MARCUS AURELIUS NGC Ch F ANCIENT ROMAN COINS, AD 161-180. AR Denarius. A791

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Marcus Aurelius
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Marcus Aurelius
A marble bust of Marcus Aurelius at the
Musée Saint-Raymond
,
Toulouse
,
France
Roman emperor
Reign
8 March 161 – 17 March 180
(19 years)
Predecessor
Antoninus Pius
Successor
Commodus
Co-emperor
Lucius Verus
(161–169)
Commodus
(177–180)
Born
26 April 121
Rome
,
Italy
Died
17 March 180 (aged 58)
Sirmium
,
Pannonia
Burial
Hadrian's Mausoleum
Spouse
Faustina the Younger
(145-175, her death)
Issue
Detail
14, including
Commodus
,
Annius
,
Lucilla
,
Annia Galeria Aurelia Faustina
,
Fadilla
,
Annia Cornificia Faustina Minor
, and
Vibia Aurelia Sabina
Names
Marcus Aelius Aurelius Verus Caesar
(see section
Name
for details)
Regnal name
Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus
Dynasty
Nerva–Antonine
Father
Marcus Annius Verus
Antoninus Pius
(adoptive)
Mother
Domitia Calvilla
Philosophy career
Notable work
Meditations
Era
Hellenistic philosophy
Region
Western Philosophy
School
Stoicism
Main interests
Ethics
Notable ideas
Memento mori
[1]
show
Influences
show
Influenced
Roman imperial dynasties
Aureus of Marcus Aurelius
Nerva–Antonine dynasty
(
AD
96–192)
Chronology
Nerva
96–98
Trajan
98–117
Hadrian
117–138
Antoninus Pius
138–161
Lucius Verus
161–169
Marcus Aurelius
161–180
Commodus
177–192
Family
Nerva–Antonine family tree
Category:Nerva–Antonine dynasty
Succession
Preceded by
Flavian dynasty
Followed by
Year of the Five Emperors
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t
e
Part of a series on
Marcus Aurelius
Early life (121–161 AD)
Reign (161–180 AD)
Meditations
v
t
e
Part of a
series
on
Stoicism
Epictetus
,
Seneca
, and
Marcus Aurelius
show
Background
show
Philosophy
show
Stoics
show
Stoic works
show
Similar positions
show
Contrary positions
Philosophy portal
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t
e
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
(
/
ɔː
ˈ
r
iː
l
i
ə
s
/
ə-REE-lee-əs
;
Latin:
[ˈmaːrkʊs̠ au̯ˈreːlijʊs̠ an̪t̪oːˈniːnʊs̠]
; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was
Roman emperor
from 161 to 180 and a
Stoic
philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the
Five Good Emperors
(a term coined some 13 centuries later by
Niccolò Machiavelli
), and the last emperor of the
Pax Romana
(27 BC to 180 AD), an age of relative peace and stability for the
Roman Empire
. He served as
Roman consul
in 140, 145, and 161.
Marcus 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 his mother and
grandfather
raised Marcus. After Hadrian's
adoptive
son,
Aelius Caesar
, died in 138, the emperor adopted Marcus' 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 kept in close correspondence with Fronto for many years afterward. Marcus married Antoninus' daughter
Faustina
in 145. After Antoninus died in 161, Marcus acceded to the throne alongside his adoptive brother, who took the name Lucius Verus.
The
reign of Marcus Aurelius
was marked by military conflict. In the East, the Roman Empire
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 Marcus' reign, but his involvement in this is unknown. The
Antonine Plague
broke out in 165 or 166 and devastated the
population of the Roman Empire
, causing the deaths of five 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. They have been praised by fellow writers, philosophers, monarchs, and politicians centuries after his death.
Sources
Bust of Marcus Aurelius in the
Archaeological Museum of Istanbul
, Turkey
The major sources depicting the life and rule of Marcus are patchy and frequently unreliable. The most important group of sources, the biographi 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 395 AD. 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. 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.
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. Marcus's own
Meditations
offer a window on his inner life, but are largely undateable and make few specific references to worldly affairs. 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. 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's legal work.
Inscriptions
and
coin finds
supplement the literary sources.
Early life
Main article:
Early life of Marcus Aurelius
A bust of young Marcus Aurelius (
Capitoline Museum
).
Anthony Birley
, his modern biographer, writes of the bust: 'This is certainly a grave young man.'
[11]
Name
Marcus was born in
Rome
on 26 April 121. His name at birth was supposedly Marcus Annius Verus, but some sources assign this name to him upon his father's death and unofficial adoption by his grandfather, upon his coming of age, or at the time of his marriage. He may have been known as Marcus Annius Catilius Severus, at birth or some point in his youth, 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;
Epiphanius of Salamis
, in his chronology of the Roman emperors
On Weights and Measures
, calls him
Marcus Aurelius Verus
.
Family origins
Marcus's paternal family was of Roman
Italo-Hispanic origins
. His father was
Marcus Annius Verus (III)
. The
gens Annia
was of Italian origins (with legendary claims of descendance from
Numa Pompilius
) and a branch of it moved to
Ucubi
, a small town south east of
Córdoba
in Iberian
Baetica
. This branch of the Aurelii based in Roman Spain, the
Annii Veri
, 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. Through his grandmother
Rupilia
, Marcus was a member of the
Nerva-Antonine dynasty
; the emperor
Trajan
's
sororal
niece
Salonia Matidia
was the mother of Rupilia and her half-sister, Hadrian's wife
Sabina
.
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. Marcus himself was born and raised in the
Horti
and referred to the Caelian hill as 'My Caelian'.
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. His father probably died in 124, when Marcus was three years old during his praetorship. 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. His mother Lucilla did not remarry and, following prevailing aristocratic customs, probably did not spend much time with her son. Instead, Marcus was in the care of 'nurses', 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. 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. Marcus thanks his grandfather for teaching him 'good character and avoidance of bad temper'. He was less fond of the mistress his grandfather took and lived with after the death of his wife Rupilia. Marcus was grateful that he did not have to live with her longer than he did.
From a young age, Marcus displayed enthusiasm for
wrestling
and
boxing
. Marcus trained in wrestling as a youth and into his teenage years, learned to fight in armour and led a dance troupe called the College of the Salii. They performed ritual dances dedicated to Mars, the god of war, while dressed in arcane armour, carrying shields and weapons. Marcus was educated at home, in line with contemporary aristocratic trends; he thanks Catilius Severus for encouraging him to avoid public schools. One of his teachers, Diognetus, a painting master, proved particularly influential; he seems to have introduced Marcus Aurelius to the philosophic way of life. 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. A new set of tutors – the
Homeric
scholar
Alexander of Cotiaeum
along with
Trosius Aper
and
Tuticius Proculus
, teachers of
Lati
– took over Marcus's education in about 132 or 133. Marcus thanks Alexander for his training in literary styling. Alexander's influence – an emphasis on matter over style and careful wording, with the occasional Homeric quotation – has been detected in Marcus's
Meditations
.