Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (26 April
121 – 17 March 180) was
Roman
emperor from 161 to his death in 180. He ruled with
Lucius Verus as co-emperor from 161 until
Lucius' death in 169. 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 who previously
fought under Lucius Verus against the Parthians, failed.
Marcus Aurelius' work
Meditations, written in Greek while on
campaign between 170 and 180, is still revered as a literary
monument to a government of service and duty.
Sources
The major sources for 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, claim to be written
by a group of authors at the turn of the fourth century, but are in
fact written by a single author (referred to here as "the
biographer") from the later fourth century (c. 395). The later
biographies and the biographies of subordinate emperors and
usurpers are a tissue of lies and fiction, but the earlier
biographies, derived primarily from now-lost earlier sources
(
Marius Maximus or Ignotus), are much
better. For Marcus' life and rule, the biographies of Hadrian,
Pius, Marcus and Lucius Verus are largely reliable, but those of
Aelius Verus and Avidius Cassius are full of fiction.
A body of correspondence between Marcus' tutor Fronto and various
Antonine officials survives in a series of patchy manuscripts,
covering the period from c. 138 to 166. Marcus' 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 detail:
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 Justinianus on Marcus' legal work.
Inscriptions and
coin
finds supplement the literary sources.
Early life and career
Family, childhood, and early education, 121–36
Marcus'
family originated in Ucubi, a small town southeast of Córdoba
in Iberian Baetica.
The family rose to prominence in the late first century AD. Marcus'
great-grandfather Marcus Annius Verus (I) was a
senator and (according to the
Historia
Augusta) ex-
praetor; in 73–74 his
grandfather
Marcus Annius Verus
was made a
patrician.
Verus' elder son—Marcus Aurelius' father—
Marcus Annius Verus married
Domitia Lucilla. Lucilla was the
daughter of the patrician P. Calvisius Tullus Ruso and the elder
Domitia Lucilla. The elder Domitia Lucilla had inherited a great
fortune (described at length in one of
Pliny's letters) from her maternal
grandfather and her paternal grandfather by adoption. The younger
Lucilla would acquire much of her mother's wealth, including a
large brickworks on the outskirts of Rome—a profitable enterprise
in an era when the city was experiencing a construction boom.
Lucilla and Verus (III) had two children: a son, Marcus, born on 26
April 121, and
Annia
Cornificia Faustina, probably born in 122 or 123. Verus (III)
probably died in 124, during his
praetorship, when Marcus was only three years old.
Though he can hardly have known him, Marcus Aurelius wrote in his
Meditations that he had learned "modesty and manliness"
from his memories of his father and from the man's posthumous
reputation. Lucilla did not remarry. Lucilla, following prevailing
aristocratic customs, probably did not spend much time with her
son. Marcus was in the care of "nurses". Marcus credits his mother
with teaching him "religious piety, simplicity in diet" and how to
avoid "the ways of the rich". In his letters, Marcus makes frequent
and affectionate reference to her; he was grateful that, "although
she was fated to die young, yet she spent her last years with
me".
After his father's death, Aurelius was adopted by his paternal
grandfather Marcus Annius Verus (II). Another man, L. Catilius
Severus, also participated in his upbringing. Severus is described
as Marcus' "maternal great-grandfather"; he is probably the
stepfather of the elder Lucilla.
Marcus was raised in his parents' home on
the Caelian
Hill
, a district he would affectionately refer to as "my
Caelian". It was a upscale region, with few public buildings
but many aristocratic villas.
Marcus' grandfather owned his own palace
beside the Lateran
, where
Marcus 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 Rupilia Faustina, his wife. Marcus
was grateful that he did not have to live with her longer than he
did.
Marcus was taught at home, in line with contemporary aristocratic
trends; Marcus 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
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—
Alexander of
Cotiaeum, Trosius Aper, and Tuticius Proculus —took over
Marcus' education in about 132 or 133. Little is known of the
latter two (both teachers of Latin), but Alexander was a major
littérateur, the leading
Homeric scholar of
his day. Marcus thanks Alexander for his training in literary
styling. Alexander's influence—an emphasis on matter over style, on
careful wording, with the occasional Homeric quotation—has been
detected in Marcus'
Meditations.
The Pompey connection
According to the notoriusly unreliable
Historia Augusta, he is the
great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandson of Triumvir
Pompey the Great through his
daughter
Pompeia Magna. His paternal
grandmother
Rupilia was the great
granddaughter of
Scribonia
, who was herself the great granddaughter of
Pompey the Great on both her parents side.
This makes Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus, the only Princeps
to have been directly related to the son-in-law and rival of
Triumvir
Julius Caesar.
Civic duties and family connections, 127–36
In 127, at the age of six, Marcus was enrolled in the
equestrian order on the recommendation of
Emperor
Hadrian. Though this was not
completely unprecedented, and other children are known to have
joined the order, Marcus was still unusually young. In 128, Marcus
was enrolled in the priestly college of the
Salii. Since the standard qualifications for the
college were not met—Marcus did not have two living parents—they
must have been waived by Hadrian, Marcus' nominator, as a special
favor to the child. Hadrian had a strong affection for the child,
and nicknamed him Verissimus, "most true".
HA Marcus 1.10,
2.1; Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 38; "Hadrian to the
Antonines", 147. The appellation also survives on inscriptions:
Birley cites (at
Marcus Aurelius, p. 270 n.24)
Prosopographia Imperii Romani2 A 697, and
L'Année épigraphique 1940.62. On the Salii, see: Birley,
Marcus
Aurelius, 36–37; McLynn, 18–19. Marcus took his religious
duties seriously. He rose through the offices of the priesthood,
becoming in turn the leader of the dance, the
vates (prophet), and the master of the
order.
Hadrian did not see much of Marcus in his childhood. He spent most
of his time outside Rome, on the frontier, or dealing with
administrative and local affairs in the provinces. By 135, however,
he had returned to Italy for good. He had grown close to
Lucius Ceionius Commodus, husband of the
daughter of Avidius Nigrinus, a dear friend of Hadrian who the
emperor had killed early in his reign. In 136, shortly after Marcus
assumed the
toga virilis symbolizing his passage into
manhood, Hadrian arranged for his engagement to one of Commodus'
daughters, Fabia. Marcus was made
prefect of the city during the
feriae
Latinae soon after (he was probably appointed by Commodus).
Although the office held no real administrative significance—the
full-time prefect remained in office during the festival—it
remained a prestigious office for young aristocrats and members of
the imperial family. Marcus conducted himself well at the
job.
Through Commodus, Marcus met Apollonius of Chalcedon, a
Stoic philosopher. Apollonius had taught Commodus,
and would be an enormous impact on Marcus, who would later study
with him regularly. He is one of only three people Marcus thanks
the gods for having met. At about this time, Marcus' younger
sister, Annia Cornificia, married Ummidius Quadratus, her first
cousin.
Domitia Lucilla asked Marcus
to give part of his father's inheritance to his sister. He agreed
to give her all of it, content as he was with his grandfather's
estate.
Succession to Hadrian, 136–38
In late 136, Hadrian almost died from a haemorrhage.
Convalescent in
his
villa
at Tivoli
, he selected
Lucius Ceionius Commodus as his successor, and adopted him as his
son. The selection was done
invitis omnibus,
"against the wishes of everyone"; its rationale is still unclear.
After a brief stationing on the Danube frontier, Lucius returned to
Rome to make an address to the senate on the first day of 138. The
night before the speech, however, he grew ill, and died of a
haemorrhage later in the day. On 24 January 138, Hadrian selected
Aurelius Antoninus as his new
successor. After a few days' consideration, Antoninus accepted. He
was adopted on 25 February. As part of Hadrian's terms, Antoninus
adopted Marcus and
Lucius Commodus, the
son of Aelius. Marcus became M. Aelius Aurelius Verus; Lucius
became L. Aelius Aurelius Commodus. At Hadrian's request,
Antoninus' daughter Faustina was betrothed to Lucius. Marcus was
appalled to learn that Hadrian had adopted him. Only with
reluctance did he move from his mother's house on the Caelian to
Hadrian's private home.
