator and appointed prefect of the treasury aerarium Saturni He was made consul soon after 181 Fronto s son in law Gaius Aufidius Victorinus was appointed governor of Germania Superior 182 Fronto returned to his Roman townhouse at dawn on 28 March having left his home in Cirta as soon as news of his pupils accession reached him He sent a note to the imperial freedman Charilas asking if he could call on the emperors Fronto would later explain that he had not dared to write the emperors directly 183 The tutor was immensely proud of his students Reflecting on the speech he had written on taking his consulship in 143 when he had praised the young Marcus Fronto was ebullient There was then an outstanding natural ability in you there is now perfected excellence There was then a crop of growing corn there is now a ripe gathered harvest What I was hoping for then I have now The hope has become a reality 184 Fronto called on Marcus alone neither thought to invite Lucius 185 Lucius was less esteemed by Fronto than his brother as his interests were on a lower level Lucius asked Fronto to adjudicate in a dispute he and his friend Calpurnius were having on the relative merits of two actors 186 Marcus told Fronto of his reading Coelius and a little Cicero and his family His daughters were in Rome with their great great aunt Matidia Marcus thought the evening air of the country was too cold for them He asked Fronto for some particularly eloquent reading matter something of your own or Cato or Cicero or Sallust or Gracchus or some poet for I need distraction especially in this kind of way by reading something that will uplift and diffuse my pressing anxieties 187 Marcus s early reign proceeded smoothly he was able to give himself wholly to philosophy and the pursuit of popular affection 188 Soon however he would find he had many anxieties It would mean the end of the felicitas temporum happy times that the coinage of 161 had proclaimed 189 Tiber Island seen at a forty year high water mark of the Tiber December 2008 In either autumn 161 or spring 162 note 12 the Tiber overflowed its banks flooding much of Rome It drowned many animals leaving the city in famine Marcus and Lucius gave the crisis their personal attention 191 note 13 In other times of famine the emperors are said to have provided for the Italian communities out of the Roman granaries 193 Fronto s letters continued through Marcus s early reign Fronto felt that because of Marcus s prominence and public duties lessons were more important now than they had ever been before He believed Marcus was beginning to feel the wish to be eloquent once more in spite of having for a time lost interest in eloquence 194 Fronto would again remind his pupil of the tension between his role and his philosophic pretensions Suppose Caesar that you can attain to the wisdom of Cleanthes and Zeno yet against your will not the philosopher s woolen cape 195 The early days of Marcus s reign were the happiest of Fronto s life Marcus was beloved by the people of Rome an excellent emperor a fond pupil and perhaps most importantly as eloquent as could be wished 196 Marcus had displayed rhetorical skill in his speech to the senate after an earthquake at Cyzicus It had conveyed the drama of the disaster and the Senate had been awed Not more suddenly or violently was the city stirred by the earthquake than the minds of your hearers by your speech Fronto was hugely pleased 197 War with Parthia 161 166 Edit Main article Roman Parthian War of 161 166 See also Roman Persian Wars Coin of Vologases IV of Parthia Inscription above BASILEWS BASILEWN DOY right ARSAKOY BOLAGASOY left EPIFANOYS FILELLHNOS below DIOY Greek inscription for KING OF KINGS ARSAKIS VOLAGASES ILLUSTRIUS PHILELLENE Year DOY YOD 474 162 163 On his deathbed Antoninus spoke of nothing but the state and the foreign kings who had wronged him 198 One of those kings Vologases IV of Parthia made his move in late summer or early autumn 161 199 Vologases entered the Kingdom of Armenia then a Roman client state expelled its king and installed his own Pacorus an Arsacid like himself 200 The governor of Cappadocia the frontline in all Armenian conflicts was Marcus Sedatius Severianus a Gaul with much experience in military matters 201 Convinced by the prophet Alexander of Abonoteichus that he could defeat the Parthians easily and win glory for himself 202 Severianus led a legion perhaps the IX Hispana 203 into Armenia but was trapped by the great Parthian general Chosrhoes at Elegeia a town just beyond the Cappadocian frontiers high up past the headwaters of the Euphrates After Severianus made some unsuccessful efforts to engage Chosrhoes he committed suicide and his legion was massacred The campaign had lasted only three days 204 There was threat of war on other frontiers as well in Britain and in Raetia and Upper Germany where the Chatti of the Taunus mountains had recently crossed over the limes 205 Marcus was unprepared Antoninus seems to have given him no military experience the biographer writes that Marcus spent the whole of Antoninus s twenty three year reign at his emperor s side and not in the provinces where most previous emperors had spent their early careers 206 note 14 More bad news arrived the Syrian governor s army had been defeated by the Parthians and retreated in disarray 208 Reinforcements were dispatched for the Parthian frontier P Julius Geminius Marcianus an African senator commanding X Gemina at Vindobona Vienna left for Cappadocia with detachments from the Danubian legions 209 Three full legions were also sent east I Minervia from Bonn in Upper Germany 210 II Adiutrix from Aquincum 211 and V Macedonica from Troesmis 212 The northern frontiers were strategically weakened frontier governors were told to avoid conflict wherever possible 213 M Annius Libo Marcus s first cousin was sent to replace the Syrian governor His first consulship was in 161 so he was probably in his early thirties 214 and as a patrician he lacked military experience Marcus had chosen a reliable man rather than a talented one 215 Aureus of Marcus Aurelius AD 166 On the reverse Victoria is holding a shield inscribed VIC toria PAR thica referring to his victory against the Parthians Inscription M ANTONINVS AVG TR P XX IMP IIII CO N S III 216 Marcus took a four day public holiday at Alsium a resort town on the coast of Etruria He was too anxious to relax Writing to Fronto he declared that he would not speak about his holiday 217 Fronto replied What Do I not know that you went to Alsium with the intention of devoting yourself to games joking and complete leisure for four whole days 218 He encouraged Marcus to rest calling on the example of his predecessors Antoninus had enjoyed exercise in the palaestra fishing and comedy 219 going so far as to write up a fable about the gods division of the day between morning and evening Marcus had apparently been spending most of his evenings on judicial matters instead of at leisure 220 Marcus could not take Fronto s advice I have duties hanging over me that can hardly be begged off he wrote back 221 Marcus Aurelius put on Fronto s voice to chastise himself Much good has my advice done you you will say He had rested and would rest often but this devotion to duty Who knows better than you how demanding it is 222 The dissolute Syrian army spent more time in Antioch s open air taverns than with their units 223 engraving by William Miller after a drawing by H Warren from a sketch by Captain Byam Martin R N 1866 The Euphrates River near Raqqa Syria Fronto sent Marcus a selection of reading material 224 and to settle his unease over the course of the Parthian war a long and considered letter full of historical references In modern editions of Fronto s works it is labeled De bello Parthico On the Parthian War There had been reverses in Rome s past Fronto writes 225 but in the end Romans had always prevailed over their enemies Always and everywhere Mars has changed our troubles into successes and our terrors into triumphs 226 Over the winter of 161 162 news that a rebellion was brewing in Syria arrived and it was decided that Lucius should direct the Parthian war in person He was stronger and healthier than Marcus the argument went and thus more suited to military activity 227 Lucius s biographer suggests ulterior motives to restrain Lucius s debaucheries to make him thrifty to reform his morals by the terror of war and to realize that he was an emperor 228 note 15 Whatever the case the senate gave its assent and in the summer of 162 Lucius left Marcus would remain in Rome as the city demanded the presence of an emperor 230 Lucius spent most of the campaign in Antioch though he wintered at Laodicea and summered at Daphne a resort just outside Antioch 231 Critics declaimed Lucius s luxurious lifestyle 232 saying that he had taken to gambling would dice the whole night through 233 and enjoyed the company of actors 234 note 16 Libo died early in the war perhaps Lucius had murdered him 236 Marble statue of Lucilla AD 150 200 Bardo National Museum Tunisia In the middle of the war perhaps in autumn 163 or early 164 Lucius made a trip to Ephesus to be married to Marcus s daughter Lucilla 237 Marcus moved up the date perhaps he had already heard of Lucius s mistress Panthea 238 Lucilla s thirteenth birthday was in March 163 whatever the date of her marriage she was not yet fifteen 239 Lucilla was accompanied by her mother Faustina and Lucius s uncle his father s half brother M Vettulenus Civica Barbarus 240 who was made comes Augusti companion of the emperors Marcus may have wanted Civica to watch over Lucius the job Libo had failed at 241 Marcus may have planned to accompany them all the way to Smyrna the biographer says he told the senate he would but this did not happen 242 He only accompanied the group as far as Brundisium where they boarded a ship for the east 243 He returned to Rome immediately thereafter and sent out special instructions to his proconsuls not to give the group any official reception 244 