Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius
Roman emperor
Bust of Marcus Aurelius. Musée Saint-Raymond.
Reign	March 8, 161 – March 17, 180
Predecessor	Antoninus Pius
Successor	Commodus
Born	April 26, 121 Rome (Italia)
Died	March 17, 180 (aged 58) Vindobona (Pannonia Superior) or Sirmium (Pannonia Inferior)
Spouse	Faustina the Younger (145–175)
Issue	Commodus, Lucilla, Marcus Annius Verus Caesar, Fadilla, Annia Cornificia Faustina the Younger
Dynasty	Antonine
Father	Marcus Annius Verus (biological) Antoninus Pius (adoptive)
Mother	Domitia Lucilla

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (in Latin: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus; Rome, April 26, 121 – Vindobona or Sirmium, March 17, 180), known as Marcus Aurelius, was an emperor of the Roman Empire from 161 until the year of his death, in 180. He was the last of the so-called Five Good Emperors, and the third of the emperors descended from a family of former Italic colonists settled in the province of Baetica, and he is considered one of the most representative figures of Stoic philosophy. Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus were adopted sons of Antoninus Pius by order of Hadrian, and they were also co-emperors of the Empire.

His rule was marked by military conflicts in Asia against a revitalized Parthian Empire and in Germania Superior against the barbarian tribes settled along the Limes Germanicus, in Gaul and along the Danube. During the period of his reign he had to face a revolt in the eastern provinces led by Avidius Cassius, which he crushed. He ruled alone for a short time after the death of Lucius Verus as a consequence of the Antonine Plague in 169, although from 177 he ruled together with his son Commodus, who would succeed him.

Marcus Aurelius's great work, the Meditations, written in Hellenistic Greek during the campaigns of the 170s, is still considered a monument to perfect government. It is often described as "a work written exquisitely and with infinite tenderness."

Family

He was the only male heir of the politician Marcus Annius Verus and Domitia Lucilla. From this marriage was also born his younger sister, Annia Cornificia Faustina, who was approximately two years younger than he. Domitia Lucilla came from a wealthy and powerful family of consular rank, while the father of Marcus Aurelius came from a family of Italic colonists belonging to a branch of the gens Annia, natives of Setia (a city of Latium, in Italy), but settled in the province of Hispania Baetica, and more precisely in Ucubi (present-day Espejo, Córdoba); his father, having entered the Roman Senate, had held the office of praetor and had died when his son was three years old. When he ascended the throne, Marcus Aurelius always claimed that his mother had taught him that it was possible to live without ostentation (Meditations, 1.3.).Grimal (1997), pp. 35–38

His paternal great-aunt was Vibia Sabina, wife of the Emperor Hadrian. Rupilia Faustina, the paternal grandmother of Marcus Aurelius, and Vibia Sabina were half-sisters, both daughters of Matidia the Elder, niece of the emperor Trajan.

After the death of his father, he was adopted and designated heir by his mother and by his paternal grandfather, Marcus Annius Verus. Verus died in the year 138, when Marcus Aurelius was nineteen years old.

Heir to the Empire

Bust of the young Marcus Aurelius, Rome.

In the year 136, the Emperor Hadrian designated as his heir Lucius Ceionius Commodus, commonly known by the name of Lucius Aelius Caesar. For his part, Marcus Aurelius had attracted the attention of Hadrian, who affectionately nicknamed him verissimus. This term could be translated as honest. When the young noble was six years old, it was the Emperor Hadrian himself who arranged his admission into the ordo equester. Later, Marcus Aurelius was betrothed to the daughter of Aelius Caesar, Ceionia Fabia. However, after the death of Aelius the engagement was annulled and Marcus Aurelius became betrothed to the daughter of Antoninus.

Hadrian, upon the death of his adopted son, Lucius Aelius Caesar, decided to name Antoninus Pius as heir to the Empire on the condition that he adopt Marcus Aurelius, then called Marcus Aelius Aurelius Verus, and Lucius Ceionius Commodus, the son of Lucius Aelius, who would later be known as Lucius Verus, as heirs, and that he name them as the next in the line of succession.

Antoninus kept his word and, after their formal adoption, designated them as his heirs and successors to the throne on February 25, 138, when Marcus Aurelius was only 17 years old. At the age of 40, Marcus Aurelius finally ascended the throne together with Lucius Verus, an arrangement that would last until the death of the latter. Modern historians have theorized that the appointments of Aelius Caesar and Antoninus Pius as caesars were intended solely to legitimize the rise of the young and precocious Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus.