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, consul for
139. Marcus' adoption diverted him from the typical career path of
his class. But 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."
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.
His
remains were buried quietly at Puteoli
. 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. For his dutiful behavior, Antoninus was asked
to accept the name "Pius".
Heir to Antoninus Pius, 136–45
Immediately after Hadrian's death, Antoninus approached Marcus and
requested that his marriage arrangements be amended: Marcus'
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' proposal.
Pius bolstered Marcus' dignity: Marcus was made consul for 140,
with Pius 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
Caesar: Marcus Aelius Aurelius Verus Caesar. 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". At the senate's request, Marcus joined
all the priestly colleges (
pontifices,
augures,
quindecimviri sacris faciundis,
septemviri
epulonum, etc.); direct evidence for membership, however, is
available only for the
Arval
Brethren.
Pius demanded that Marcus take up residence in the House of
Tiberius, the imperial palace on the Palatine. Pius also made him
take up the habits of his new station, the
aulicum
fastigium or "pomp of the court", against Marcus' objections.
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"—but he found it difficult nonetheless. He
would criticize himself in the
Meditations for "abusing
court life" in front of company.
As quaestor, Marcus would have had little real administrative work
to do. He would read imperial letters to the senate when Pius was
absent, and would do secretarial work for the senators. His duties
as consul were more significant: one of two senior representatives
of the senate, he would preside over meetings and take a major role
in the body's administrative functions. He felt drowned in
paperwork, and complained to his tutor,
Fronto: "I am so out of breath from
dictating nearly thirty letters". He was being "fitted for ruling
the state", in the words of his biographer. He was required to make
a speech to the assembled senators as well, making oratorical
training essential for the job.
On 1 January 145, Marcus was made consul a second time. He might
have been unwell at this time: a letter from Fronto that might have
been sent at this time urges Marcus 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". 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 [...] I am having treatment and taking care
not to do anything that interferes with it." Marcus was never
particularly healthy or strong. The Roman historian Cassius Dio,
writing of his later years, praised him for behaving dutifully in
spite of his various illnesses.
In April 145, Marcus married Faustina, as had been planned since
138. Since Marcus was, by adoption, Pius' son, under Roman law he
was marrying his sister; Pius would have had to formally release
one or the other from his paternal authority (his
patria potestas) for the
ceremony to take place. Little is specifically known of the
ceremony, but it is said to have been "noteworthy". Coins were
issued with the heads of the couple, and Pius, as
Pontifex Maximus, would have
officiated. Marcus makes no apparent reference to the marriage in
his surviving letters, and only sparing references to
Faustina.
Fronto and further education, 136–61
After taking the
toga virilis in 136, Marcus probably
began his training in
oratory. He had three
tutors in Greek, Aninus Macer, Caninius Celer, and
Herodes Atticus, and one in Latin, Fronto.
(Fronto and Atticus, however, probably did not become his tutors
until his adoption by Antoninus in 138.) The preponderance of Greek
tutors indicates the importance of the language to the aristocracy
of Rome. 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. The latter two were the most esteemed orators of
the day.
Herodes 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. Atticus was an inveterate opponent of Stoicism and
philosophic pretensions. He thought the Stoics' desire for a "lack
of feeling" foolish: they would live a "sluggish, enervated life",
he said. Marcus would 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.
Fronto was highly esteemed: In the self-consciously antiquarian
world of Latin letters, he was thought of as second only to
Cicero, perhaps even an alternative to him.
He did not care much for Herodes, 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.
A significant amount of the correspondence between Fronto and
Marcus has survived. The pair were very close. "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." Marcus spent time
with Fronto's wife and daughter, both named Cratia, and they
enjoyed light conversation. 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 learned of literature, he
would learn "from the lips of Fronto". 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—about one quarter of the surviving letters deal with the
man's sicknesses. Marcus asks that Fronto's pain be inflicted on
himself, "of my own accord with every kind of discomfort".
Fronto never became Marcus' full-time teacher, and continued his
career as an advocate. One notorious case brought him into conflict
with Herodes. Marcus pleaded with Fronto, first with "advice", then
as a "favor", not to attack Herodes; he had already asked Herodes
to refrain from making the first blows. Fronto replied that he was
surprised to discover Marcus counted Herodes as a friend (perhaps
Herodes was not yet Marcus' tutor), allowed that Marcus might be
correct, but nonetheless affirmed his intent to win the case by any
means necessary: "...the charges are frightful and must be spoken
of as frightful. Those in particular which refer to the beating and
robbing I will describe in such a way 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." The outcome of the trial is
unknown.
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." 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. 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' entire boyhood.
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". He disdained philosophy and
philosophers, and looked down on Marcus' sessions with Apollonius
of Chalcedon and others in this circle. Fronto put an uncharitable
interpretation of Marcus' "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.
Marcus kept in close touch with Fronto, but he would ignore his
scruples.
Apollonius may have introduced Marcus to Stoic philosophy, but
Quintus Junius Rusticus would have
the strongest influence on the boy. He was the man Fronto
recognized as having "wooed Marcus away" from oratory. He was
twenty years older than Marcus, older than Fronto. 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 first century; the true
successor of
Seneca (as opposed
to Fronto, the false one). 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'".
Births and deaths, 147–52
On 30 November 147, Faustina gave birth to a girl, named Domitia
Faustina. It was the first of at least fourteen children (including
two sets of twins) she would bear over the next twenty-three years.
The next day, 1 December, Pius gave Marcus the
tribunician power and the
imperium—authority over the armies and
provinces of the emperor. As tribune, Marcus had the right to bring
one measure before the senate after the four Pius could introduce.
His tribunican powers would be renewed, with Pius', on 10 December
147.

The Mausoleum of Hadrian, where the
children of Marcus and Faustina were buried
The first mention of Domitia in Marcus' letters reveals her as a
sickly infant. "Caesar to Fronto. If the gods are willing we seem
to have a hope of recovery. The diarrhoea 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. Domitia would die in 151.
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.
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'." He quoted from the
Iliad what
he called the "briefest and most familiar saying...enough to dispel
sorrow and fear":
leaves,
the wind scatters some on the face of the ground;like unto them are
the children of men.–
Iliad 6.146Another daughter was
born on 7 March 150,
Annia Aurelia Galeria
Lucilla. At some time between 155 and 161, probably soon after
155, Marcus' mother, Domitia Lucilla, died. Faustina probably had
another daughter in 151, but the child, Annia Galeria Aurelia
Faustina, might not have been born until 153. Another son, Tiberius
Aelius Antoninus, was born in 152. A coin issue celebrates
fecunditati Augustae, "the Augusta's fertility", depicting
two girls and an infant. The boy did not survive long; on coins
from 156, only the two girls were depicted. He might have died in
152, the same year as Marcus' sister, Cornificia.
A son was born in the late 150s. The synod of the temple of
Dionysius at Smyrna sent Marcus a letter of congratulations. By 28
March 158, however, when Marcus replied, the child was dead. Marcus
thanked the temple synod, "even though this turned out otherwise".
The child's name is unknown. In 159 and 160, Faustina gave birth to
daughters: Fadilla, after one of Faustina dead sisters, and
Cornificia, after Marcus' dead sister.
Pius' last years, 152–61

Antoninus Pius, Marcus' adoptive
father and predecessor as emperor (Glyptothek)
In 152, Lucius was named quaestor for 153, two years before the
legal age of twenty-five (Marcus held the office at seventeen). In
154, he was consul, nine years before the legal age of thirty-two
(Marcus held the office at eighteen and twenty-three). Lucius had
no other titles, except that of "son of Augustus". Lucius had a
markedly different personality than Marcus: he enjoyed sports of
all kinds, but especially hunting and wrestling; he took obvious
pleasure in the circus-games and gladiatorial fights. He did not
marry until 164. Pius was not fond of his adopted son's interests.
He would keep Lucius in the family, but he was sure never to give
the boy either power or glory. To take a typical example, Lucius
would not appear on Alexandrian coinage until 160/1.