The Armenian capital Artaxata was captured in 163 245 At the end of the year Lucius took the title Armeniacus despite having never seen combat Marcus declined to accept the title until the following year 246 When Lucius was hailed as imperator again however Marcus did not hesitate to take the Imperator II with him 247 Occupied Armenia was reconstructed on Roman terms In 164 a new capital Kaine Polis New City replaced Artaxata 248 A new king was installed a Roman senator of consular rank and Arsacid descent Gaius Julius Sohaemus He may not even have been crowned in Armenia the ceremony may have taken place in Antioch or even Ephesus 249 Sohaemus was hailed on the imperial coinage of 164 under the legend Rex armeniis Datus Lucius sat on a throne with his staff while Sohaemus stood before him saluting the emperor 250 In 163 the Parthians intervened in Osroene a Roman client in upper Mesopotamia centred on Edessa and installed their own king on its throne 251 In response Roman forces were moved downstream to cross the Euphrates at a more southerly point 252 Before the end of 163 however Roman forces had moved north to occupy Dausara and Nicephorium on the northern Parthian bank 253 Soon after the conquest of the north bank of the Euphrates other Roman forces moved on Osroene from Armenia taking Anthemusia a town southwest of Edessa 254 In 165 Roman forces moved on Mesopotamia Edessa was re occupied and Mannus the king deposed by the Parthians was re installed 255 The Parthians retreated to Nisibis but this too was besieged and captured The Parthian army dispersed in the Tigris 256 A second force under Avidius Cassius and the III Gallica moved down the Euphrates and fought a major battle at Dura 257 By the end of the year Cassius s army had reached the twin metropolises of Mesopotamia Seleucia on the right bank of the Tigris and Ctesiphon on the left Ctesiphon was taken and its royal palace set to flame The citizens of Seleucia still largely Greek the city had been commissioned and settled as a capital of the Seleucid Empire one of Alexander the Great s successor kingdoms opened its gates to the invaders The city was sacked nonetheless leaving a black mark on Lucius s reputation Excuses were sought or invented the official version had it that the Seleucids broke faith first 258 Cassius s army although suffering from a shortage of supplies and the effects of a plague contracted in Seleucia made it back to Roman territory safely 259 Lucius took the title Parthicus Maximus and he and Marcus were hailed as imperatores again earning the title imp III 260 Cassius s army returned to the field in 166 crossing over the Tigris into Media Lucius took the title Medicus 261 and the emperors were again hailed as imperatores becoming imp IV in imperial titulature Marcus took the Parthicus Maximus now after another tactful delay 262 On 12 October of that year Marcus proclaimed two of his sons Annius and Commodus as his heirs 263 War with Germanic tribes 166 180 Edit Main article Marcomannic Wars Scenes from the Marcomannic Wars AD 176 180 bas reliefs from the Arch of Marcus Aurelius now in the Capitoline Museums Marcus Aurelius receiving the submission of the vanquished with raised vexillum standards Marcus Aurelius celebrating his triumph over Rome s enemies in AD 176 riding in a quadriga chariot During the early 160s Fronto s son in law Victorinus was stationed as a legate in Germany He was there with his wife and children another child had stayed with Fronto and his wife in Rome 264 The condition on the northern frontier looked grave A frontier post had been destroyed and it looked like all the peoples of central and northern Europe were in turmoil There was corruption among the officers Victorinus had to ask for the resignation of a legionary legate who was taking bribes 265 Experienced governors had been replaced by friends and relatives of the imperial family Lucius Dasumius Tullius Tuscus a distant relative of Hadrian was in Upper Pannonia succeeding the experienced Marcus Nonius Macrinus Lower Pannonia was under the obscure Tiberius Haterius Saturnius Marcus Servilius Fabianus Maximus was shuffled from Lower Moesia to Upper Moesia when Marcus Iallius Bassus had joined Lucius in Antioch Lower Moesia was filled by Pontius Laelianus s son The Dacias were still divided in three governed by a praetorian senator and two procurators The peace could not hold long Lower Pannonia did not even have a legion 266 Starting in the 160s Germanic tribes and other nomadic people launched raids along the northern border particularly into Gaul and across the Danube This new impetus westwards was probably due to attacks from tribes further east A first invasion by the Chatti in the province of Germania Superior was repulsed in 162 267 Bronze medallion of Marcus Aurelius AD 168 The reverse depicts Jupiter flanked by Marcus and Lucius Verus Inscription M ANTONINVS AVG ARM PARTH MAX TR P XXII IMP IIII COS III 268 Aureus of Marcus Aurelius AD 176 177 The pile of trophies on the reverse celebrates the end of the Marcomannic Wars Inscription M ANTONINVS AVG GERM SARM TR P XXXI IMP VIII CO N S III P P 269 Far more dangerous was the invasion of 166 when the Marcomanni of Bohemia clients of the Roman Empire since AD 19 crossed the Danube together with the Lombards and other Germanic tribes 270 Soon thereafter the Iranian Sarmatian Iazyges attacked between the Danube and the Theiss rivers 271 The Costoboci coming from the Carpathian area invaded Moesia Macedonia and Greece After a long struggle Marcus managed to push back the invaders Numerous members of Germanic tribes settled in frontier regions like Dacia Pannonia Germany and Italy itself This was not a new thing but this time the numbers of settlers required the creation of two new frontier provinces on the left shore of the Danube Sarmatia and Marcomannia including today s Czech Republic Slovakia and Hungary Some Germanic tribes who settled in Ravenna revolted and managed to seize possession of the city For this reason Marcus decided not only against bringing more barbarians into Italy but even banished those who had previously been brought there 272 Legal and administrative work Edit Like many emperors Marcus spent most of his time addressing matters of law such as petitions and hearing disputes 273 but unlike many of his predecessors he was already proficient in imperial administration when he assumed power 274 He took great care in the theory and practice of legislation Professional jurists called him an emperor most skilled in the law 275 and a most prudent and conscientiously just emperor 276 He showed marked interest in three areas of the law the manumission of slaves the guardianship of orphans and minors and the choice of city councillors decuriones 277 Marcus showed a great deal of respect to the Roman Senate and routinely asked them for permission to spend money even though he did not need to do so as the absolute ruler of the Empire 278 In one speech Marcus himself reminded the Senate that the imperial palace where he lived was not truly his possession but theirs 279 In 168 he revalued the denarius increasing the silver purity from 79 to 82 the actual silver weight increasing from 2 57 2 67 g 0 091 0 094 oz However two years later he reverted to the previous values because of the military crises facing the empire 167 Trade with Han China and outbreak of plague Edit Main articles Sino Roman relations and Antonine Plague A possible contact with Han China occurred in 166 when a Roman traveller visited the Han court claiming to be an ambassador representing a certain Andun Chinese 安 敦 ruler of Daqin who can be identified either with Marcus or his predecessor Antoninus 280 281 282 In addition to Republican era Roman glasswares found at Guangzhou along the South China Sea 283 Roman golden medallions made during the reign of Antoninus and perhaps even Marcus have been found at oc Eo Vietnam then part of the Kingdom of Funan near the Chinese province of Jiaozhi in northern Vietnam This may have been the port city of Kattigara described by Ptolemy c 150 as being visited by a Greek sailor named Alexander and lying beyond the Golden Chersonese i e Malay Peninsula 284 note 17 Roman coins from the reigns of Tiberius to Aurelian have been found in Xi an China site of the Han capital Chang an although the far greater amount of Roman coins in India suggests the Roman maritime trade for purchasing Chinese silk was centred there not in China or even the overland Silk Road running through Persia 285 The Antonine Plague started in Mesopotamia in 165 or 166 at the end of Lucius s campaign against the Parthians It may have continued into the reign of Commodus Galen who was in Rome when the plague spread to the city in 166 286 mentioned that fever diarrhoea and inflammation of the pharynx along with dry or pustular eruptions of the skin after nine days were among the symptoms 287 It is believed that the plague was smallpox 286 In the view of historian Rafe de Crespigny the plagues afflicting the Eastern Han empire of China during the reigns of Emperor Huan of Han r 146 168 and Emperor Ling of Han r 168 189 which struck in 151 161 171 173 179 182 and 185 were perhaps connected to the plague in Rome 288 Raoul McLaughlin writes that the travel of Roman subjects to the Han Chinese court in 166 may have started a new era of Roman Far East trade However it was also a harbinger of something much more ominous According to McLaughlin the disease caused irreparable damage to the Roman maritime trade in the Indian Ocean as proven by the archaeological record spanning from Egypt to India as well as significantly decreased Roman commercial activity in Southeast Asia 289 Death and succession 180 Edit Last Words of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius 1844 by Eugene Delacroix Marcus Aurelius died at the age of 58 on 17 March 180 290 of unknown causes in his military quarters either in the city of Vindobona province of Pannonia Superior today Vienna or near of Sirmium province