Information about the life of Marcus Aurelius during the reign of Antoninus Pius has come down to us through the correspondence he kept with one of the tutors who had been assigned to him by the late Emperor Hadrian, Marcus Cornelius Fronto, a prominent cultural figure of the time. Through these letters, Marcus appears as an intelligent, focused and hardworking man. In addition to their informative role, their epistolary character shows us the growing importance of philosophy in the life of the heir to the empire: Marcus Aurelius produced small works in Greek and in Latin, and came to be a lover of the work of the Stoic poet Epictetus, the Diatribai (Discourses). Marcus Aurelius also began to play an increasingly important role in the public life of Rome, though always in the shadow of Antoninus. The political career of Marcus Aurelius began when he was designated by Antoninus Pius for the consulship in the years 140, 145 and 161. Marcus also had great influence over the decisions made by the Emperor. In 147 he received a proconsular imperium, effective outside the capital, and the tribunicia potestas, the greatest power that anyone other than the emperor himself could receive. In the year 145 he married Annia Galeria Faustina, better known as Faustina the Younger, daughter of the Emperor Antoninus and thus a paternal cousin of Marcus Aurelius. After the marriage, Aurelius changed his name to Marcus Annius Verus.

Emperor of Rome

Accession to the throne

Aureus of Marcus Aurelius.

Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius, Capitoline Museums.

When Antoninus Pius died on March 7, 161, Marcus Aurelius accepted the throne on the condition that he and Verus be jointly named Augustus. Upon being named Emperor, he definitively changed his name to Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Despite this arrangement, Verus, less popular and younger than Marcus Aurelius, accepted a subordinate role in the government of the Empire.

Marcus Aurelius's stubborn insistence that Verus be chosen Emperor alongside him earned him the latter's loyalty throughout his life. The joint succession may have been due to the fact that Verus had military experience and talent, something very necessary during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, in which the Empire was constantly at war with various peoples. An authoritative figure valued among the soldiers was urgently needed, and Marcus Aurelius could not defend the Parthian and Germanic fronts at the same time. Nevertheless, Marcus Aurelius could have named a general to lead the legions in the east. However, there was a bad precedent whereby the generals Julius Caesar and Vespasian had overthrown their respective governments, installing themselves in a position of unchallengeable power. Marcus Aurelius solved the problem by sending Verus to command the legions stationed in the East. Verus was a sufficiently authoritative figure to guarantee the full loyalty of the troops, but he was not powerful enough to aspire to overthrow Marcus Aurelius. The Emperor's maneuver succeeded, and Verus remained loyal until his death during a campaign in the year 169.

The shared rule slightly recalls the elective system used in the Roman Republic, in which no man was allowed to hold supreme power. Joint government was revived by the Emperor Diocletian with the establishment of the Tetrarchy at the end of the 3rd century.

At the beginning of his reign, Marcus Aurelius followed the path of his predecessors, issuing numerous legal reforms that limited the abuses of civil jurisprudence. Above all, he promoted measures favorable to slaves, widows and minors, recognizing blood relationships with regard to succession. In civil law he established a social division between the honestiores and the humiliores ("the more distinguished" and "the less distinguished," respectively).

Under the rule of Marcus Aurelius, the situation of the Christians remained the same as in the time of Trajan: they were legally more vulnerable than the rest of the plebs, but persecutions became very rare. When in the year 177, probably because of a popular revolt, massacres of Christians took place in the French city of Lyon, the local governor sent him an inquiry about the measures he should take in this regard; Marcus Aurelius replied that he should punish only those who did not renounce their faith.Grimal (1997), p. 322

International conflicts

War with Parthia

Arch of Marcus Aurelius in Tripoli, erected in memory of the Emperor.

In the province of Asia, a revitalized Parthian Empire renewed its assault on the imperial possessions in 161. The conflict began with the defeat of two Roman armies and the Parthian invasion of the territories of Armenia and Syria. On receiving news of the outbreak of hostilities, Marcus Aurelius decided to send his colleague with orders to command the legions stationed in the East and confront the invader. The war ended successfully in the year 166, although the credit for the victory was due exclusively to the good work of Verus's subordinate generals, such as Gaius Avidius Cassius. When he returned from his campaign, Verus was rewarded with a triumph. The parade through the city was extremely unusual, since it included the two emperors and their entire families, recalling that of Titus when he returned from his campaign in Judaea. Marcus Aurelius's two sons, Commodus and Annius Verus, were raised to the rank of Caesar for the occasion.