In 156, Pius turned seventy. 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 Pius
aged, Marcus would have taken on more administrative duties, more
still when the
praetorian prefect
(an office that was as much secretarial as military) Gavius Maximus
died in 156 or 157. In 160, Marcus and Lucius were designated joint
consuls for the following year. Perhaps Pius was already ill; in
any case, he died before the year was out. Two days before his
death, the biographer records, Pius was at his ancestral estate in
Lorium. He ate Alpine cheese at dinner quite
greedily. In the night he vomited; he had a fever the next day. The
day after that, he summoned the imperial council, and passed the
state and his daughter to Marcus. He ordered that the golden statue
of Fortune, which had been in the bedroom of the emperors, should
go to Marcus' bedroom. Pius turned over, as if going to sleep, and
died. It was 7 March 161.
Emperor
Accession of Marcus and Lucius, 161
At the death of Antoninus Pius, 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. 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. It was his duty.
Although Marcus shows 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. Thus, although the senate planned to
confirm Marcus alone, he refused to take office unless Lucius
received equal powers. The senate accepted, granting Lucius the
imperium, the tribunician power, and the name Augustus.
Marcus became, in official titulature, Imperator Caesar Marcus
Aurelius Antoninus Augustus; Lucius, forgoing his name Commodus and
taking Marcus' family name, Verus, became Imperator Caesar Lucius
Aurelius Verus Augustus. It was the first time that Rome was ruled
by two emperors.
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 Pius'
administration, and he alone was
Pontifex Maximus. It
would have been clear to the public which emperor was the more
senior. As the biographer wrote, "Verus obeyed Marcus...as a
lieutenant obeys a proconsul or a governor obeys the
emperor."
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 donative. This donative,
however, was twice the size of those past: 20,000
sesterces (5,000
denarii)
per capita, more to officers. In return for this bounty, equivalent
to several years' pay, the troops swore an oath to protect the
emperors. The ceremony was perhaps not entirely necessary, given
that Marcus' accession had been peaceful and unopposed, but it was
good insurance against later military troubles.
Pius' funeral ceremonies were, in the words of the biographer,
"elaborate". If his funeral followed the pattern of past funerals,
his body would have been incinerated on a pyre at the
Campus Martius, while his spirit would rise
to the gods' home in the heavens. Marcus and Lucius nominated their
father for deification. In contrast to their behavior during Pius'
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 Pius, now
Divus Antoninus. Pius' remains were laid to rest in the
Hadrian's mausoleum, beside the remains of Marcus' children and of
Hadrian himself.
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.
In accordance with his will, Pius' fortune passed on to Faustina.
(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.) 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.
On 31 August she gave
birth at Lanuvium
to twins: T. Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus and
Lucius Aurelius Commodus. Aside from the fact that the twins shared
Caligula's birthday, the omens were
favorable, and the astrologers drew positive horoscopes for the
children. The births were celebrated on the imperial coinage.
Early rule, 161–62
Soon after the emperors' accession, Marcus' eleven-year-old
daughter, Annia Lucilla, was betrothed to Lucius (in spite of the
fact that he was, formally, her uncle). At the ceremonies
commemorating the event, new provisions were made for the support
of poor children, along the lines of earlier imperial foundations.
Marcus and Lucius proved popular with the people of Rome, who
strongly approved of their
civiliter ("lacking pomp")
behavior. The emperors permitted free speech, evinced by the fact
that the comedy writer Marullus was able to criticize them without
suffering retribution. At any other time, under any other emperor,
he would have been executed. But it was a peaceful time, a
forgiving time. And thus, as the biographer wrote, "No one missed
the lenient ways of Pius."
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. Lucius Volusius Maecianus, Marcus' former tutor,
had been prefectural governor of Egypt at Marcus' accession.
Maecianus was recalled, made senator, and appointed prefect of the
treasury (
aerarium Saturni). He
was made consul soon after. Fronto's son-in-law, Aufidius
Victorinus, was appointed governor of
Upper Germany.
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. 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." Fronto called on
Marcus alone; neither thought to invite Lucius.
Lucius was less esteemed by his tutor 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. 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." Marcus' early
reign proceeded smoothly. Marcus was able to give himself wholly to
philosophy and the pursuit of popular affection. Soon, however,
Marcus would find he had many anxieties. It would mean the end of
the
felicitas temporum ("happy times") that the coinage of
161 had so glibly proclaimed.
In the spring of 162, the
Tiber flooded over
its banks, destroying much of Rome. It drowned many animals,
leaving the city in famine. Marcus and Lucius gave the crisis their
personal attention. In other times of famine, the emperors are said
to have provided for the Italian communities out of the Roman
granaries.
Fronto's letters continued through Marcus' early reign. Fronto felt
that, because of Marcus' 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". 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." The early days of Marcus' reign were
the happiest of Fronto's life: his pupil was beloved by the people
of Rome, an excellent emperor, a fond pupil, and, perhaps most
importantly, as eloquent as could be wished. 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.
War with Parthia, 161–66
- For details, see: Roman–Parthian War
of 161–66. See also: Roman–Persian Wars
Origins to Lucius' dispatch, 161–62
On his deathbed, Pius spoke of nothing but the state and the
foreign kings who had wronged him. One of those kings,
Vologases IV of Parthia, made his
move in late summer or early autumn 161. Vologases entered the
Kingdom of Armenia (then a Roman
client state), expelled its king and installed his own—Pacorus, an
Arsacid like himself. The governor of
Cappadocia, the front-line in all Armenian conflicts, was Marcus
Sedatius Severianus, a Gaul with much experience in military
matters. Convinced by the prophet
Alexander of Abonutichus that he
could defeat the Parthians easily, and win glory for himself,
Severianus led a legion (perhaps the
IX
Hispana) into Armenia, but was trapped by the great Parthian
general Chosrhoes at Elegia, a town just beyond the Cappadocian
frontiers, high up past the headwaters of the Euphrates. Severianus
made some attempt to fight Chosrhoes, but soon realized the
futility of his campaign, and committed suicide. His legion was
massacred. The campaign had only lasted three days.

Coin of Vologases IV, king of Parthia,
from 152/53
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. Marcus was
unprepared. Pius seems to have given him no military experience;
the biographer writes that Marcus spent the whole of Pius'
twenty-three-year reign at his emperor's side—and not in the
provinces, where most previous emperors had spent their early
careers.
More bad news arrived: the Syrian governor's army had been defeated
by the Parthians, and retreated in disarray. 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. Three full legions were also
sent east:
I Minervia from Bonn in
Upper Germany,
II Adiutrix from
Aquincum, and
V Macedonica from
Troesmis. The northern frontiers were strategically weakened;
frontier governors were told to avoid conflict wherever possible.
M. Annius Libo, Marcus' first cousin, was sent to replace the
Syrian governor. He was young—his first consulship was in 161, so
he was probably in his early thirties—and, as a mere patrician,
lacked military experience. Marcus had chosen a reliable man rather
than a talented one.
Marcus
took a four-day public holiday at Alsium
, a resort
town on the Etrurian coast. He was
too anxious to relax. Writing to Fronto, he declared that he would
not speak about his holiday. Fronto replied ironically: "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?" He encouraged Marcus to rest, calling on the example of his
predecessors (Pius had enjoyed exercise in the
palaestra, fishing, and comedy), 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. Marcus could
not take Fronto's advice. "I have duties hanging over me that can
hardly be begged off," he wrote back. Marcus 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!"
Fronto sent Marcus a selection of reading material, 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, 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".
Lucius at Antioch, 162–65
Over the winter of 161–62, as more bad news arrived—a rebellion was
brewing in Syria—it was decided that Lucius should direct the
Parthian war in person. He was stronger and healthier than Marcus,
the argument went, more suited to military activity. Lucius'
biographer suggests ulterior motives: to restrain Lucius'
debaucheries, to make him thrifty, to reform his morals by the
terror of war, to realize that he was an emperor. Whatever the
case, the senate gave its assent, and, in the summer of 162, Lucius
left. Marcus would remain in Rome; the city "demanded the presence
of an emperor".
