Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (Rome, April 26,
121[2] –
Vindobona or Sirmium, March
17, 180) was Roman Emperor from 161 to his death in 180. He was the last of the "Five Good Emperors", and is also considered one of the most important stoic philosophers.
His tenure was marked by wars in Asia against a revitalized Parthian Empire, and with Germanic tribes along the
Limes Germanicus into Gaul and across the
Danube. A revolt in the East, led by Avidius Cassius,
failed.
Marcus Aurelius' work Meditations, written on campaign between 170–180, is still
revered as a literary monument to a government of service and duty and has been praised for its "exquisite accent and its
infinite tenderness." [3]
Early life
Family
He was originally named Marcus Annius Catilius Severus, when he married he took the name Marcus Annius Verus.
When he was named Emperor, he was given the name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
Marcus Aurelius was the only son to Domitia Lucilla and Marcus Annius Verus. His only natural sibling was his younger sister Annia Cornificia Faustina, who was about 2 years younger than he. Domitia Lucilla came from a
wealthy family who were of consular rank. Marcus Aurelius' father was of Hispanian origin, and
served as a praetor and died when Marcus was three years old. Marcus Aurelius credits him with
teaching him "manliness without ostentation".[4]
His father's maternal aunt was Vibia Sabina, wife of Roman Emperor Hadrian. Rupilia Faustina (Marcus Aurelius' paternal grandmother) and Vibia
Sabina were half-sisters and were daughters of Salonina Matidia (niece of the Roman
Emperor Trajan). His father's sister was Faustina the
Elder a Roman Empress who married the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius.
After his father's death, Aurelius was adopted and raised by his mother and paternal grandfather Marcus Annius Verus. His paternal grandfather died in 138; he was
almost ninety years old.
Heir to the Empire
In 136, Hadrian had announced that his eventual successor would be a certain Lucius Ceionius Commodus, renamed
L. Aelius Caesar. Marcus had already attracted the attention of Hadrian (who had nicknamed
him verissimus, which translates as "truest"): he was subsequently engaged to Ceionia Fabia, Commodus' daughter. The
engagement, however, was annulled later after the death of Commodus, as Marcus was betrothed to Antoninus' daughter.
Therefore, on the death of Hadrian's first adopted son L. Aelius Verus, Hadrian made it
a precondition of making Antoninus his successor that Antoninus would adopt Marcus (then called Marcus Aelius Aurelius Verus) and
Lucius Ceionius Commodus (Lucius Aelius' son, ten years junior than Marcus, renamed Lucius Aurelius Verus), and arrange for them
to be next in the line.
This Antoninus did, adopting and designating them as his successors on February 25
138, when Marcus was only seventeen years of age. He would become emperor at 40. It has been
suggested that Commodus and Antoninus Pius were designed by Hadrian only as "place warmers" for the young Marcus and Verus.
The years of Marcus' life during the reign of Antoninus are known through his correspondence with one of the teachers assigned
him by Hadrian, Fronto, a relevant figure in the culture of the time. Through
these letters Marcus appears as an intelligent, serious-minded and hardworking youth. They also show the growing importance of
philosophy for the future emperor: showing impatience for the unending exercises with Greek and Latin declamations, he later
became fond of the Diatribai ("Discourses") of Epictetus, an important moral
philosopher of the Stoic school. Marcus also started to have an increasing public role at the side of Antoninus, holding the
place of consul in 140, 145 and 161 and increasing collaboration in decisions. In 147 he received the proconsular imperium
outside Rome and the tribunicia potestas, the main formal powers of emperorship. In 145, Marcus married Annia Galeria
Faustina or Faustina the Younger, who was Antoninus' daughter and his paternal
cousin.
Emperor
Joint emperorship
When Antoninus Pius died (March 7 161), Marcus accepted the
throne on the condition that he and Verus were made joint emperors (Augusti). Though formally equal from the constitutional point of view, Verus, younger and
probably less popular, looks to have been subordinate in practice[5].