of Pannonia Inferior modern Sremska Mitrovica note 18 He was immediately deified and his ashes were returned to Rome where they rested in Hadrian s mausoleum modern Castel Sant Angelo until the Visigoth sack of the city in 410 His campaigns against Germans and Sarmatians were also commemorated by a column and a temple built in Rome 291 Some scholars consider his death to be the end of the Pax Romana 292 The Roman Empire at the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180 represented in purple His annexation of lands of the Marcomanni and the Jazyges perhaps to be provincially called Marcomannia and Sarmatia 293 was cut short in 175 by the revolt of Avidius Cassius and by his death 294 The light pink territory represents Roman dependencies Armenia Colchis Iberia and Albania Marcus was succeeded by his son Commodus whom he had named Caesar in 166 and with whom he had jointly ruled since 177 295 Biological sons of the emperor if there were any were considered heirs 296 however it was only the second time that a non adoptive son had succeeded his father the only other having been a century earlier when Vespasian was succeeded by his son Titus Historians have criticized the succession to Commodus citing Commodus s erratic behaviour and lack of political and military acumen 295 At the end of his history of Marcus s reign Cassius Dio wrote an encomium to the emperor and described the transition to Commodus in his own lifetime with sorrow 297 Marcus did not meet with the good fortune that he deserved for he was not strong in body and was involved in a multitude of troubles throughout practically his entire reign But for my part I admire him all the more for this very reason that amid unusual and extraordinary difficulties he both survived himself and preserved the empire Just one thing prevented him from being completely happy namely that after rearing and educating his son in the best possible way he was vastly disappointed in him This matter must be our next topic for our history now descends from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust as affairs did for the Romans of that day Dio lxxi 36 3 4 297 Dio adds that from Marcus s first days as counsellor to Antoninus to his final days as emperor of Rome he remained the same person and did not change in the least 298 Michael Grant in The Climax of Rome writes of Commodus 299 The youth turned out to be very erratic or at least so anti traditional that disaster was inevitable But whether or not Marcus ought to have known this to be so the rejections of his son s claims in favour of someone else would almost certainly have involved one of the civil wars which were to proliferate so disastrously around future successions 299 Attitude towards Christians EditIn the first two centuries of the Christian era it was local Roman officials who were largely responsible for the persecution of Christians In the second century the emperors treated Christianity as a local problem to be dealt with by their subordinates 300 The number and severity of persecutions of Christians in various locations of the empire seemingly increased during the reign of Marcus Aurelius The extent to which the emperor himself directed encouraged or was aware of these persecutions is unclear and much debated by historians 301 The early Christian apologist Justin Martyr includes within his First Apology written between AD 140 and 150 a letter from Marcus Aurelius to the Roman Senate prior to his reign describing a battlefield incident in which Marcus believed Christian prayer had saved his army from thirst when water poured from heaven after which immediately we recognized the presence of God Marcus goes on to request the Senate desist from earlier courses of Christian persecution by Rome 302 However this letter was one of three from Roman emperors included by Martyr two of which including the Aurelius letter are regarded as spurious 303 Marriage and children Edit Coin of Commodus and Annius 161 165 Inscription NEW KOROI CEBACTOY i e the city of Tarsus in Cilicia had a temple of Augustus Bust of Vibia Aurelia Sabina Prado Museum Marcus and his cousin wife Faustina had at least 14 children 304 during their 30 year marriage 128 305 including two sets of twins 128 306 One son and four daughters outlived their father 307 Their children included Domitia Faustina 147 151 128 140 308 Titus Aelius Antoninus 149 131 306 309 Titus Aelius Aurelius 149 131 306 309 Annia Aurelia Galeria Lucilla 150 134 308 182 310 married her father s co ruler Lucius Verus 140 then Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus had issue from both marriages Annia Galeria Aurelia Faustina born 151 136 married Gnaeus Claudius Severus had a son Tiberius Aelius Antoninus born 152 died before 156 136 Unknown child died before 158 138 Annia Aurelia Fadilla born 159 308 138 140 married Marcus Peducaeus Plautius Quintillus had issue Annia Cornificia Faustina Minor born 160 308 138 140 married Marcus Petronius Sura Mamertinus had a son Titus Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus 161 165 elder twin brother of Commodus 309 Lucius Aurelius Commodus Antoninus Commodus 161 192 311 twin brother of Titus Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus later emperor 309 312 married Bruttia Crispina no issue Marcus Annius Verus Caesar 162 263 169 305 313 140 Hadrianus 140 Vibia Aurelia Sabina 170 309 died before 217 314 140 married Lucius Antistius Burrus no issueNerva Antonine family tree EditvteNerva Antonine family treeQ Marcius Barea SoranusQ Marcius Barea SuraAntonia FurnillaM Cocceius NervaSergia PlautillaP Aelius HadrianusTitus r 79 81 Marcia FurnillaMarciaTrajanus PaterNerva r 96 98 Ulpia i Aelius Hadrianus MarullinusFlavia ii Marciana iii C Salonius Matidius iv Trajan r 98 117 PlotinaP Acilius AttianusP Aelius Afer v Paulina Major vi Lucius Mindius 2 Libo Rupilius Frugi 3 Salonia Matidia vii L Vibius Sabinus 1 viii Paulina Minor vi L Julius Ursus Servianus ix Matidia Minor vii Suetonius x Sabina iii Hadrian v xi vi r 117 138 Antinous xii Julia Balbilla xiii C Fuscus Salinator IJulia Serviana PaulinaM Annius Verus xiv Rupilia Faustina xv xvi Boionia ProcillaCn Arrius AntoninusL Ceionius CommodusAppia SeveraC Fuscus Salinator IIL Caesennius PaetusArria AntoninaArria Fadilla xvii T Aurelius FulvusL Caesennius AntoninusL CommodusPlautiaunknown xviii C Avidius NigrinusM Annius Verus xv Calvisia Domitia Lucilla xix Fundania xx M Annius Libo xv Faustina xvii Antoninus Pius r 138 161 xvii L Aelius Caesar xviii Avidia xviii Cornificia xv Marcus Aurelius r 161 180 xxi Faustina Minor xxi C Avidius Cassius xxii Aurelia Fadilla xvii Lucius Verus r 161 169 xviii 1 Ceionia Fabia xviii Plautius Quintillus xxiii Q Servilius PudensCeionia Plautia xviii Cornificia Minor xxiv M Petronius SuraCommodus r 177 192 xxi Fadilla xxiv M Annius Verus Caesar xxi Ti Claudius Pompeianus 2 Lucilla xxi M Plautius Quintillus xviii Junius Licinius BalbusServilia CeioniaPetronius AntoninusL Aurelius Agaclytus 2 Aurelia Sabina xxiv L Antistius Burrus 1 Plautius QuintillusPlautia ServillaC Furius Sabinus TimesitheusAntonia GordianaJunius Licinius Balbus Furia Sabina TranquillinaGordian III r 238 244 1 1st spouse 2 2nd spouse 3 3rd spouse Reddish purple indicates emperor of the Nerva Antonine dynasty lighter purple indicates designated imperial heir of said dynasty who never reigned grey indicates unsuccessful imperial aspirants bluish purple indicates emperors of other dynasties dashed lines indicate adoption dotted lines indicate love affairs unmarried relationships Small Caps posthumously deified Augusti Augustae or other Notes Except where otherwise noted the notes below indicate that an individual s parentage is as shown in the above family tree Sister of Trajan s father Giacosa 1977 p 7 Giacosa 1977 p 8 a b Levick 2014 p 161 Husband of Ulpia Marciana Levick 2014 p 161 a b Giacosa 1977 p 7 a b c DIR contributor Herbert W Benario 2000 Hadrian a b Giacosa 1977 p 9 Husband of Salonia Matidia Levick 2014 p 161 Smith 1870 Julius Servianus Suetonius a possible lover of Sabina One interpretation of HA Hadrianus 11 3 Smith 1870 Hadrian pp 319 322 Lover of Hadrian Lambert 1984 p 99 and passim deification Lamber 1984 pp 2 5 etc Julia Balbilla a possible lover of Sabina A R Birley 1997 Hadrian the Restless Emperor p 251 cited in Levick 2014 p 30 who is sceptical of this suggestion Husband of Rupilia Faustina Levick 2014 p 163 a b c d Levick 2014 p 163 It is uncertain whether Rupilia Faustina was Frugi s daughter by Salonia Matidia or another woman a b c d Levick 2014 p 162 a b c d e f g Levick 2014 p 164 Wife of M Annius Verus Giacosa 1977 p 10 Wife of M Annius Libo Levick 2014 p 163 a b c d e Giacosa 1977 p 10 The epitomator of Cassius Dio 72 22 gives the story that Faustina the Elder promised to marry Avidius Cassius This is also echoed in HA Marcus Aurelius 24 Husband of Ceionia Fabia Levick 2014 p 164 a b c Levick 2014 p 117 References DIR contributors 2000 De Imperatoribus Romanis An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and Their Families Retrieved 14 April 2015 Giacosa Giorgio 1977 Women of the Caesars Their Lives and Portraits on Coins Translated by R Ross Holloway Milan Edizioni Arte e Moneta ISBN 0 8390 0193 2 Lambert Royston 1984 Beloved and God The Story of Hadrian and Antinous New York Viking ISBN 0 670 15708 2 Levick Barbara 2014 Faustina I and II Imperial Women of the Golden Age Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 537941 9 Smith William ed 1870 Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology Writings EditMain article Meditations First page of the 1811 English translation by Richard Graves While on campaign between 170 and 180 Marcus wrote his Meditations in Greek as a source for his own guidance and self improvement The original title of this work if it had one is unknown Meditations as well as other titles including To Himself were adopted later He had a logical mind and his notes were representative of Stoic philosophy and spirituality Meditations is