Lucius spent most of the campaign in Antioch, though he wintered at
Laodicea and summered at
Daphne, a resort just outside Antioch. Critics
declaimed Lucius' luxurious lifestyle. He had taken to gambling,
they said; he would "dice the whole night through". He enjoyed the
company of actors. Libo died early in the war; perhaps Lucius had
murdered him.
In the middle of the war, perhaps in autumn 163 or early 164,
Lucius made a trip to Ephesus to be married to Marcus' daughter
Lucilla. Marcus moved up the date; perhaps he had already heard of
Lucius' mistress, the low-born and beautiful Panthea. Lucilla's
thirteenth birthday was in March 163; whatever the date of her
marriage, she was not yet fifteen. Marcus had moved up the date:
perhaps stories of Panthea had disturbed him. Lucilla was
accompanied by her mother Faustina and M. Vettulenus Civica
Barbarus, the half-brother of Lucius' father. Civica was made
comes Augusti, "companion of the
emperors"; perhaps Marcus wanted him to watch over Lucius, the job
Libo had failed at.
Marcus may have planned to accompany them all the way to Smyrna
(the biographer says he told the senate he would); this did not
happen. Marcus only accompanied the group as far as Brundisium,
where they boarded a ship for the east. Marcus returned to Rome
immediately thereafter, and sent out special instructions to his
proconsuls not to give the group any official reception.
Counterattack and victory, 163–66
The
Armenian capital Artaxata
was captured in 163. At the end of the year,
Verus took the title
Armeniacus, despite having never seen
combat; Marcus declined to accept the title until the following
year. When Lucius was hailed as
imperator again, however,
Marcus did not hesitate to take the
Imperator II with
him.
Occupied Armenia was reconstructed on Roman terms. In 164, a new
capital, Kaine Polis ('New City'), replaced Artaxata. A new king
was installed: a Roman senator of consular rank and Arsacid
descent, C. Iulius Sohaemus. He may not even have been crowned in
Armenia; the ceremony may have taken place in Antioch, or even
Ephesus. Sohaemus was hailed on the imperial coinage of 164 under
the legend : Lucius sat on a throne with his staff while Sohamenus
stood before him, saluting the emperor.
In 163, the Parthians intervened in
Osroene,
a Roman client in upper Mesopotamia centered on
Edessa, and installed their own king on its
throne.Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 130, 279 n. 38; "Hadrian
to the Antonines", 163, citing
Prosopographia Imperii
Romani2 M 169; Millar,
Near
East, 112. In response, Roman forces were moved downstream, to
cross the Euphrates at a more southerly point. Before the end of
163, however, Roman forces had moved north to occupy Dausara and
Nicephorium on the northern, Parthian bank. Soon after the conquest
of the north bank of the Euphrates, other Roman forces moved on
Osroene from Armenia, taking Anthemusia, a town south-west of
Edessa.
In 165, Roman forces moved on Mesopotamia. Edessa was re-occupied,
and Mannus, the king deposed by the Parthians, was
re-installed.Birley, "Hadrian to the Antonines", 163, citing
Prosopographia Imperii Romani2 M
169. The Parthians retreated to Nisibis, but this too was besieged
and captured. The Parthian army dispersed in the Tigris. A second
force, under Avidius Cassius and the III Gallica, moved down the
Euphrates, and fought a major battle at Dura.
By the end of the
year, Cassius' 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 got sacked nonetheless, leaving a black mark on
Lucius' reputation. Excuses were sought, or invented: the official
version had it that the Seleucids broke faith first.
Cassius' army, although suffering from a shortage of supplies and
the effects of a plague contracted in Seleucia, made it back to
Roman territory safely. Lucius took the title Parthicus Maximus,
and he and Marcus were hailed as
imperatores again,
earning the title 'imp. III'. Cassius' army returned to the field
in 166, crossing over the Tigris into Media. Lucius took the title
'Medicus', and the emperors were again hailed as
imperatores, becoming 'imp. IV' in imperial titulature.
Marcus took the Parthicus Maximus now, after another tactful
delay.
Conclusion of the war and events at Rome, mid-160s–167
Most of the credit for the war's success must be ascribed to
subordinate generals, the most prominent of which was
C. Avidius
Cassius, commander of III Gallica, one of the Syrian legions.
Cassius was young senator of low birth from the north Syrian town
of
Cyrrhus. His father, Heliodorus,
had not been a senator, but was nonetheless a man of some standing:
he had been Hadrian's
ab epistulis, followed the emperor
on his travels, and was prefect of Egypt at the end of Hadrian's
reign. Cassius also, with no small sense of self-worth, claimed
descent from the
Seleucid
kings.Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 130, citing
Prosopographia Imperii Romani2 A
1402f.; 1405; Astarita,
passim; Syme,
Bonner
Historia-Augustia Colloquia 1984 (=
Roman Papers IV
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988), ?). Cassius and his fellow
commander in the war, Martius Verus, still probably in their
mid-thirties, took the consulships for 166. After their
consulships, they were made governors: Cassius, of Syria; Martius
Verus, of Cappadocia.
At Rome, Marcus was occupied with family matters. Matidia, his
great-aunt, had died. Her will was invalid under the
lex
Falcidia: Matidia had assigned more than three-quarters of her
estate to non-relatives; her clients had convinced her to include
them in
codicils to her will. Matidia
had never confirmed the documents, but, as she lay unconscious, her
clients had sealed them in with the original, making them valid. It
was an embarrassing situation. Fronto urged Marcus to push the
family's case; Marcus demurred. He was going to consult his
brother, who would make the final call.
On the return from the campaign, Lucius 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.
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), who can be identified either with
Marcus Aurelius or his predecessor Antoninus Pius.
Legal and administrative work, 161–80
Like nearly all emperors, Marcus spent most of his time addressing
petitions and hearing disputes—that is, on matters of law. Marcus
took great care in the theory and practice of legislation.
Professional jurists called him "an emperor most skilled in the
law" and "a most prudent and conscientiously just emperor". He
shows 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).
Germania and the Danube
- For details, see: Marcomannic
Wars

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). 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. Experienced governors had been
replaced by friends and relatives of the imperial family. L.
Dasumius Tullius Tuscus, a distant relative of Hadrian, was in
Upper Pannonia, succeeding the experienced M. Nonius Macrinus.
Lower Pannonia was under the obscure Ti. Haterius Saturnius. M.
Servilius Fabianus Maximus was shuffled from Lower Moesia to Upper
Moesia when Iallius Bassus had joined Lucius in Antioch. Lower
Moesia was filled by Pontius Laelianus' 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.
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 farther east. A first invasion
of the
Chatti 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 the 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 main Roman 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 17 March 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
and a temple built 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.
At the end of his history of Marcus' reign, Cassius Dio wrote an
encomium to the emperor, and described the transition to Commodus,
to Dio's own times, with sorrow.
...[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 person 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.– Cassius Dio
71.36.3–4
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. Michael Grant, in
The Climax
of Rome (1968), writes of Commodus: "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 involved one of the civil wars which were to
proliferate so disastrous around future successions."
Legacy and reputation
Marcus Aurelius took on the reputation of a
philosopher king within his lifetime, and
the title would remain his after death; both Dio and the biographer
call him "the philosopher". Christians—Justin Martyr, Athenagoras,
Melito—gave him the title too. The last named went so far as to
call Marcus "more philantrophic and philosophic" than Pius and
Hadrian, and set him against the persecuting and philosophy-hating
Emperors Domitian and Nero to make the contrast bolder.