The return of Verus's army brought with it a plague, known as the Antonine Plague or the Plague of Galen, which spread through the Roman Empire between 165 and 180. The disease turned into an uncontrollable pandemic, a variety of smallpox or measles, and irreversibly damaged the lives of the two emperors of the time. Lucius Verus lost his life in the year 169 because of this plague, and Marcus Aurelius saw his reputation damaged, since the name of his family (Antonine) was given to the plague. According to the historian Cassius Dio, the disease reappeared nine years later, causing 2,000 deaths a day in Rome. It is estimated that millions of people perished during this period.

Germania and the Danube

Main article: Marcomannic Wars

Bust of Marcus Aurelius, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

From the 160s, the Germanic peoples and other nomadic tribes launched raids along the northern frontier of the Empire, with attacks above all in Gaul and along the territories of the Danube. This new westward thrust of these peoples was probably due to attacks by tribes from the far East. A first invasion by the Chatti into the province of Germania Superior was repelled without difficulty in 162. More dangerous was another invasion begun in 166, when the Marcomanni from Bohemia, who had been clients of the Empire since the year 19, crossed the Danube together with the Lombards and other Germanic peoples. At the same time, the Sarmatians, a people of Iranian origin, attacked the territory between the Danube and the Theiss rivers.

Given the dangerous situation in the east, Marcus Aurelius and Verus were able to respond only with a single punitive expedition in the year 167, led by the two of them. After the death of Verus in 169, Marcus Aurelius personally led the forces against the Germanic peoples, remaining in this post for a large part of his life. The Romans suffered at least two defeats at the hands of the Quadi and the Marcomanni, who had crossed the Alps, threatening Opitergium (Oderzo) and besieging Aquileia, the most important city of northeastern Italy. At the same time, the tribe of the Costoboci migrated from their settlements in the Carpathian Mountains and invaded Moesia, Macedonia and Greece. After a prolonged and bloody war, Marcus Aurelius managed to drive back the invaders. Many of these Germanic peoples settled, after their defeat, in the territories of Dacia, Pannonia, Germania and Italy itself. This situation did not set a precedent, since on earlier occasions migrations of barbarian peoples had taken territories from the Empire. However, the large number of new inhabitants forced Marcus Aurelius to establish two new provinces on the western bank of the Danube, Sarmatia and Marcomannia, which include what are today Bohemia and Hungary.

After the victory over the Germanic peoples, the Emperor was able to concentrate his efforts on crushing a revolt in the East led by General Avidius Cassius (year 175). The rebel general had been deceived by false reports that the Emperor Marcus Aurelius had died after a long illness. All the eastern provinces, except Cappadocia and Bithynia, sided with the rebels. However, when news arrived that Marcus Aurelius was alive, Cassius's fortunes changed and he was quickly executed by his own troops after having remained in power for only a hundred days.

In order to restore the battered reputation of the Empire in the eastern provinces, Marcus Aurelius made a tour there together with his wife Faustina. He visited Athens, declaring himself before its inhabitants a protector of philosophy: with the aim of restoring that city as a center of philosophical culture, in 176 he founded four imperial chairs funded by the public treasury to teach the four traditional doctrines (Platonism, Aristotelianism, Epicureanism and Stoicism). After his triumph in Rome, he marched the following year to the Danube frontier, where he achieved a decisive victory against the Germanic peoples. After his victory, the annexation of the territories of Bohemia seemed imminent; however, the preparations for the final invasion were halted when Marcus Aurelius fell ill again with smallpox in the year 180.

Death and succession

The Roman Empire at the end of the reign of Marcus Aurelius, in 180

Marcus Aurelius died on March 17, 180, in the city of Vindobona (modern Vienna), in the company of his son and successor Commodus. After his death he was deified, and his ashes were taken to Rome, where they remained in the Mausoleum of Hadrian (modern Castel Sant'Angelo) until the sack of the city by the Visigoths in the year 410. A column was also built commemorating his victories against the Sarmatians and the Germanic peoples.

At his death, Marcus Aurelius was able to secure the succession of his son Commodus, whom he had named Caesar in 166 and with whom he had shared the government of the Empire since the year 177. In the end, however, this decision would prove very unfortunate. This appointment, which put an end to a series of "adoptive emperors," was later criticized by a number of historians, above all because Commodus became a paranoid political and military leader, extremely selfish and affected by neurotic problems. For this reason, the death of Marcus Aurelius has been considered the end of the Empire's period of greatest prosperity, known as the Pax Romana. It is possible that the choice of Commodus was due to the absence of other candidates or to the fear that an uncertain succession would give rise to a civil war.