still revered as a literary monument to a government of service and duty George Long s English translation of Meditations was included in Volume 2 of the Harvard Classics According to Hays the book was a favourite of Christina of Sweden Frederick the Great John Stuart Mill Matthew Arnold and Goethe and is admired by modern figures such as Wen Jiabao and Bill Clinton 315 It has been considered by many commentators to be one of the greatest works of philosophy 316 It is not known how widely Marcus s writings were circulated after his death There are stray references in the ancient literature to the popularity of his precepts and Julian the Apostate was well aware of his reputation as a philosopher though he does not specifically mention Meditations 317 It survived in the scholarly traditions of the Eastern Church and the first surviving quotes of the book as well as the first known reference of it by name Marcus s writings to himself are from Arethas of Caesarea in the 10th century and in the Byzantine Suda perhaps inserted by Arethas himself It was first published in 1558 in Zurich by Wilhelm Xylander ne Holzmann from a manuscript reportedly lost shortly afterwards 318 The oldest surviving complete manuscript copy is in the Vatican library and dates to the 14th century 319 Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius EditMain article Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius Aureus of Marcus Aurelius AD December 173 June 174 with his equestrian statue on the reverse inscription M ANTONINVS AVG TR P XXVIII IMP VI CO N S III 320 The Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome is the only Roman equestrian statue which has survived into the modern period 321 This may be due to it being wrongly identified during the Middle Ages as a depiction of the Christian emperor Constantine the Great and spared the destruction which statues of pagan figures suffered The original Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius 2nd century AD now located in the Palazzo dei Conservatori Crafted of bronze in c 175 it stands 11 6 ft 3 5 m and is now located in the Capitoline Museums of Rome The emperor s hand is outstretched in an act of clemency offered to a bested enemy while his weary facial expression due to the stress of leading Rome into nearly constant battles perhaps represents a break with the classical tradition of sculpture 322 Column of Marcus Aurelius EditMain article Column of Marcus Aurelius Marcus s victory column established in Rome either in his last few years of life or after his reign and completed in 193 was built to commemorate his victory over the Sarmatians and Germanic tribes in 176 A spiral of carved reliefs wraps around the column showing scenes from his military campaigns A statue of Marcus had stood atop the column but disappeared during the Middle Ages It was replaced with a statue of Saint Paul in 1589 by Pope Sixtus V 323 The column of Marcus and the column of Trajan are often compared by scholars given how they are both Doric in style had a pedestal at the base had sculpted friezes depicting their respective military victories and a statue on top 324 Legacy and reputation Edit A portrait of Marcus Aurelius which captures the pensive temperament of the philosopher emperor Marcus acquired the reputation of a philosopher king within his lifetime and the title would remain after his death both Dio and the biographer call him the philosopher 325 326 Christians such as Justin Martyr Athenagoras and Eusebius also gave him the title 327 The latter went so far as to call him more philanthropic and philosophic than Antoninus and Hadrian and set him against the persecuting emperors Domitian and Nero to make the contrast bolder 328 The historian Herodian wrote Alone of the emperors he gave proof of his learning not by mere words or knowledge of philosophical doctrines but by his blameless character and temperate way of life 329 Iain King explains that Marcus s legacy was tragic The emperor s Stoic philosophy which is about self restraint duty and respect for others was so abjectly abandoned by the imperial line he anointed on his death 330 In popular culture EditThis article includes a list of references related reading or external links but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations October 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message Dilip Kumar played a fictionalized version of Marcus Aurelius in the 1958 Hindi movie Yahudi In the 1964 epic drama The Fall of The Roman Empire Alec Guinness portrays Marcus Aurelius The film is noteworthy for using quotes from Meditations In Twin Peaks the final episode of season 2 1991 Beyond Life and Death in the bank vault Marcus Aurelius is quoted praising Audrey s civil disobedience Waste no time arguing what a good man should be Be one In the 2000 film Gladiator Richard Harris portrays Marcus Aurelius as a mentor to the main character In the 2017 docu drama miniseries Roman Empire John Bach portrays Marcus AureliusSee also EditList of Roman emperorsNotes Edit Dio asserts that the Annii were near kin of Hadrian and that it was to these familial ties that they owed their rise to power 27 The precise nature of these kinship ties is nowhere stated but is believed that Rupilia Faustina was the daughter of the consular senator Libo Rupilius Frugi and Vitellia daughter of emperor Vitellius 28 29 30 Farquharson dates his death to 130 when Marcus was nine 38 Birley amends the text of the HA Marcus from Eutychius to Tuticius 51 Commodus was a known consumptive at the time of his adoption so Hadrian may have intended Marcus s eventual succession anyway 60 The manuscript is corrupt here 83 Modern scholars have not offered as positive an assessment His second modern editor Niebhur thought him stupid and frivolous his third editor Naber found him contemptible 100 Historians have seen him as a pedant and a bore his letters offering neither the running political analysis of a Cicero or the conscientious reportage of a Pliny 101 Recent prosopographic research has rehabilitated his reputation though not by much 102 Champlin notes that Marcus s praise of Rusticus in the Meditations is out of order he is praised immediately after Diognetus who had introduced Marcus to philosophy giving him special emphasis 122 Although part of the biographer s account of Lucius is fictionalized probably to mimic Nero whose birthday Lucius shared 142 and another part poorly compiled from a better biographical source 143 scholars have accepted these biographical details as accurate 144 These name swaps have proven so confusing that even the Historia Augusta our main source for the period cannot keep them straight 159 The 4th century ecclesiastical historian Eusebius of Caesarea shows even more confusion 160 The mistaken belief that Lucius had the name Verus before becoming emperor has proven especially popular 161 There was however much precedent The consulate was a twin magistracy and earlier emperors had often had a subordinate lieutenant with many imperial offices under Antoninus the lieutenant had been Marcus Many emperors had planned a joint succession in the past Augustus planned to leave Gaius and Lucius Caesar as joint emperors on his death Tiberius wished to have Gaius Caligula and Tiberius Gemellus do so as well Claudius left the empire to Nero and Britannicus imagining that they would accept equal rank All of these arrangements had ended in failure either through premature death Gaius and Lucius Caesar or judicial murder Gemellus by Caligula and Britannicus by Nero 161 The biographer relates the scurrilous and in the judgment of Anthony Birley untrue rumor that Commodus was an illegitimate child born of a union between Faustina and a gladiator 174 Because both Lucius and Marcus are said to have taken active part in the recovery HA Marcus viii 4 5 the flood must have happened before Lucius s departure for the east in 162 because it appears in the biographer s narrative after Antoninus s funeral has finished and the emperors have settled into their offices it must not have occurred in the spring of 161 A date in autumn 161 or spring 162 is probable and given the normal seasonal distribution of Tiber flooding the most probable date is in spring 162 190 Birley dates the flood to autumn 161 185 Since AD 15 the river had been administered by a Tiber Conservancy Board with a consular senator at its head and a permanent staff In 161 the curator alevi Tiberis et riparum et cloacarum urbis Curator of the Tiber Bed and Banks and the City Sewers was A Platorius Nepos son or grandson of the builder of Hadrian s Wall whose name he shares He probably had not been particularly incompetent A more likely candidate for that incompetence is Nepos s likely predecessor M Statius Priscus A military man and consul for 159 Priscus probably looked on the office as little more than paid leave 192 Alan Cameron adduces the 5th century writer Sidonius Apollinaris s comment that Marcus commanded countless legions vivente Pio while Antoninus was alive while contesting Birley s contention that Marcus had no military experience Neither Apollinaris nor the Historia Augusta Birley s source are particularly reliable on 2nd century history 207 Birley believes there is some truth in these considerations 229 The whole section of the vita dealing with Lucius s debaucheries HA Verus iv 4 6 6 however is an insertion into a narrative otherwise entirely cribbed from an earlier source Most of the details are fabricated by the biographer himself relying on nothing better than his own imagination 235 For further information on oc Eo see Osborne Milton The Mekong Turbulent Past Uncertain Future Crows Nest Allen amp Unwin 2006 revised edition first published in 2000 pp 24 25 ISBN 978 1741148930 Vindobona as Marc Aurel s death place is mentioned by Aurelius Victor in his De Caesaribus 16 14 Sirmium on the other hand in Tertullian s Apologeticum 25 Citations EditAll citations to the Historia Augusta are to individual biographies and are marked