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 outlived their father:
- Annia Aurelia Galeria
Faustina (147-after 165)
- Gemellus Lucillae (died around 150), twin brother of
Lucilla
- Annia Aurelia Galeria Lucilla
(148/50-182), twin sister of Gemellus, married her father's
co-ruler Lucius Verus
- Titus Aelius Antoninus (born after 150, died before 7 March
161)
- Titus Aelius Aurelius (born after 150, died before 7 March
161)
- Hadrianus (152-157)
- Domitia Faustina (born after 150, died before 7 March 161)
- Fadilla (159-after 211)
- Annia Cornificia
Faustina Minor (160-after 211)
- Titus Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus (161-165), twin brother of
Commodus
- Lucius Aurelius Commodus Antoninus (Commodus) (161-192), twin brother of Titus Aurelius
Fulvus Antoninus, later emperor
- Marcus Annius Verus
Caesar (162-169)
- Vibia Aurelia Sabina (170-died before 217)
Writings
While on campaign between 170 and 180, Aurelius wrote his
Meditations in Greek 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. The book
has been a favourite of
Frederick
the Great,
John Stuart Mill,
Matthew Arnold,
Goethe and
Wen
Jiabao.
It is not known how far Marcus' 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
Marcus' reputation as a philosopher, though he does not
specifically mention the
Meditations. The book itself,
though mentioned in correspondence by
Arethas of Caesarea in the 10th century
and in the Byzantine
Suda, was first published
in 1558 in Zurich by Wilhelm Holzmann, from a manuscript copy that
is now lost.
The only other surviving complete copy of
the manuscript is in the Vatican library
.
In later arts
Literature
- Marcus Aurelius appears as a minor character and is mentioned
extensively in Marius the
Epicurean by Walter Pater.
Film
Notes
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 229–30. The thesis of single
authorship was first proposed in H. Dessau's "Über Zeit und
Persönlichkeit der Scriptoes Historiae Augustae" (in
German), Hermes 24 (1889), 337ff.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 230. On the HA
Verus, see Barnes, 65–74.
- Mary Beard, " Was He
Quite Ordinary?", London Review of Books 31:14 (23
July 2009), accessed 15 September 2009; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 226.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 227.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 228–29, 253.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 227–28.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 228.
- HA Marcus 1.2, 1.4; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
28; McLynn, 14.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 29; McLynn, 14.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 29, citing Pliny,
Epistulae 8.18.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 30.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 49.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 31, 44.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 31.
- Meditations 1.1, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 31.
- HA Marcus 2.1 and Meditations 5.4, qtd. in
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 32.
- Meditations 1.3, qtd. in Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 35.
- Meditations 1.17.7, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 35.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 33.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 2.8.2 (= Haines 1.142), qtd. and
tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 31.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 31–32.
- Meditations 1.1, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 35.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 35.
- Meditations 1.17.2; Farquharson, 1.102; McLynn, 23;
cf. Meditations 1.17.11; Farquharson, 1.103.
- McLynn, 20–21.
- Meditations 1.4; McLynn, 20.
- HA Marcus 2.2, 4.9; Meditations 1.3; Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 37; McLynn, 21–22.
- HA Marcus 2.6; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 38;
McLynn, 21.
- HA Marcus 2.3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 40,
270 n.27.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 40, citing Aelius Aristides,
Oratio 32 K; McLynn, 21.
- Meditations 1.10; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
40; McLynn, 22.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 40, 270 n.28, citing A.S.L.
Farquharson, The Meditations of Marcus Antoninus (Oxford,
1944) 2.453.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 42.
- HA Marcus 4.1, 4.2; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
36.
- HA Marcus 4.4; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 37;
McLynn, 19.
- HA Marcus 4.5; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
39–40; McLynn, 24–25; R. Syme, "The Ummidii", Historia
17:1 (1968): 93–94.
- HA Marcus 4.6; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
41.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 41.
- HA Marcus 4.7; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
41.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 41–42.
- HA Hadrian 23.10, qtd. in Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 42.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 42. 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): 319–30.
- HA Hadrian 23.15–16; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
45; "Hadrian to the Antonines", 148.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 46. Date: Birley, "Hadrian to
the Antonines", 148.
- Dio 69.21.1; HA Hadrian 24.1; HA Aelius 6.9;
HA Pius 4.6–7; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
48–49.
- HA Marcus 5.3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
49.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 49–50.
- HA Marcus 5.6–8, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 50.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 80–81.
- Dio 69.22.4; HA Hadrian 25.5–6; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 50–51. Hadrian's suicide attempts: Dio 69.22.1–4;
HA Hadrian 24.8–13.
- HA Hadrian 25.7; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
53.
- HA Pius 5.3, 6.3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
55–56; "Hadrian to the Antonines", 151.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 55; "Hadrian to the
Antonines", 151.
- HA Marcus 6.2; Verus 2.3–4; Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 53–54.
- Dio 71.35.5; HA Marcus 6.3; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 56.
- Meditations 6.30, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 57; cf. Marcus Aurelius, 270 n.9, with
notes on the translation.
- HA Marcus 6.3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
57.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 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, 57.
- Meditations 8.9, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 57.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 57–58.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 4.7, qtd. and tr. Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 90.
- HA Marcus 6.5; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
58.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 89.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 5.1, qtd. and tr. Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 89.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 4.8, qtd. and tr. Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 89.
- Dio 71.36.3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 89.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 90–91.
- HA Pius 10.2, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 91.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 91.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 61.
- HA Marcus 2.4; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
62.
- Alan Cameron, review of Anthony Birley's Marcus
Aurelius, Classical Review 17:3 (1967): 347.
- HA Marcus 3.6; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
62.
- Vita Sophistae 2.1.14; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 63–64.
- Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 9.2.1–7; Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 64–65.
- Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 19.12, qtd. and tr.
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 65.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 65.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 67–68, citing E. Champlin,
Fronto and Antonine Rome (1980), esp. chs. 3 and 4.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 65–67.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 69.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 4.6 (= Haines 1.80ff), qtd. and tr.
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 76.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 4.6 (= Haines 1.80ff); Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 76–77.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 3.10–11 (= Haines 1.50ff), qtd. and
tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 73.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 73.
- Champlin, "Chronology of Fronto", 138.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 5.74 ( =Haines 2.52ff), qtd. and
tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 73.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 77. On the date, see
Champlin, "Chronology of Fronto", 142, who (with Bowersock,
Greek Sophists in the Roman Empire (1964), 93ff) argues
for a date in the 150s; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 78–79,
273 n.17 (with Ameling, Herodes Atticus (1983), 1.61ff,
2.30ff) argues for 140.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 3.2 (= Haines 1.58ff), qtd. and tr.
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 77–78.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 3.3 (= Haines 1.62ff); Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 78.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 3.3 (= Haines 1.62ff), qtd. and tr.
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 79.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 80.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 4.13 (= Haines 1.214ff), qtd. and
tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 93.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 4.3.1 (= Haines 1.2ff); Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 94.
- HA Marcus 3.5–8, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 94.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 4.3, qtd. and tr. Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 69.
- De Eloquentia 4.5 (= Haines 2.74), qtd. and tr.
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 95. Alan Cameron, in his review
of Birley's biography (The Classical Review 17:3 (1967):
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, 94, 105.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 95; Champlin,
Fronto, 120.
- Ad Antoninum Imperator 1.2.2 (= Haines 2.36), qtd. and
tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 95.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 94–95, 101.
- Champlin, Fronto, 120.
- Meditations 1.7, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 94–95.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 103.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 4.11 (= Haines 1.202ff), qtd. and
tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 105.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 247 F.1.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 206–7.
- Meditations 9.40, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 207.
- Meditations 10.34, tr. Farquharson, 78, 224.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 107.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 107–8.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 108.
- Inscriptiones Graecae ad Res Romanas pertinentes
4.1399, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 114.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 114.
- HA Verus 2.9–11; 3.4–7; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 108.
- HA Verus 2.9–11; 3.4–7; Barnes, 68; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 108.
- Barnes, 68, citing J. Vogt, Die Alexandrinischen
Miinzen (1924), I, III; 2, 62ff.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 112.
- HA Pius 12.4–8; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
114.
- Dio 71.33.4–5; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 114.
- HA Marcus 7.5, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 116.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 116. Birley takes the phrase
horror imperii from HA Pert. 13.1 and 15.8.
- Birley, "Hadrian to the Antonines", 156.
- HA Verus 3.8; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 116;
"Hadrian to the Antonines", 156.
- HA Verus 4.1; Marcus 7.5; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 116.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 116–17.