Marriage and issue

Bust of Faustina the Younger, Louvre Museum, Paris.

Marcus Aurelius married Faustina the Younger in 145. During their thirty years of marriage, Faustina gave birth to thirteen children, of whom only one son and four daughters survived their father:

• Annia Aurelia Galeria Faustina (147–165)
• Twin of Lucilla (died around 150)
• Annia Aurelia Galeria Lucilla (148/50–182), married to her father's co-emperor, Lucius Verus
• Titus Aelius Aurelius (born 150 – died before March 7, 161)
• Hadrianus (born 152 – died before March 7, 161)
• Domitia Faustina (born 150 – died before March 7, 161)
• Aurelia Fadilla (born 159 – died before 192)
• Annia Cornificia Faustina the Younger (born 160 – died during the reign of the Emperor Caracalla (211–217)
• Titus Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus (161–165)
• Lucius Aurelius Commodus Antoninus, who would later become emperor (161–192)
• Marcus Annius Verus Caesar (162–169)
• Vibia Aurelia Sabina (170 – died before 217)

Literary work

While fighting in the campaigns of the 170s and 180, Aurelius wrote his Meditations as a source for his own guidance and personal improvement. The Emperor had been a priest at the altars of Roman sacrifice and was a convinced patriot. His notes are representative of a logical mind and of philosophical and spiritual thought in keeping with Stoicism, and in harmony with the principal Stoics of Baetic Cordoban roots: Seneca, Lucan, Helvia, Novatus, etc. His Meditations are considered a literary monument to a government at the service of duty. It is a work that has been praised for its exquisite tone and gentleness. Like many of the emperors of Rome, Marcus Aurelius was loved by his people.

Depiction of Marcus Aurelius in George Long's translated edition, Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.

The book was first published in 1558 in Zürich, transcribed from a manuscript that is now lost. The copy of the lost manuscript is in the Vatican Museums.

The significance of death was charged with great meaning in Stoic philosophy, although it did not believe in life after death. In one of his works, Marcus Aurelius writes:

"We live for an instant, only to fall into complete oblivion and the infinite void of time of this part of our existence." "Think of what they have done, after spending a life of relentless enmity, suspicion, hatred... now they are dead and reduced to ashes."

According to Marcus Aurelius, everything ends up falling into oblivion, even legends.

"The life of man is a mere duration, a point in time, its substance a current of distance, the composition of the body prone to decomposition, the soul a vortex, fortune incalculable and fame uncertain. The things of the body are like a river and the things of the soul like a dream of vapor; life is a war, and fame after death, only oblivion." "Everything that exists disintegrates, and everything created by nature is destined to die." "The length of each person's life is irrelevant, a step to see the enormous abyss of time behind you and before you in another infinity to come. In this eternity, the life of a three-day-old baby and the life of a Nestor of three centuries merge as one." "Desires lead to permanent worry and disappointment, since everything that is desired of this world is miserable and corrupt."

For Marcus Aurelius, death is desirable, since it puts an end to all desires.

Despite these reflections on life and death, Marcus Aurelius was a rational defender of virtue. According to Jonathan Dollimore, Marcus Aurelius had a kind of indifference toward the brutalities of life. As emperor, he persecuted Christians and frequently led armies in military campaigns. His very way of governing justifies the fact that, when he writes, he undervalues or points out the insignificance of worldly affairs.

Depictions in art

Bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius. Capitoline Museum, Rome.

There is a bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius which during the Middle Ages had stood at the Lateran Palace in Rome. In 1538 it was relocated to the Piazza del Campidoglio, on the Capitoline Hill. Today the original is inside the Capitoline Museum, while a copy of it is displayed in the square.

Statue of Marcus Aurelius in the Piazza del Campidoglio.

It is the only surviving bronze statue of a Roman Emperor from the pre-Christian era; the reason for its survival is that, after the conversion of Rome to Christianity, when the statues of the emperors were melted down to make statues destined for Christian churches, it was mistakenly thought to be a statue of the Emperor Constantine the Great, who Christianized Rome, and for this reason it was not destroyed. It was one of the few Roman statues that remained in public view during the Middle Ages. Although the image represents a victorious emperor, by appearing without weapons Marcus Aurelius seems more a peacemaker than a military hero. This statue is also depicted on the Italian 50 euro cent coin, designed by Roberto Mauri.