with a HA Citations to the works of Fronto are cross referenced to C R Haines s Loeb edition Henry Albert Fischel Rabbinic Literature and Greco Roman Philosophy A Study of Epicurea and Rhetorica in Early Midrashic Writings E J Brill 1973 p 95 Marcus Aurelius Archived 28 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine Dictionary com Keresztes Paul July 1968 Marcus Aurelius a Persecutor Harvard Theological Review 61 3 321 341 doi 10 1017 S0017816000029230 ISSN 1475 4517 S2CID 159950967 Rohrbacher p 5 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 229 230 The thesis of single authorship was first proposed in H Dessau s Uber Zeit und Personlichkeit der Scriptores Historiae Augustae in German Hermes 24 1889 pp 337ff Birley Marcus Aurelius p 230 On the HA Verus see Barnes Hadrian and Lucius Verus pp 65 74 Fleury P 2012 Marcus Aurelius Letters In A Companion to Marcus Aurelius Edited by M van Ackeren 62 76 Oxford and Malden MA Blackwell Freisenbruch A 2007 Back to Fronto Doctor and Patient in His Correspondence with an Emperor In Ancient Letters Classical and Late Antique Epistolography Edited by R Morello and A D Morrison 235 256 Oxford Oxford Univ Press Birley Marcus Aurelius p 227 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 228 229 253 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 227 228 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 228 Magill p 693 a b Historia MA I 9 10 Marcus Antoninus was named Catilius Severus after his mother s grand father After the death of his real father he assumed the toga virilis Annius Verus Dio 69 21 1 Marcus Annius earlier named Catilius Van Ackeren p 139 a b c Birley Marcus Aurelius p 33 Dio lxix 21 1 HA Marcus i 9 McLynn Marcus Aurelius Warrior Philosopher Emperor p 24 Van Ackeren p 78 Dean p 32 Knight Charles 1856 The English Cyclopaedia A New Dictionary of Universal Knowledge Biography Bradbury amp Evans p 439 Marcus Aurelius Malennius and Numa Sanchez p 165 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 29 McLynn Marcus Aurelius Warrior Philosopher Emperor p 14 HA Marcus i 2 4 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 28 McLynn Marcus Aurelius A Life p 14 Giacosa p 8 Levick pp 161 163 Dio 69 21 2 71 35 2 3 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 31 Rupilius Strachan stemma Settipani Christian 2000 Continuite gentilice et continuite familiale dans les familles senatoriales romaines a l epoque imperiale mythe et realite Prosopographica et genealogica in Italian Vol 2 illustrated ed Unit for Prosopographical Research Linacre College University of Oxford p 278 ISBN 978 1900934022 Codex Inscriptionum Latinarum 14 3579 Epigraphik Datenbank Clauss Slaby Archived from the original on 29 April 2012 Retrieved 15 November 2011 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 29 McLynn Marcus Aurelius Warrior Philosopher Emperor pp 14 575 n 53 citing Ronald Syme Roman Papers 1 244 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 29 citing Pliny Epistulae 8 18 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 30 M Cornelius Fronto Epistulae l Richardson jr Richardson Professor of Latin Emeritus L October 1992 A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome JHU Press p 198 ISBN 978 0801843006 horti domizia lucilla Ad Marcum Caesarem ii 8 2 Haines 1 142 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 31 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 31 44 a b Birley Marcus Aurelius p 31 Farquharson 1 95 96 Meditations 1 1 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 31 HA Marcus ii 1 and Meditations v 4 qtd in Birley Marcus Aurelius p 32 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 31 32 Meditations i 1 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 35 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 35 Meditations i 17 2 Farquharson 1 102 McLynn Marcus Aurelius Warrior Philosopher Emperor p 23 cf Meditations i 17 11 Farquharson 1 103 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 49 McLynn Marcus Aurelius Warrior Philosopher Emperor 20 21 Meditations 1 4 McLynn Marcus Aurelius Warrior Philosopher Emperor p 20 HA Marcus ii 2 iv 9 Meditations i 3 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 37 McLynn Marcus Aurelius Warrior Philosopher Emperor pp 21 22 HA Marcus ii 6 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 38 McLynn Marcus Aurelius Warrior Philosopher Emperor p 21 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 40 citing Aristides Oratio 32 K McLynn Marcus Aurelius Warrior Philosopher Emperor p 21 Magie amp Birley Lives of the later Caesars pp 109 109 n 8 Marcus Aurelius pp 40 270 n 27 citing Bonner Historia Augusta Colloquia 1966 7 pp 39ff HA Marcus ii 3 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 40 270 n 27 Meditations i 10 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 40 McLynn Marcus Aurelius Warrior Philosopher Emperor p 22 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 40 270 n 28 citing A S L Farquharson The Meditations of Marcus Antoninus Oxford 1944 ii 453 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 41 42 HA Hadrian xiii 10 qtd in Birley Marcus Aurelius p 42 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 42 Van Ackeren 142 On the succession to Hadrian see also T D Barnes Hadrian and Lucius Verus Journal of Roman Studies 57 1 2 1967 65 79 J VanderLeest Hadrian Lucius Verus and the Arco di Portogallo Phoenix 49 4 1995 pp 319 330 HA Aelius vi 2 3 HA Hadrian xxiii 15 16 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 45 Hadrian to the Antonines 148 Dio lxix 17 1 HA Aelius iii 7 iv 6 vi 1 7 Birley Hadrian to the Antonines p 147 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 46 Date Birley Hadrian to the Antonines p 148 Weigel Richard D Antoninus Pius A D 138 161 Roman Emperors Dio 69 21 1 HA Hadrian xxiv 1 HA Aelius vi 9 HA Antoninus Pius iv 6 7 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 48 49 HA Marcus v 3 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 49 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 49 50 HA Marcus v 6 8 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 50 Dio 69 22 4 HA Hadrian xxv 5 6 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 50 51 Hadrian s suicide attempts Dio lxix 22 1 4 HA Hadrian xxiv 8 13 HA Hadrian xxv 7 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 53 HA Antoninus Pius v 3 vi 3 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 55 56 Hadrian to the Antonines p 151 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 55 Hadrian to the Antonines p 151 Mattingly amp Sydenham Roman imperial coinage vol III p 108 Mattingly amp Sydenham Roman imperial coinage vol III p 77 HA Marcus vi 2 Verus ii 3 4 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 53 54 Dio 71 35 5 HA Marcus vi 3 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 56 Meditations vi 30 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 57 cf Marcus Aurelius p 270 n 9 with notes on the translation a b HA Marcus vi 3 Birley Marcus Aurelius 57 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 57 272 n 10 citing Codex Inscriptionum Latinarum 6 32 6 379 cf Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae 360 Meditations 5 16 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 57 Meditations 8 9 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 57 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 57 58 Ad Marcum Caesarem iv 7 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 90 HA Marcus vi 5 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 58 a b Birley Marcus Aurelius p 89 Ad Marcum Caesarem v 1 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 89 Ad Marcum Caesarem 4 8 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 89 Dio 71 36 3 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 89 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 90 91 HA Antoninus Pius x 2 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 91 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 91 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 61 HA Marcus iii 6 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 62 HA Marcus ii 4 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 62 Alan Cameron review of Anthony Birley s Marcus Aurelius Classical Review 17 3 1967 p 347 Vita Sophistae 2 1 14 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 63 64 Aulus Gellius Noctes Atticae 9 2 1 7 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 64 65 Aulus Gellius Noctes Atticae 19 12 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 65 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 65 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 67 68 citing Champlin Fronto and Antonine Rome esp chs 3 and 4 a b Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 65 67 Champlin Fronto pp 1 2 Mellor p 460 Cf e g Mellor p 461 and passim a b Birley Marcus Aurelius p 69 Ad Marcum Caesarem iv 6 Haines 1 80ff qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 76 Ad Marcum Caesarem iv 6 Haines 1 80ff Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 76 77 Ad Marcum Caesarem iii 10 11 Haines 1 50ff qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 73 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 73 Champlin Chronology of Fronto p 138 Ad Marcum Caesarem v 74 Haines 2 52ff qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 73 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 77 On the date see Champlin Chronology of Fronto p 142 who with Bowersock Greek Sophists in the Roman Empire 1964 93ff argues for a date in the 150s Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 78 79 273 n 17 with Ameling Herodes Atticus 1983 1 61ff 2 30ff argues for 140 Ad Marcum Caesarem iii 2 Haines 1 58ff qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 77 78 Ad Marcum Caesarem iii 3 Haines 1 62ff Birley Marcus Aurelius p 78 Ad Marcum Caesarem iii 3 Haines 1 62ff qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 79 