- HA Verus 4.2, tr. David Magie, cited in Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 117, 278 n.4.
- HA Marcus 7.9; Verus 4.3; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 117–18.
- HA Marcus 7.9; Verus 4.3; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 117–18. "twice the size": Richard Duncan-Jones,
Structure and Scale in the Roman Economy (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1990), 109.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 118.
- HA Marcus 7.10, tr. David Magie, cited in Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 118, 278 n.6.
- HA Marcus 7.10–11; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
118.
- HA Pius 12.8; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
118–19.
- HA Marcus 7.4; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
119.
- HA Comm. 1.3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
119.
- HA Comm. 1.2; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
119.
- HA Comm. 1.4, 10.2; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
119.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 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 7.7; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
118.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 118, citing Werner Eck,
Die Organisation Italiens (1979), 146ff.
- HA Marcus 8.1, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 119; "Hadrian to the Antonines", 157.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 122–23, 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), 142ff., 151ff.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 123, citing H.G. Pfalum,
Les carrières procuratoriennes équestres sous le Haut-Empire
romain I–III (Paris, 1960–61); Supplément (Paris,
1982), no. 141.
- HA Marcus 8.8; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 123,
citing W. Eck, Die Satthalter der germ. Provinzen (1985),
65ff.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 120, citing Ad Verum
Imperator 1.3.2 (= Haines 1.298ff).
- Ad Antoninum Imperator 4.2.3 (= Haines 1.302ff), qtd.
and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 119.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 120.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 120, citing Ad Verum
Imperator 1.1 (= Haines 1.305).
- Ad Antoninum Imperator 4.1 (= Haines 1.300ff), qtd.
and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 120.
- HA Marcus 8.3–4; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
120.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 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.
- HA Marcus 8.4–5; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
120.
- HA Marcus 11.3, cited in Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 278 n.16.
- Ad Antoninum Imperator 1.2.2 (= Haines 2.35), qtd. and
tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 128.
- De eloquentia 1.12 (= Haines 2.63–65), qtd. and tr.
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 128.
- Ad Antoninum Imperator 1.2.2 (= Haines 2.35); Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 127–28.
- Ad Antoninum Imperator 1.2.4 (= Haines 2.41–43), tr.
Haines; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 128.
- HA Pius 12.7; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 114,
121.
- Event: HA Marcus 8.6; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 121. Date: Jaap-Jan Flinterman, "The Date of
Lucian's Visit to Abonuteichos," Zeitschrift für Papyrologie
und Epigraphik 119 (1997): 281.
- HA Marcus 8.6; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
121.
- Lucian, Alexander 27; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 121.
- Lucian, Alexander 27; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 121–22. On Alexander, see: Robin Lane Fox,
Pagans and Christians (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986),
241–50.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 278 n.19.
- Dio 71.2.1; Lucian, Historia Quomodo Conscribenda 21,
24, 25; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 121–22.
- HA Marcus 8.7; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
122.
- HA Pius 7.11; Marcus 7.2; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 103–4, 122.
- HA Marcus 8.6; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
123.
- Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum 8.7050– 51; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 123.
- Incriptiones Latinae Selectae 1097– 98; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 123.
- Incriptiones Latinae Selectae 1091; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
123.
- Incriptiones Latinae Selectae 2311; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
123.
- HA Marcus 12.13; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
123.
- L'Année Épigraphique 1972.657; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
125.
- HA Verus 9.2; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
125.
- De Feriis Alsiensibus 1 (= Haines 2.3); Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 126.
- De Feriis Alsiensibus 3.1 (= Haines 2.5), qtd. and tr.
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 126.
- De Feriis Alsiensibus 3.4 (= Haines 2.9); Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 126–27.
- De Feriis Alsiensibus 3.6–12 (= Haines 2.11–19);
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 126–27.
- De Feriis Alsiensibus 4, tr. Haines 2.19; Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 127.
- De Feriis Alsiensibus 4 (= Haines 2.19), qtd. and tr.
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 127.
- De bello Parthico 10 (= Haines 2.31), qtd. and tr.
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 127.
- De bello Parthico 1–2 (= Haines 2.21–23).
- De bello Parthico 1 (= Haines 2.21), qtd. and tr.
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 127.
- Ad Verum Imperator 2.1.19 (= Haines 2.149); Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 129.
- Dio 71.1.3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 123.
- HA Verus 5.8; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 123,
125.
- HA Marcus 8.9, tr. Magie; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 123–26. On Lucius' voyage, see: HA Verus
6.7–9; HA Marcus 8.10–11; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 125–26.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 129.
- HA Verus 4.4; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
129.
- HA Verus 4.6, tr. Magie; cf. 5.7; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 129.
- HA Verus 8.7, 8.10–11; Fronto, Principae
Historia 17 (= Haines 2.217); Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 129.
- HA Verus 9.2; Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum
3.199; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
130–31.
- HA Verus 7.7; Marcus 9.4; Barnes, 72; Birley,
"Hadrian to the Antonines", 163; cf. also Barnes, "Legislation
Against the Christians", Journal of Roman Studies 58:1–2
(1968), 39; "Some Persons in the Historia Augusta",
Phoenix 26:2 (1972), 142, citing the Vita Abercii
44ff.
- HA Verus 7.10; Lucian, Imagines 3; Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 131. Cf. Lucian, Imagines,
Pro Imaginibus, passim.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 131; "Hadrian to the
Antonines", 163.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 131.
- HA Verus 7.7; Marcus 9.4; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 131.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 131, citing Anné
Épigraphique 1958.15.
- HA Verus 7.7; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
131.
- HA Marcus 9.4; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
131.
- HA Marcus 9.5–6; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
131.
- HA Marcus 9.1; Birley, "Hadrian to the Antonines",
162.
- HA Marcus 9.1; HA Verus 7.1–2; Ad Verrum
Imperator 2.3 (= Haines 2.133); Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 129; "Hadrian to the Antonines", 162.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 129; "Hadrian to the
Antonines", 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 71.3.1; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 131; "Hadrian to
the Antonines", 162; Millar, Near East, 113.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 280 n. 42; "Hadrian to the
Antonines", 162.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 131; "Hadrian to the
Antonines", 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, 130; "Hadrian to the
Antonines", 162.
- Fronto, Ad Verum Imperator 2.1.3 (= Haines 2.133);
Astarita, 41; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 130; "Hadrian to
the Antonines", 162.
- Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae 1098; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
130.
- Lucian, Historia Quomodo Conscribenda 15, 19; Birley,
"Hadrian to the Antonines", 163.
- Lucian, Historia Quomodo Conscribenda 20, 28; Birley,
"Hadrian to the Antonines", 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),
124ff., on the date.
- Birley, "Hadrian to the Antonines", 164.
- Birley, "Hadrian to the Antonines", 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", 164, citing P. Kneissl,
Die Siegestitulatur der römischen Kaiser. Untersuchungen zu den
Siegerbeinamen des 1. und 2. Jahrhunderts (Göttingen, 1969),
99 ff.
- Birley, "Hadrian to the Antonines", 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.
- Birley, "Hadrian to the Antonines", 164, citing Alföldy,
Konsulat, 24, 221.
- Ad Antoninum Imperator 2.1–2 (= Haines 2.94ff.);
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 132.
- 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.
- Codex Justinianus 7.2.6, qtd. and tr. Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 133.
- Digest 31.67.10, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 133.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 133.
- Dio 72.11.3–4; Ad amicos 1.12 (= Haines 2.173);
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 132.
- Dio 72.11.3–4; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 132, citing
De nepote amisso 2 (= Haines 2.222); Ad Verum
Imperator 2.9–10 (= Haines 2.232ff.).
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 133, citing Geza Alföldy,
Konsulat und Senatorenstand (1977), Moesia Inferior: 232
f.; Moesia Superior: 234f.; Pannonia Superior: 236f.; Dacia: 245f.;
Pannonia Inferior: 251.
- Tr. Cary, ad loc.
- HA Marcus 1.1, 27.7; Dio 71.1.1; James Francis,
Subversive Virtue: Asceticism and Authority in the
Second-Century Pagan World (University Park: Pennsylvania
State University Press, 1995), 21 n. 1.