Marcus' insistence to have Verus elected with him was motivated by his loyalty towards the will of their adoptive father. The
joint succession may have also been motivated by military experiences, since, during his reign, Marcus Aurelius was almost
constantly at war with various peoples outside the empire. A highly authoritative figure was needed to command the troops, yet
the emperor himself could not defend both the German and Parthian fronts at the same time. Neither could he simply appoint a
general to lead the legions; earlier popular military leaders like Julius Caesar and Vespasian had used the military to overthrow the
existing government and install themselves as supreme leaders. Marcus Aurelius solved the problem by sending Verus to command the
legions in the east. Verus was authoritative enough to command the full loyalty of the troops, but already powerful enough that
he had little incentive to overthrow Marcus. Verus remained loyal until his death on campaign in 169.
This joint emperorship was faintly reminiscent of the political system of the Roman
Republic, which functioned according to the principle of collegiality and did not
allow a single person to hold supreme power. Joint rule was revived by Diocletian's
establishment of the Tetrarchy in the late 3rd
century.
Immediately at the beginning of his reign, Marcus continued on the path of his predecessors by issuing numerous law reforms,
mainly to clear away abuses and anomalies in the civil jurisprudence. In particular he promoted favourable measures towards
categories like slaves, widows and minors; recognition to blood relationships in the field of succession was given. In the
criminal law a distinction of class, with different punishments, was made between honestiores and humiliores ("The
more distinguished" and "the more lowly", respectively).
Under Marcus' reign, the status of Christians remained the same since the time of Trajan. They were legally punishable, though
in fact rarely persecuted. In 177 a group of Christians were executed at Lyon, for example, but the
act is mainly attributable to the initiative of the local governor.
Challenges
War with Parthia
Marcus Aurelius Arch in
Tripoli, built to commemorate the emperor.
In Asia, a revitalized Parthian Empire renewed
its assault in 161, defeating two Roman armies and invading Armenia and Syria. Marcus Aurelius sent
his joint emperor Verus to command the legions in the east to face this threat. The war ended successfully in 166, although the
merit must be mostly ascribed to subordinate generals like Gaius Avidius Cassius. On the
return from the campaign, Verus was awarded with a triumph; the parade was unusual because
it included the two emperors, their sons and unmarried daughters as a big family celebration. Marcus Aurelius' two sons,
Commodus five years old and Annius Verus of three, were elevated to the status of Caesar for
the occasion.
The returning army carried with them a plague, afterwards known as the Antonine
Plague, or the Plague of Galen, which spread through the Roman Empire between
165 and 180. The disease was a pandemic believed to be either of smallpox or measles, and would ultimately claim the lives of two Roman
emperors—Lucius Verus, who died in 169, and Marcus Aurelius, whose family name,
Antoninus, was given to the epidemic. The disease broke out again nine years later, according to the Roman historian
Dio Cassius, and caused up to 2,000 deaths a day at Rome, one quarter of those infected.
Total deaths have been estimated at five million.
Germania and the Danube
-
Starting from 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 farther
east. A first invasion of the Catti in the province of Germania Superior was repulsed in 162. Far more dangerous was the invasion of 166, when the
Marcomanni of Bohemia, clients of the Roman Empire since 19,
crossed the Danube together with the Lombards and other German tribes. At the same time, the
Iranian Sarmatians attacked between the Danube and the Theiss
rivers.
Due to the situation in East, only a punitive expedition could be launched in 167. Both Marcus and Verus led the troops. After
the death of Verus (169), Marcus led personally the struggle against the Germans for the great part of his remaining life. The
Romans suffered at least two serious defeats by the Quadi and Marcomanni, who could cross the
Alps, ravage Opitergium (Oderzo) and besiege Aquileia,
the Roman main city of north-east Italy. At the same time the Costoboci, coming from the
Carpathian area, invaded Moesia, Macedonia and Greece. After a long struggle, Marcus Aurelius managed to push back the
invaders. Numerous Germans 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 Bohemia
and Hungary.