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 80 Ad Marcum Caesarem iv 13 Haines 1 214ff qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 93 Ad Marcum Caesarem iv 3 1 Haines 1 2ff Birley Marcus Aurelius p 94 HA Marcus iii 5 8 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 94 Ad Marcum Caesarem iv 3 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 69 De Eloquentia iv 5 Haines 2 74 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 95 Alan Cameron in his review of Birley s biography The Classical Review 17 3 1967 p 347 suggests a reference to chapter 11 of Arthur Darby Nock s Conversion Oxford Oxford University Press 1933 rept 1961 Conversion to Philosophy Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 94 105 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 95 Champlin Fronto p 120 Champlin Fronto p 174 n 12 Ad Antoninum Imperatorem i 2 2 Haines 2 36 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 95 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 94 95 101 Champlin Fronto p 120 Meditations i 7 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 94 95 Philostratus Vitae sophistorum ii 9 557 cf Suda Markos a b c d Birley Marcus Aurelius p 103 Ad Marcum Caesarem 4 11 Haines 1 202ff qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 105 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 247 F 1 a b c Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 206 207 Meditations ix 40 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 207 a b Meditations x 34 tr Farquharson pp 78 224 a b Birley Marcus Aurelius p 107 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 107 108 a b c Birley Marcus Aurelius p 108 Inscriptiones Graecae ad Res Romanas pertinentes 4 1399 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 114 a b c d e Birley Marcus Aurelius p 114 Reed p 194 a b c d e f g h Lendering Jona Marcus Aurelius Archived 25 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine Livius org HA Verus 2 9 11 3 4 7 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 108 Suetonius Nero 6 1 HA Verus 1 8 Barnes Hadrian and Lucius Verus 67 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 158 See also Barnes Hadrian and Lucius Verus pp 69 70 Pierre Lambrechts L empereur Lucius Verus Essai de rehabilitation in French Antiquite Classique 3 1934 pp 173ff Barnes Hadrian and Lucius Verus p 66 Poorly compiled e g Barnes Hadrian and Lucius Verus p 68 Barnes Hadrian and Lucius Verus pp 68 69 HA Verus 2 9 11 3 4 7 Barnes Hadrian and Lucius Verus 68 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 108 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 112 Bowman 156 Victor 15 7 Victor 15 7 Dio 71 33 4 5 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 114 Bury p 532 HA Antoninus Pius 12 4 8 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 114 Bowman p 156 HA Marcus vii 5 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 116 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 116 Birley takes the phrase horror imperii from HA Pert xiii 1 and xv 8 Birley Hadrian to the Antonines p 156 HA Verus iii 8 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 116 Hadrian to the Antonines p 156 HA Verus iv 1 Marcus vii 5 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 116 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 116 117 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 117 Hadrian to the Antonines p 157 n 53 Birley Hadrian to the Antonines p 157 n 53 a b c d Birley Marcus Aurelius p 117 Christer Bruun J C Edmondson 2015 The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy Oxford University Press p 191 ISBN 978 0 19 533646 7 HA Verus iv 2 tr Magie cited in Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 117 278 n 4 HA Marcus vii 9 Verus iv 3 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 117 118 HA Marcus vii 9 Verus iv 3 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 117 118 twice the size Duncan Jones p 109 a b Birley Marcus Aurelius p 118 a b Roman Currency of the Principate Tulane edu Archived 10 February 2001 HA Marcus vii 10 tr Magie cited in Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 118 278 n 6 HA Marcus vii 10 11 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 118 HA Antoninus Pius xii 8 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 118 119 HA Marcus vii 4 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 119 HA Comm i 3 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 119 HA Comm i 2 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 119 HA Marcus xix 1 2 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 278 n 9 HA Commodus i 4 x 2 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 119 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 119 citing H Mattingly Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum IV Antoninus Pius to Commodus London 1940 Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus nos 155ff 949ff HA Marcus vii 7 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 118 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 118 citing Werner Eck Die Organization Italiens 1979 pp 146ff HA Marcus viii 1 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 119 Hadrian to the Antonines p 157 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 122 123 citing H G Pfalum Les carrieres procuratoriennes equestres sous le Haut Empire romain I III Paris 1960 61 Supplement Paris 1982 nos 142 156 Eric Birley Roman Britain and the Roman Army 1953 pp 142ff 151ff Birley Marcus Aurelius p 123 citing H G Pfalum Les carrieres procuratoriennes equestres sous le Haut Empire romain I III Paris 1960 61 Supplement Paris 1982 no 141 HA Marcus viii 8 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 123 citing W Eck Die Satthalter der germ Provinzen 1985 pp 65ff Birley Marcus Aurelius p 120 citing Ad Verum Imperatorem i 3 2 Haines 1 298ff Ad Antoninum Imperatorem iv 2 3 Haines 1 302ff qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 119 a b Birley Marcus Aurelius p 120 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 120 citing Ad Verum Imperatorem i 1 Haines 1 305 Ad Antoninum Imperatorem iv 1 Haines 1 300ff qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 120 HA Marcus viii 3 4 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 120 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 120 citing H Mattingly Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum IV Antoninus Pius to Commodus London 1940 Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus nos 841 845 Gregory S Aldrete Floods of the Tiber in ancient Rome Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press 2007 pp 30 31 HA Marcus viii 4 5 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 120 Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae 5932 Nepos 1092 Priscus Birley Marcus Aurelius p 121 HA Marcus xi 3 cited in Birley Marcus Aurelius p 278 n 16 Ad Antoninum Imperatorem 1 2 2 Haines 2 35 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 128 De eloquentia 1 12 Haines 2 63 65 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 128 Ad Antoninum Imperatorem 1 2 2 Haines 2 35 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 127 128 Ad Antoninum Imperatorem 1 2 4 Haines 2 41 43 tr Haines Birley Marcus Aurelius p 128 HA Antoninus Pius xii 7 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 114 121 Event HA Marcus viii 6 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 121 Date Jaap Jan Flinterman The Date of Lucian s Visit to Abonuteichos Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik 119 1997 p 281 HA Marcus viii 6 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 121 Lucian Alexander 27 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 121 Lucian Alexander 27 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 121 122 On Alexander see Robin Lane Fox Pagans and Christians Harmondsworth Penguin 1986 pp 241 250 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 278 n 19 Dio 71 2 1 Lucian Historia Quomodo Conscribenda 21 24 25 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 121 122 HA Marcus viii 7 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 122 HA Antoninus Pius vii 11 Marcus vii 2 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 103 104 122 Pan Ath 203 204 qtd and tr Alan Cameron review of Anthony Birley s Marcus Aurelius The Classical Review 17 3 1967 p 349 HA Marcus viii 6 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 123 Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum 8 7050 51 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 123 Incriptiones Latinae Selectae 1097 98 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 123 Incriptiones Latinae Selectae 1091 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 123 Incriptiones Latinae Selectae 2311 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 123 HA Marcus xii 13 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 123 L Annee Epigraphique 1972 657 Epigraphik Datenbank Clauss Slaby Archived from the original on 29 April 2012 Retrieved 15 November 2011 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 125 HA Verus 9 2 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 125 Mattingly amp Sydenham Roman imperial coinage vol III p 226 De Feriis Alsiensibus 1 Haines 2 3 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 126 De Feriis Alsiensibus 3 1 Haines 2 5 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 126 De Feriis Alsiensibus 3 4 Haines 2 9 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 126 127 De Feriis Alsiensibus 3 6 12 Haines 2 11 19 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 126 127 De Feriis Alsiensibus 4 tr Haines 2 19 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 127 De Feriis Alsiensibus 4 Haines 2 19 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 127 Ad Verum Imperatorem 2 1 19 Haines 2 149 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 129 De bello Parthico x Haines 2 31 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 