- Francis, 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.
- Gregory Hays. Introduction to Marcus Aurelius Meditations
Weidenfeld and Nicholson London2003 pxlix
- Stertz, 434, citing Themistius, Oratio 6.81; HA
Cassius 3.5; Aurelius Victor, De Caesaribus
16.9.
- Gregory Hays. Introduction to Marcus Aurelius Meditations
Weidenfeld and Nicholson London 2003 pp xlviii-xlix.
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' Loeb edition.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 229–30. The thesis of single
authorship was first proposed in H. Dessau's "Über Zeit und
Persönlichkeit der Scriptoes Historiae Augustae" (in
German), Hermes 24 (1889), 337ff.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 230. On the HA
Verus, see Barnes, 65–74.
- Mary Beard, " Was He
Quite Ordinary?", London Review of Books 31:14 (23
July 2009), accessed 15 September 2009; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 226.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 227.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 228–29, 253.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 227–28.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 228.
- HA Marcus 1.2, 1.4; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
28; McLynn, 14.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 29; McLynn, 14.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 29, citing Pliny,
Epistulae 8.18.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 30.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 49.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 31, 44.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 31.
- Meditations 1.1, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 31.
- HA Marcus 2.1 and Meditations 5.4, qtd. in
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 32.
- Meditations 1.3, qtd. in Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 35.
- Meditations 1.17.7, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 35.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 33.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 2.8.2 (= Haines 1.142), qtd. and
tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 31.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 31–32.
- Meditations 1.1, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 35.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 35.
- Meditations 1.17.2; Farquharson, 1.102; McLynn, 23;
cf. Meditations 1.17.11; Farquharson, 1.103.
- McLynn, 20–21.
- Meditations 1.4; McLynn, 20.
- HA Marcus 2.2, 4.9; Meditations 1.3; Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 37; McLynn, 21–22.
- HA Marcus 2.6; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 38;
McLynn, 21.
- HA Marcus 2.3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 40,
270 n.27.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 40, citing Aelius Aristides,
Oratio 32 K; McLynn, 21.
- Meditations 1.10; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
40; McLynn, 22.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 40, 270 n.28, citing A.S.L.
Farquharson, The Meditations of Marcus Antoninus (Oxford,
1944) 2.453.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 42.
- HA Marcus 4.1, 4.2; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
36.
- HA Marcus 4.4; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 37;
McLynn, 19.
- HA Marcus 4.5; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
39–40; McLynn, 24–25; R. Syme, "The Ummidii", Historia
17:1 (1968): 93–94.
- HA Marcus 4.6; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
41.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 41.
- HA Marcus 4.7; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
41.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 41–42.
- HA Hadrian 23.10, qtd. in Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 42.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 42. 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): 319–30.
- HA Hadrian 23.15–16; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
45; "Hadrian to the Antonines", 148.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 46. Date: Birley, "Hadrian to
the Antonines", 148.
- Dio 69.21.1; HA Hadrian 24.1; HA Aelius 6.9;
HA Pius 4.6–7; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
48–49.
- HA Marcus 5.3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
49.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 49–50.
- HA Marcus 5.6–8, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 50.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 80–81.
- Dio 69.22.4; HA Hadrian 25.5–6; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 50–51. Hadrian's suicide attempts: Dio 69.22.1–4;
HA Hadrian 24.8–13.
- HA Hadrian 25.7; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
53.
- HA Pius 5.3, 6.3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
55–56; "Hadrian to the Antonines", 151.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 55; "Hadrian to the
Antonines", 151.
- HA Marcus 6.2; Verus 2.3–4; Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 53–54.
- Dio 71.35.5; HA Marcus 6.3; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 56.
- Meditations 6.30, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 57; cf. Marcus Aurelius, 270 n.9, with
notes on the translation.
- HA Marcus 6.3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
57.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 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, 57.
- Meditations 8.9, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 57.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 57–58.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 4.7, qtd. and tr. Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 90.
- HA Marcus 6.5; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
58.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 89.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 5.1, qtd. and tr. Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 89.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 4.8, qtd. and tr. Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 89.
- Dio 71.36.3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 89.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 90–91.
- HA Pius 10.2, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 91.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 91.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 61.
- HA Marcus 2.4; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
62.
- Alan Cameron, review of Anthony Birley's Marcus
Aurelius, Classical Review 17:3 (1967): 347.
- HA Marcus 3.6; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
62.
- Vita Sophistae 2.1.14; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 63–64.
- Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 9.2.1–7; Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 64–65.
- Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 19.12, qtd. and tr.
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 65.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 65.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 67–68, citing E. Champlin,
Fronto and Antonine Rome (1980), esp. chs. 3 and 4.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 65–67.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 69.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 4.6 (= Haines 1.80ff), qtd. and tr.
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 76.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 4.6 (= Haines 1.80ff); Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 76–77.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 3.10–11 (= Haines 1.50ff), qtd. and
tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 73.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 73.
- Champlin, "Chronology of Fronto", 138.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 5.74 ( =Haines 2.52ff), qtd. and
tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 73.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 77. On the date, see
Champlin, "Chronology of Fronto", 142, who (with Bowersock,
Greek Sophists in the Roman Empire (1964), 93ff) argues
for a date in the 150s; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 78–79,
273 n.17 (with Ameling, Herodes Atticus (1983), 1.61ff,
2.30ff) argues for 140.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 3.2 (= Haines 1.58ff), qtd. and tr.
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 77–78.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 3.3 (= Haines 1.62ff); Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 78.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 3.3 (= Haines 1.62ff), qtd. and tr.
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 79.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 80.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 4.13 (= Haines 1.214ff), qtd. and
tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 93.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 4.3.1 (= Haines 1.2ff); Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 94.
- HA Marcus 3.5–8, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 94.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 4.3, qtd. and tr. Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 69.
- De Eloquentia 4.5 (= Haines 2.74), qtd. and tr.
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 95. Alan Cameron, in his review
of Birley's biography (The Classical Review 17:3 (1967):
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, 94, 105.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 95; Champlin,
Fronto, 120.
- Ad Antoninum Imperator 1.2.2 (= Haines 2.36), qtd. and
tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 95.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 94–95, 101.
- Champlin, Fronto, 120.
- Meditations 1.7, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 94–95.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 103.
- Ad Marcum Caesarem 4.11 (= Haines 1.202ff), qtd. and
tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 105.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 247 F.1.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 206–7.
- Meditations 9.40, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 207.
- Meditations 10.34, tr. Farquharson, 78, 224.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 107.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 107–8.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 108.
- Inscriptiones Graecae ad Res Romanas pertinentes
4.1399, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 114.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 114.
- HA Verus 2.9–11; 3.4–7; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 108.
- HA Verus 2.9–11; 3.4–7; Barnes, 68; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 108.
- Barnes, 68, citing J. Vogt, Die Alexandrinischen
Miinzen (1924), I, III; 2, 62ff.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 112.
- HA Pius 12.4–8; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
114.
- Dio 71.33.4–5; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 114.
- HA Marcus 7.5, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 116.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 116. Birley takes the phrase
horror imperii from HA Pert. 13.1 and 15.8.
- Birley, "Hadrian to the Antonines", 156.
- HA Verus 3.8; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 116;
"Hadrian to the Antonines", 156.
- HA Verus 4.1; Marcus 7.5; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 116.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 116–17.
- HA Verus 4.2, tr. David Magie, cited in Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 117, 278 n.4.
- HA Marcus 7.9; Verus 4.3; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 117–18.
- HA Marcus 7.9; Verus 4.3; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 117–18. "twice the size": Richard Duncan-Jones,
Structure and Scale in the Roman Economy (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1990), 109.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 118.
- HA Marcus 7.10, tr. David Magie, cited in Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 118, 278 n.6.
- HA Marcus 7.10–11; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
118.
- HA Pius 12.8; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
118–19.
- HA Marcus 7.4; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
119.
- HA Comm. 1.3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
119.
- HA Comm. 1.2; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
119.