The return of Marcus Aurelius

In the ancient city of Sagalassos, in southern Turkey, a team of archaeologists led by Professor Marc Wealkens of the Belgian university of Leuven found, in August 2008, marble fragments that would make up a colossal statue of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. His bust weighs about 30 kg and the head is approximately one meter tall.

The remains were unearthed from the largest room in the Roman bath of Sagalassos, partially destroyed during an earthquake between the years 540 and 620. This room was probably used as a frigidarium, a cold-water pool into which bathers could immerse themselves after a hot bath. In the past year, the archaeologists had found at the same site fragments of other colossal sculptures of Hadrian and of Faustina the Elder, wife of the Emperor Antoninus Pius. For this reason they think that the room housed a gallery with the figures of the Antonine dynasty, a dynasty of Hispanic origin that presided over the Roman Empire in the 2nd century.

Marcus Aurelius, who reigned from 161 to 180, reflected a worldview shaped by Stoic philosophy in his work Meditations. Now his head from Sagalassos displays his prominent bulging eyes, which Waelkens considers significant, since he states that the pupils look upward "as if he were in an act of deep contemplation, very appropriate for a ruler who was more philosopher than soldier."

Appearances in literature and film

• Memoirs of Hadrian, by Marguerite Yourcenar (1951). A fictional yet plausible biography of one of his predecessors, Hadrian.
• The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), in which Sir Alec Guinness plays the role of Marcus Aurelius.
• Household Gods, by Judith Tarr (1999). A journey back in time to the age of Marcus Aurelius. ISBN 0-613-35147-9
• Gladiator (2000), a film by Ridley Scott, in which the role of Marcus Aurelius is played by the actor Richard Harris.
• The Silence of the Lambs (1991), a film by Jonathan Demme, in which Sir Anthony Hopkins, who plays the role of the serial killer Hannibal Lecter, briefly quotes the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.
• Black Sails (2014), a series by Jonathan E. Steinberg and Robert Levineen, in which a passage from the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius is quoted.

See also

• Augustus (title)
• Five Good Emperors
• Stoicism
• Galen
• List of Roman emperors
• (7447) Marcusaurelius

Bibliography

Classical sources

• Cassius Dio, Roman History: Books 71–72.
• Historia Augusta: Marcus Aurelius.
  • Latin text, on Wikisource.
  • English text at LacusCurtius.

Historiography

• Aurelio, Marco (1994). Meditaciones (in español) (1st ed.). Madrid: Editorial Gredos. ISBN 84-249-3497-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)

• Daurel, Fran (2000). Marco Aurelio: vida y pensamientos (in català). Barcelona: Viena ediciones. ISBN 84-8330-095-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
• Grimal, Pierre (1997). Marco Aurelio (in español). México D.F.: Fondo de Cultura Económica. ISBN 84-375-0434-1.
• Guevara, Fray Antonio de, Seville 1528 (1994). Libro áureo de Marco Aurelio: década de Césares. Obra completa, tomo 1 (in español). Madrid: Ediciones Turner, S.A. ISBN 84-7506-404-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

External links

• FRAY ANTONIO DE GUEVARA: Libro Áureo de Marco Aurelio. Seville. 1528.
  • Text on the Filosofía website.

• On Marcus Aurelius on the website of the Enciclopedia Católica.

• On the Marcomannic Wars on the Sátrapa website.

• Coins of the period of Marcus Aurelius: text on the Tesorillo website.

• Study of the Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius; on the website of the Open University of Catalonia.

• Famous sayings of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius; on the Proverbia website.
• Stoic sayings of Marcus Aurelius; on the Estoicopedia website.

• MARCUS AURELIUS.
  • Greek texts on Wikisource.
  • Translations into Italian.
  • Translations into French.
  • Translations into English.
  • Meditations (Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν).
    • Greek text on Wikisource.
    • Greek text in the Bibliotheca Augustana (Augsburg).
    • Spanish text (Archived at imperivm.org ) on the Imperivm website.
  • Thoughts.
    • English text on the website of Philippe Remacle (1944–2011): trans. by Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire (1805–1895); 1876 ed., in Paris.
    • Bilingual Greek–French text on Philippe Remacle's website.
  • Thoughts.
    • French text on the website of Philippe Remacle (1944–2011): trans. by Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire (1805–1895); 1876 ed., in Paris.
    • Bilingual Greek–French text on Philippe Remacle's website.
  • On himself
    • Greek text at the Perseus Project.

• Letters of Marcus Aurelius and Fronto.
  • Bilingual Latin–French text on Philippe Remacle's website: 1830 ed., in Paris.

• Marcus Aurelius on the website of the Bibliotheca Augustana.