127 De bello Parthico i ii Haines 2 21 23 De bello Parthico i Haines 2 21 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 127 Dio lxxi 1 3 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 123 HA Verus v 8 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 123 125 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 125 HA Marcus viii 9 tr Magie Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 123 126 On Lucius s voyage see HA Verus vi 7 9 HA Marcus viii 10 11 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 125 126 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 129 HA Verus iv 4 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 129 HA Verus iv 6 tr Magie cf v 7 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 129 HA Verus viii 7 viii 10 11 Fronto Principia Historiae 17 Haines 2 217 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 129 Barnes Hadrian and Lucius Verus p 69 HA Verus ix 2 Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum 3 199 Epigraphik Datenbank Clauss Slaby Archived from the original on 29 April 2012 Retrieved 15 November 2011 Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 130 131 HA Verus vii 7 Marcus ix 4 Barnes Hadrian and Lucius Verus p 72 Birley Hadrian to the Antonines p 163 cf also Barnes Legislation against the Christians p 39 Some Persons in the Historia Augusta p 142 citing the Vita Abercii 44ff HA Verus 7 10 Lucian Imagines 3 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 131 Cf Lucian Imagines Pro Imaginibus passim Birley Marcus Aurelius p 131 Hadrian to the Antonines p 163 HA Verus vii 7 Marcus ix 4 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 131 Birley Marcus Aurelius 131 citing Annee Epigraphique 1958 15 HA Verus 7 7 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 131 HA Marcus ix 4 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 131 HA Marcus ix 5 6 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 131 HA Marcus ix 1 Birley Hadrian to the Antonines p 162 HA Marcus ix 1 HA Verus vii 1 2 Ad Verum Imperatorem 2 3 Haines 2 133 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 129 Hadrian to the Antonines p 162 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 129 Hadrian to the Antonines p 162 citing H Mattingly Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum IV Antoninus Pius to Commodus London 1940 Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus nos 233ff Dio lxxi 3 1 Birley Marcus Aurelius 131 Hadrian to the Antonines p 162 Millar Near East p 113 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 280 n 42 Hadrian to the Antonines p 162 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 131 Hadrian to the Antonines p 162 citing H Mattingly Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum IV Antoninus Pius to Commodus London 1940 Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus nos 261ff 300 ff Birley Marcus Aurelius pp 130 279 n 38 Hadrian to the Antonines p 163 citing Prosopographia Imperii Romani2 M 169 Millar Near East p 112 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 130 Hadrian to the Antonines p 162 Fronto Ad Verum Imperatorem ii 1 3 Haines 2 133 Astarita 41 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 130 Hadrian to the Antonines p 162 Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae 1098 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 130 Birley Hadrian to the Antonines p 163 citing Prosopographia Imperii Romani2 M 169 Lucian Historia Quomodo Conscribenda 15 19 Birley Hadrian to the Antonines p 163 Lucian Historia Quomodo Conscribenda 20 28 Birley Hadrian to the Antonines p 163 citing Syme Roman Papers 5 689ff HA Verus 8 3 4 Birley Hadrian to the Antonines 163 Birley cites R H McDowell Coins from Seleucia on the Tigris Ann Arbor University of Michigan Press 1935 pp 124ff on the date Birley Hadrian to the Antonines p 164 Birley Hadrian to the Antonines p 164 citing H Mattingly Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum IV Antoninus Pius to Commodus London 1940 Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus nos 384 ff 1248 ff 1271 ff Birley Hadrian to the Antonines p 164 citing P Kneissl Die Siegestitulatur der romischen Kaiser Untersuchungen zu den Siegerbeinamen des 1 und 2 Jahrhunderts Gottingen 1969 pp 99 ff Birley Hadrian to the Antonines p 164 citing H Mattingly Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum IV Antoninus Pius to Commodus London 1940 Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus nos 401ff a b Adams p 94 Dio 72 11 3 4 Ad amicos 1 12 Haines 2 173 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 132 Dio lxxii 11 3 4 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 132 citing De nepote amisso ii Haines 2 222 Ad Verum Imperatorem ii 9 10 Haines 2 232ff Birley Marcus Aurelius p 133 citing Geza Alfoldy Konsulat und Senatorenstand 1977 Moesia Inferior pp 232ff Moesia Superior pp 234ff Pannonia Superior pp 236ff Dacia pp 245ff Pannonia Inferior p 251 McLynn Marcus Aurelius A Life pp 323 324 Gnecchi Medaglioni Romani p 33 Mattingly amp Sydenham Roman imperial coinage vol III p 241 Le Bohec p 56 Grant The Antonines The Roman Empire in Transition p 29 Dio lxxii 11 4 5 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 253 Fergus Millar The Emperor in the Roman World 31 BC AD 337 London Duckworth 1977 6 and passim See also idem Emperors at Work Journal of Roman Studies 57 1 2 1967 9 19 Thinkers At War Marcus Aurelius Military History Monthly published 2014 This is the conclusion of Iain King s biography of Marcus Aurelius Pius one of longest serving emperors became infirm in his last years so Marcus Aurelius gradually assumed the imperial duties By the time he succeeded in AD 161 he was already well practised in public administration Codex Justinianeus 7 2 6 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius 133 Digest 31 67 10 qtd and tr Birley Marcus Aurelius p 133 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 133 Irvine pp 57 58 Dio lxxii 33 Pulleyblank Leslie and Gardiner pp 71 79 Yu pp 460 461 De Crespigny p 600 An 83 Young pp 29 30 Ball p 154 a b Haas pp 1093 1098 Murphy Verity Past pandemics that ravaged Europe BBC News 7 November 2005 De Crespigny p 514 McLaughlin pp 59 60 Dio 72 33 Kleiner p 230 Merrony p 85 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 253 Birley Marcus Aurelius p 183 a b Birley Hadrian to the Antonines pp 186 191 Kemezis p 45 a b Tr Cary ad loc Dio lxxii 36 72 34 a b Grant The Climax Of Rome p 15 Barnes Legislation against the Christians McLynn Marcus Aurelius A Life p 295 The First Apology of Justin Martyr Chapter LXVIII Shea William H Justin Martyr s Sunday Worship Statement A Forged Appendix Journal of the Adventist Theological Society 2001 van Ackeren Marcel 2012 A Companion to Marcus Aurelius John Wiley amp Sons p 229 ISBN 978 1118219843 a b Stephens p 31 a b c Lendering Jona Antoninus and Aelius Livius org Ackermann Schroeder Terry Lo Upshur and Whitters p 39 a b c d McLynn Marcus Aurelius A Life p 92 a b c d e Levick p 171 Lendering Jona Lucilla Livius org Gagarin p 37 Benario Herbert W Marcus Aurelius A D 161 180 Roman Emperors Adams p 104 Levick p 160 Hays p xlix Collins p 58 Stertz p 434 citing Themistius Oratio 6 81 HA Cassius 3 5 Victor De Caesaribus 16 9 Hays pp xlviii xlix Hadot p 22 Mattingly amp Sydenham Roman imperial coinage vol III p 236 Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius Kleiner p 193 Column of Marcus Aurelius Overall view of base and column Archived 22 May 2020 at the Wayback Machine University of Notre Dame Hesburgh Library Accessed 24 November 2018 Scenes for Comparison The Columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius Classics classics sites grinnell edu Retrieved 21 July 2021 HA Marcus i 1 xxvii 7 Dio lxxi 1 1 James Francis Subversive Virtue Asceticism and Authority in the Second Century Pagan World University Park Pennsylvania State University Press 1995 21 n 1 Mark Joshua Marcus Aurelius Plato s Philosopher King World History Encyclopedia 8 May 2018 Francis p 21 n 1 citing Justin 1 Apologia 1 Athenagoras Leg 1 Eusebius Historia Ecclesiastica 4 26 9 11 Eusebius Historia Ecclesiastica 4 26 9 11 qtd and tr Francis 21 n 1 Herodian Ab Excessu Divi Marci i 2 4 tr Echols Thinkers at War Bibliography EditAncient Edit Aristides Aelius Orationes in Latin Trapp Michael B Orations 1 Orationes 1 2 Cambridge Massachusetts Harvard University Press 2017 ISBN 978 0674996465 Victor Aurelius De Caesaribus in Latin Bird H W De Caesaribus Liverpool Liverpool University Press 1994 ISBN 978 0853232186 Dio Cassius Roman History in Greek Cary Earnest trans Roman History 9 vols Loeb ed London Heinemann 1914 27 OCLC 500523615 Online at LacusCurtius Digest in Latin Scott S P trans The Digest or Pandects in The Civil Law 17 vols Cincinnati Central Trust Company 1932 OCLC 23759480 Online at the Constitution Society Epiphanius of Salamis On Weights and Measures in Latin Dean James Elmer ed Epiphanius Treatise on Weights and Measures The Syriac Version Chicago University of Chicago Press 1935 OCLC 123314338 Fronto Marcus Cornelius The Correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto With Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Lucius Verus Antoninus Pius and Various Friends in Latin Haines Charles Reginald trans The Correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto With Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Lucius Verus Antoninus Pius and Various Friends 2 vols Loeb ed London Heinemann 1920 OCLC 476921438 Online at the Internet Archive Vol 1 2 Gellius Aulus Noctes Atticae Attic Nights Rolfe J C trans The Attic nights of Aulus Gellius 3 vols Loeb ed London Heinemann 1927 28 OCLC 59229750 Vol 1 OCLC 1072405870 Vol 2 OCLC 1021363430 Vol 3 Vols 1 and 2 online at LacusCurtius Herodian Ab Excessu Divi Marci History of the Roman Empire from the Death of Marcus Aurelius in Latin Echols Edward C trans Herodian of Antioch s History of the Roman empire From the death of Marcus Aurelius to the accession of