- HA Comm. 1.4, 10.2; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
119.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 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 7.7; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
118.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 118, citing Werner Eck,
Die Organisation Italiens (1979), 146ff.
- HA Marcus 8.1, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 119; "Hadrian to the Antonines", 157.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 122–23, 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), 142ff., 151ff.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 123, citing H.G. Pfalum,
Les carrières procuratoriennes équestres sous le Haut-Empire
romain I–III (Paris, 1960–61); Supplément (Paris,
1982), no. 141.
- HA Marcus 8.8; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 123,
citing W. Eck, Die Satthalter der germ. Provinzen (1985),
65ff.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 120, citing Ad Verum
Imperator 1.3.2 (= Haines 1.298ff).
- Ad Antoninum Imperator 4.2.3 (= Haines 1.302ff), qtd.
and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 119.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 120.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 120, citing Ad Verum
Imperator 1.1 (= Haines 1.305).
- Ad Antoninum Imperator 4.1 (= Haines 1.300ff), qtd.
and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 120.
- HA Marcus 8.3–4; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
120.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 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.
- HA Marcus 8.4–5; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
120.
- HA Marcus 11.3, cited in Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 278 n.16.
- Ad Antoninum Imperator 1.2.2 (= Haines 2.35), qtd. and
tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 128.
- De eloquentia 1.12 (= Haines 2.63–65), qtd. and tr.
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 128.
- Ad Antoninum Imperator 1.2.2 (= Haines 2.35); Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 127–28.
- Ad Antoninum Imperator 1.2.4 (= Haines 2.41–43), tr.
Haines; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 128.
- HA Pius 12.7; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 114,
121.
- Event: HA Marcus 8.6; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 121. Date: Jaap-Jan Flinterman, "The Date of
Lucian's Visit to Abonuteichos," Zeitschrift für Papyrologie
und Epigraphik 119 (1997): 281.
- HA Marcus 8.6; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
121.
- Lucian, Alexander 27; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 121.
- Lucian, Alexander 27; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 121–22. On Alexander, see: Robin Lane Fox,
Pagans and Christians (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986),
241–50.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 278 n.19.
- Dio 71.2.1; Lucian, Historia Quomodo Conscribenda 21,
24, 25; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 121–22.
- HA Marcus 8.7; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
122.
- HA Pius 7.11; Marcus 7.2; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 103–4, 122.
- HA Marcus 8.6; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
123.
- Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum 8.7050– 51; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 123.
- Incriptiones Latinae Selectae 1097– 98; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 123.
- Incriptiones Latinae Selectae 1091; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
123.
- Incriptiones Latinae Selectae 2311; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
123.
- HA Marcus 12.13; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
123.
- L'Année Épigraphique 1972.657; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
125.
- HA Verus 9.2; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
125.
- De Feriis Alsiensibus 1 (= Haines 2.3); Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 126.
- De Feriis Alsiensibus 3.1 (= Haines 2.5), qtd. and tr.
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 126.
- De Feriis Alsiensibus 3.4 (= Haines 2.9); Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 126–27.
- De Feriis Alsiensibus 3.6–12 (= Haines 2.11–19);
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 126–27.
- De Feriis Alsiensibus 4, tr. Haines 2.19; Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 127.
- De Feriis Alsiensibus 4 (= Haines 2.19), qtd. and tr.
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 127.
- De bello Parthico 10 (= Haines 2.31), qtd. and tr.
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 127.
- De bello Parthico 1–2 (= Haines 2.21–23).
- De bello Parthico 1 (= Haines 2.21), qtd. and tr.
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 127.
- Ad Verum Imperator 2.1.19 (= Haines 2.149); Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 129.
- Dio 71.1.3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 123.
- HA Verus 5.8; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 123,
125.
- HA Marcus 8.9, tr. Magie; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 123–26. On Lucius' voyage, see: HA Verus
6.7–9; HA Marcus 8.10–11; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 125–26.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 129.
- HA Verus 4.4; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
129.
- HA Verus 4.6, tr. Magie; cf. 5.7; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 129.
- HA Verus 8.7, 8.10–11; Fronto, Principae
Historia 17 (= Haines 2.217); Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 129.
- HA Verus 9.2; Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum
3.199; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
130–31.
- HA Verus 7.7; Marcus 9.4; Barnes, 72; Birley,
"Hadrian to the Antonines", 163; cf. also Barnes, "Legislation
Against the Christians", Journal of Roman Studies 58:1–2
(1968), 39; "Some Persons in the Historia Augusta",
Phoenix 26:2 (1972), 142, citing the Vita Abercii
44ff.
- HA Verus 7.10; Lucian, Imagines 3; Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 131. Cf. Lucian, Imagines,
Pro Imaginibus, passim.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 131; "Hadrian to the
Antonines", 163.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 131.
- HA Verus 7.7; Marcus 9.4; Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 131.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 131, citing Anné
Épigraphique 1958.15.
- HA Verus 7.7; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
131.
- HA Marcus 9.4; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
131.
- HA Marcus 9.5–6; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
131.
- HA Marcus 9.1; Birley, "Hadrian to the Antonines",
162.
- HA Marcus 9.1; HA Verus 7.1–2; Ad Verrum
Imperator 2.3 (= Haines 2.133); Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 129; "Hadrian to the Antonines", 162.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 129; "Hadrian to the
Antonines", 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 71.3.1; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 131; "Hadrian to
the Antonines", 162; Millar, Near East, 113.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 280 n. 42; "Hadrian to the
Antonines", 162.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 131; "Hadrian to the
Antonines", 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, 130; "Hadrian to the
Antonines", 162.
- Fronto, Ad Verum Imperator 2.1.3 (= Haines 2.133);
Astarita, 41; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 130; "Hadrian to
the Antonines", 162.
- Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae 1098; Birley, Marcus Aurelius,
130.
- Lucian, Historia Quomodo Conscribenda 15, 19; Birley,
"Hadrian to the Antonines", 163.
- Lucian, Historia Quomodo Conscribenda 20, 28; Birley,
"Hadrian to the Antonines", 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),
124ff., on the date.
- Birley, "Hadrian to the Antonines", 164.
- Birley, "Hadrian to the Antonines", 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", 164, citing P. Kneissl,
Die Siegestitulatur der römischen Kaiser. Untersuchungen zu den
Siegerbeinamen des 1. und 2. Jahrhunderts (Göttingen, 1969),
99 ff.
- Birley, "Hadrian to the Antonines", 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.
- Birley, "Hadrian to the Antonines", 164, citing Alföldy,
Konsulat, 24, 221.
- Ad Antoninum Imperator 2.1–2 (= Haines 2.94ff.);
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 132.
- 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.
- Codex Justinianus 7.2.6, qtd. and tr. Birley,
Marcus Aurelius, 133.
- Digest 31.67.10, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus
Aurelius, 133.
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 133.
- Dio 72.11.3–4; Ad amicos 1.12 (= Haines 2.173);
Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 132.
- Dio 72.11.3–4; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 132, citing
De nepote amisso 2 (= Haines 2.222); Ad Verum
Imperator 2.9–10 (= Haines 2.232ff.).
- Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 133, citing Geza Alföldy,
Konsulat und Senatorenstand (1977), Moesia Inferior: 232
f.; Moesia Superior: 234f.; Pannonia Superior: 236f.; Dacia: 245f.;
Pannonia Inferior: 251.
- Tr. Cary, ad loc.
- HA Marcus 1.1, 27.7; Dio 71.1.1; James Francis,
Subversive Virtue: Asceticism and Authority in the
Second-Century Pagan World (University Park: Pennsylvania
State University Press, 1995), 21 n. 1.
- Francis, 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.
- Gregory Hays. Introduction to Marcus Aurelius Meditations
Weidenfeld and Nicholson London2003 pxlix
- Stertz, 434, citing Themistius, Oratio 6.81; HA
Cassius 3.5; Aurelius Victor, De Caesaribus
16.9.
- Gregory Hays. Introduction to Marcus Aurelius Meditations
Weidenfeld and Nicholson London 2003 pp xlviii-xlix.
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