The emperor's plans were, however, prevented by a revolt in East, led by Avidius Cassius, which was prompted by false news of
the death of Marcus after an illness. Of the eastern provinces, only Cappadocia and
Bithynia did not side with the rebels. When it became clear that Marcus Aurelius was still
alive, Cassius' fortunes declined quickly and he was killed by his troops after only 100 days of power.
Together with his wife Faustina, Marcus Aurelius toured the eastern provinces until 173. He visited Athens, declaring himself
a protector of philosophy. After a triumph in Rome, the following year he marched again to the Danubian frontier. After a
decisive victory in 178, the plan to annex Bohemia seemed poised for success but was abandoned after Marcus Aurelius again fell
ill in 180.
Death and succession
Marcus Aurelius died on March 17 180 in the city of Vindobona
(modern Vienna), his son and successor Commodus accompanying
him. He was immediately deified and his ashes were returned to Rome, and 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 in Rome.
Marcus Aurelius was able to secure the succession for Commodus, whom he had named Caesar in 166 and made co-emperor in
177, though the choice may have been unknowingly unfortunate. This decision, which put an end to the
fortunate series of "adoptive emperors", was highly criticized by later historians since Commodus was a political and military
outsider, as well as an extreme egotist with neurotic problems. For this reason, Marcus Aurelius' death is often held to have
been the end of the Pax Romana. It is possible that he chose Commodus simply in the
absence of other candidates, or as a result of the fear of succession issues and the possibility of civil war.
Marriage and issue
Aurelius married Faustina the Younger in 145.
During their 30-year marriage Faustina bore 13 children, only one son and four daughters of which outlived their father:
Writings
Original bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius, now preserved in the Capitoline Museums, Rome.
While on campaign between 170 and 180, Aurelius wrote his Meditations as a source
for his own guidance and self-improvement. He had been a priest at the sacrificial altars of Roman service and was an eager
patriot. 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. It has been praised for its "exquisite accent and its infinite tenderness" and "saintliness", and has also been
called the "gospel of his life." John Stuart Mill, in his Utility of Religion, compared the Meditations to the Sermon
on the Mount.
The book itself was first published in 1558 in Zurich, from a manuscript copy that is now lost. The only other surviving
complete copy of the manuscript is in the Vatican library.
The significance of death was very important in the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius. He didn't believe in the afterlife. He
wrote: 'We live for an instant, only to be swallowed in "complete forgetfulness and the void of infinite time on this side of
us." "Think how many ere now, after passing their life in implacable enmity, suspicion, hatred... are now dead and burnt to
ashes." According to Marcus Aurelius everything will be turned in absolute oblivion, even legends. "Of the life of man the
duration is but a point, its substance streaming away, its perception dim, the fabric of the entire body prone to decay, and the
soul a vortex, and fortune incalculable, and fame uncertain. In a word all things of the body are as a river, and the things of
the soul as a dream and a vapour; and life is a warfare and a pilgrim's sojourn, and fame after death is only forgetfulness."
'Everything existing "is already disintegrating and changing... everything is by nature made but to die." 'The length of one's
life is irrelevant, "for look at the yawning gulf of time behind thee and before thee at another infinity to come. In this
eternity the life of a baby of three days and the life of a nestor of three centuries are as one." 'To desire is to be
permanently disappointed and disturbed, since everything we desire in this world is "empty and corrupt and paltry." For Marcus
Aurelius, death was desirable, because it would make an end to all desires.[6]
Despite these thoughts on life and death, Marcus Aurelius was an advocate of rational virtue. According to Jonathan Dollimore,
Marcus Aurelius had a kind of indifference towards the brutalities in life. As an emperor, he persecuted Christians and went
frequently on military campaigns. He justified his deeds by pointing at the insignificance of worldly affairs.[7]
Marcus Aurelius in later arts
Literature
Film
See also
Notes
External links
Greek
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