Gordian III Berkeley and Los Angeles University of California Press 1961 OCLC 463202486 Online at Tertullian and Livius Lucian Fowler F G Fowler H W trans The works of Lucian of Samosata Oxford Clarendon P 1949 OCLC 503242210 Alexander in Latin Translation online at Tertullian Translations from Latin of Historia Quomodo Conscribenda The Way to Write History Imagines A Portrait Study and Pro Imaginibus Defence of the Portrait Study online at Sacred Texts based on the Gutenberg e text Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Meditations Farquharson A S L trans Meditations New York Knopf 1946 rept 1992 OCLC 897495952 Scriptores Historiae Augustae Authors of the Historia Augusta Historia Augusta Augustan History Magie David trans Historia Augusta 3 vols Loeb ed London Heinemann 1921 32 Online at LacusCurtius Magie David Birley Anthony R Lives of the later Caesars London The Folio Society 2005 ISBN 0141935995 Themistius Orationes in Latin Penella Robert J The private orations of Themistius Berkeley University of California Press 2000 ISBN 978 0520218215 Modern Edit Ackermann Marsha E Schroeder Michael J Terry Jancie J Lo Upshur Jiu Hwa Whitters Mark F Encyclopedia of World History Ackerman Schroeder Terry Hwa Lo 2008 Encyclopedia of World History permanent dead link New York Facts on File 2008 ISBN 978 0816063864 Adams Geoff W Marcus Aurelius in the Historia Augusta and Beyond Lanham MD Lexington Books 2013 ISBN 978 0739176382 An Jiayao When Glass Was Treasured in China Annette L Juliano and Judith A Lerner eds Nomads Traders and Holy Men Along China s Silk Road 79 94 Turnhout Belgium Brepols Publishers 2002 ISBN 978 2503521787 Astarita Maria L Avidio Cassio in Italian Rome Edizione di Storia e Letteratura 1983 OCLC 461867183 Ball Warwick Rome in the East The Transformation of an Empire 2nd edition London Routledge 2016 ISBN 978 0415720786 Barnes Timothy D Hadrian and Lucius Verus Journal of Roman Studies 57 1 2 1967 65 79 doi 10 2307 299345 JSTOR 299345 Barnes Timothy D Legislation against the Christians Journal of Roman Studies Vol 58 1968 32 50 doi 10 2307 299693 JSTOR 299693 Barnes Timothy D Some Persons in the Historia Augusta Phoenix 26 2 1972 140 182 doi 10 2307 1087714 JSTOR 1087714 Birley Anthony R Marcus Aurelius a biography London Routledge 1966 rev 1987 ISBN 978 1134695690 Birley Anthony R Hadrian to the Antonines In The Cambridge Ancient History Volume 11 The High Empire AD 70 192 edited by Alan Bowman Peter Garnsey and Dominic Rathbone 132 194 Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2000 ISBN 978 0521263351 Bowman John L A Reference Guide to Stoicism Bloomington IN Author House 2014 ISBN 978 1496900173 Bury John Bagnell The Student s Roman Empire A History of the Roman Empire from Its Foundation to the Death of Marcus Aurelius 27 B C 180 A D New York Harper 1893 OCLC 1067064647 Champlin Edward The Chronology of Fronto Journal of Roman Studies 64 1974 136 159 doi 10 2307 299265 JSTOR 299265 Champlin Edward Fronto and Antonine Rome Cambridge MA Harvard University Press 1980 ISBN 978 0674331778 Collins Desmond Background to Archaeology Britain in its European Setting Cambridge Cambridge University Press Archive 1973 OCLC 879899744 De Crespigny Rafe A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms 23 220 AD Boston Brill 2007 ISBN 978 9047411840 Duncan Jones Richard Structure and Scale in the Roman Economy Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1990 ISBN 978 0521892896 Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius Musei Capitolini Gagarin Michael The Oxford encyclopedia of ancient Greece and Rome Volume 7 Temples Zoology Oxford Oxford University Press 2010 ISBN 978 0195170726 Giacosa Giorgio Women of the Caesars their lives and portraits on coins Translated from Italian by R Ross Holloway Milan Edizioni Arte e Moneta 1977 ISBN 0839001932 Gilliam J F The Plague under Marcus Aurelius American Journal of Philology 82 3 1961 225 251 doi 10 2307 292367 JSTOR 292367 Gnecchi Francesco I medaglioni Romani 3 Vols Milan 1912 OCLC 6529816 Grant Michael The Antonines the Roman Empire in transition London Routledge 2016 ISBN 978 1317972105 Grant Michael The Climax Of Rome London Orion 2011 ISBN 978 1780222769 Haas Charles The Antonine plague in French Bulletin de l Academie Nationale de Medecine Academie nationale de medecine 190 2006 1093 1098 OCLC 958470753 Hadot Pierre The inner citadel the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Cambridge MA Harvard University Press 1998 ISBN 978 0674461710 Hays Gregory Meditations London Weidenfeld amp Nicolson 2003 ISBN 978 1842126752 Holiday Ryan Hanselman Stephen 2020 Marcus Aurelius the Philosopher King Lives of the Stoics New York Portfolio Penguin pp 279 299 ISBN 978 0525541875 Irvine William B A Guide to the Good Life The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy Oxford University Press 2009 ISBN 978 1522632733 Kemezis Adam M Greek Narratives of the Roman Empire under the Severans Cassius Dio Philostratus and Herodian Cambridge University Press 2014 ISBN 978 1107062726 Kleiner Fred S Gardner s art through the ages Volume II the western perspective Mason OH Cengage Learning 2008 ISBN 978 0495573555 Le Bohec Yann The Imperial Roman Army Routledge 2013 ISBN 978 1135955137 Levick Barbara M Faustina I and II Imperial Women of the Golden Age New York Oxford University Press 2014 ISBN 978 0199702176 Magill Frank N Dictionary of World Biography London Routledge 2003 ISBN 978 1579580407 Mattingly Harold Sydenham Edward A The Roman imperial coinage Vol III Antoninus Pius to Commodus London Spink amp Son 1930 OCLC 768929523 Mellor Ronald review of Edward Champlin s Fronto and Antonine Rome American Journal of Philology 103 4 1982 Merrony Mark The Plight of Rome in the Fifth Century AD London Routledge 2017 ISBN 978 1351702782 McLaughlin Raoul Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes to the Ancient Lands of Arabia India and China London amp New York Continuum 2010 ISBN 978 1847252357 McLynn Frank Marcus Aurelius A Life New York Da Capo Press 2009 ISBN 978 0306819162 McLynn Frank Marcus Aurelius Warrior Philosopher Emperor London Bodley Head 2009 ISBN 978 0224072922 Millar Fergus The Roman Near East 31 B C A D 337 Cambridge MA Harvard University Press 1993 ISBN 978 0674778863 Pulleyblank Edwin G Leslie D D Gardiner K H J The Roman Empire as Known to Han China Journal of the American Oriental Society 1999 119 1 doi 10 2307 605541 JSTOR 605541 Reed J Eugene The Lives of the Roman Emperors and Their Associates from Julius Caesar B C 100 to Agustulus A D 476 Philadelphia PA Gebbie amp Company 1883 Robertson D How to Think Like a Roman Emperor The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius Archived 4 August 2019 at the Wayback Machine New York St Martin s Press 2019 Rohrbacher David The Play of Allusion in the Historia Augusta Wisconsin University of Wisconsin Press 2016 ISBN 978 0299306045 Sanchez Jorge Pisa Breve historia de Hispania La fascinante historia de Hispania desde Viriato hasta el esplendor con los emperadores Trajano y Adriano Los protagonistas la cultura la religion y el desarrollo economico y social de una de las provincias mas ricas del Imperio romano Brief history of Hispania the fascinating history of Hispania from Viriato to the splendor with the Emperors Trajan and Hadrian The protagonists culture religion and the economic and social development of one of the richest provinces of the Roman Empire permanent dead link in Spanish Ediciones Nowtilus S L 2010 ISBN 978 8497637695 Stephens William O Marcus Aurelius A Guide for the Perplexed London Continuum 2012 ISBN 978 1441125613 Stertz Stephen A Marcus Aurelius as Ideal Emperor in Late Antique Greek Thought The Classical World 70 7 1977 433 439 doi 10 2307 4348712 JSTOR 4348712 Syme Ronald The Ummidii Historia 17 1 1968 72 105 JSTOR 4435015 Van Ackeren Marcel A Companion to Marcus Aurelius New York Malden MA Wiley Blackwell 2012 ISBN 978 1405192859 OCLC 784124210 Young Gary K Rome s Eastern Trade International Commerce and Imperial Policy 31 BC AD 305 London Routledge 2003 ISBN 978 1134547937 Yu Ying shih Han Foreign Relations in Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe eds The Cambridge History of China Volume 1 The Ch in and Han Empires 221 BC AD 220 377 462 Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1986 ISBN 978 0521243278 External links EditMarcus Aurelius at Wikipedia s sister projects Media from Commons Quotations from Wikiquote Texts from Wikisource Resources from Wikiversity Texts on Wikisource The Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Catholic Encyclopedia Vol 2 1907 Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 17 11th ed 1911 pp 693 696 Aurelius Antoninus Marcus The New Student s Reference Work 1914 Greek Wikisource has original text related to this article Markos Aὐrhlios Works by Marcus Aurelius in eBook form at Standard Ebooks Works by Marcus Aurelius at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Marcus Aurelius at Internet Archive Works by Marcus Aurelius at LibriVox public domain audiobooks Marcus Aurelius at the Internet Encyclopedia of PhilosophyMarcus AureliusAntonine dynastyBorn 26 April 121 Died 17 March 180Regnal titlesPreceded byAntoninus Pius Roman emperor161 180 With Lucius Verus 161 169 Commodus 177 180 Succeeded byCommodusPolitical officesPreceded byM Ceccius JustinusG Julius Bassusas suffect consuls Roman consulJanuary April 140 With Antoninus Pius Succeeded byQ Antonius IsauricusL Aurelius FlaccusPreceded byL Marcius Celer M Calpurnius LongusD Velius Fidusas suffect consuls Roman consulJanuary February 145 With Antoninus Pius Succeeded byL Plautius Lamia SilvanusL Poblicola PriscusPreceded byTi Oclatius SeverusNovius Sabinianus Roman consulJanuary 161 With Lucius Verus Succeeded byM Annius LiboQ Camurius Numisius Junior Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Marcus Aurelius amp oldid 1151775571, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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