AURE'LIUS, MAncts, surnamed ANTONINUS (A.D. 121-1801. A Roman Emperor. He was born at Rome, April 21. 121, the son of Annius Verus and Domitia Calvilla. His original name was Marcus Annius Verne. (in his father's death, he was adopted by his grandfather, who spared no pains to render him preeminent in every art and science. His fine qualities early attracted the no tice of the Emperor Hadrian. who used to term him not Vcros, but Ierissim us, and who con ferred high honors on hint, even while a child. \\ien only 17 years of age, he was adopted, with Lucius Ceionius Commodus Ceres (com monly known as Lucius Verus), by Antoninus Pius, the successor of Hadrian; and Faustina, the (laughter of Antoninus, was selected for his wife. In the year 140 he was made consul; and from this period to the death of Antoninus, in 161, he continued to discharge the duties of his various offices with the greatest promptitude and fidelity. The relation which subsisted between him and the Emperor was of the warmest and most familiar kind. On his accession to the throne he strikingly illustrated the magnanimity of his character by voluntarily sharing the gov ernment (which Antoninus had left, in his last moments, and the Senate offered, to him alone) with young Lucius Ceres, to wh 0711 gave his daughter in marriage. Toward the close of 161, the Parthian War broke out, and Liming, a young man of vigor and action, was sent to the frontiers of the Empire to repel the incursions of the barbarians; but, intoxi cated with the enervating pleasures of the East, he obstinately refused to go beyond Antioch, and intrusted the command of the army to his lieutenant, Cassius. who gained several bril liant victories. Lucius returned to P,ome in 166, and enjoyed a triumph to which he had no real claim; for all the great achievements of the war were accomplished by his officers, while he une reveling in the most extravagant licen tiousness.
In the meantime, Marcus AtIrelius had dis tinguished himself by the prudence and energy with which he administered affairs at home. A formidable insurrection had long been pre paring in the German Provinces; the Britons were on the point of revolt, and the Chatti (Hessians) were waiting. for an opportunity to devastate the Rhenish Provinces. Within Home it-:elf raged a pestilence, believed to have been brought home by the troops of Lucius; frightful inundations and earthquakes had laid large por tions of the city in ruins, destroyed the gran :tries in which were kept the supplies of corn, and thus created almost universal distress, which stimulated to an incalculable degree the terror which the citizens entertained of their savage enemies. To allay the popular perturbation, Marcus resolved to go forth to the war himself. Hecatombs were offered to the offended gods, and the Roman legions set out for the north. Mar cus and Lucius were, for the time, completely successful. The pride of the Marcomanni and the other rebellious tribes inhabiting the coun try between lllvria and the sources of the Dan ube, was humbled, and they were compelled to sue for peace in 168; in the following year Lucius died. The contest was renewed in 170, and may be said to have continued with intermissions during the whole life of the Em peror. Although fond of peace, both from
natural disposition and philosophic culture, he displayed the sternest rigor in suppressing the revolts of the barbarians; but in order to ac complish this, he had to enroll among his sol diery vast numbers of gladiators and slaves, for his army had been thinned by the ravages of the plague. His headquarters were Pannonia, out of which he drove the Mareomanni, whom he sub sequently all but annihilated in crossing the Danube. The same fate befell the lazyges; hut the most famous as well as the most extraor dinary of all his victories was the miraculous one which he gained over the Quadi (174), and which gave rise to copious discussion among Christian historians and others. Dio Cassius's account is that the Romans were perishing of thirst in the heat of summer, when suddenly the cloudless sky darkened and abundant showers fell, of which the soldiers were taking advantage when the barbarians attacked, and would have cut them to pieces, if a storm of hail and fire had not descended on the former. That some extraordinary phenomenon occurred is evident, for there is a letter of Aurelius still extant in which he commemorates the event: and he was a than incapable of uttering a falsehood. not to mention that there was an entire army living to disprove the statement if untrue. effect of this remarkable victory was instantaneously and widely felt. The Germanic tribes hurried from all quarters to make their submission and oh tu in clemency; but the practical advantages that. might have resulted from this were nullified by a new outbreak in the East, occasioned through the infamous treachery of the Empress, which demanded his presence; and though suffering from failing health. he was obliged to leave Pan nonia. Before his departure, however, he learned that the ambitious governor, Avidius Cassius. who had rebelled against him and seized the whole of Asia Minor, had perished by assassina tion. The conduct of Marcus Aurelius on hear of his enemy's death was worthy of the sublime virtue of his character. He lamented that the fates had not granted him his fondest wish—to have freely pardoned the man who had so basely conspired against his happiness. Like Caesar in similar circumstances, hut in a more purely humane spirit, he received the head of his murdered adversary with feelings quite op posite to what had been anticipated, rejecting the bloody gift with all the loathing of a benevo lent nature, and even shrinking from the presence of the murderers. On his arrival in the East, he exhibited the same remarkable magnanimity. He burned the papers of Cassius without reading them, so that he might not be at liberty to sus pect any as traitors; treated the provinces which had rebelled with extreme gentleness; disarmed the enmity and dispelled the fears of the nobles who had openly favored his insurgent Iiautenant. While he was pursuing his work of restoring tranquillity, Faustina died in an ob scure village at the foot of Mount Taurus; and her husband (and this was perhaps the greatest defect in his character), though undoubtedly conscious of her glaring profligacy and infidelity, paid the most lavish honors to her memory.