MARCUS AURELIUS
Caesar:
A.D. 139-161 under Antoninus Pius
Augustus: A.D. 161-180
A.D. 161-169 with Lucius Verus
A.D. 169-177 Sole Reign
A.D. 177-180 with Commodus
Adopted son of Antoninus Pius and heir of Hadrian
Husband of Faustina Junior
Father of Commodus, Annius Verus, Lucilla and Aurelius Antoninus
Son-in-law of Antoninus Pius and Faustina Senior
Father-in-law of Lucius Verus
Marcus
Aurelius (Latin: Marcus
Aurelius Antoninus Augustus;
26 April 121 AD – 17 March 180 AD) was a Roman
Emperor from 161
to 180. He ruled with Lucius
Verus as
co-emperor from 161 until Verus' death in 169. He was the last of the Five
Good Emperors, and is also considered one of the most
important Stoic philosophers.
During his
reign, the Empire defeated
a revitalized Parthian
Empire in the
East; Aurelius' general Avidius
Cassius sacked the
capital Ctesiphon in
164. In central Europe, Aurelius fought the Marcomanni, Quadi,
and Sarmatians with
success during the Marcomannic
Wars, with the threat of the Germanic
tribes beginning
to represent a troubling reality for the Empire. A revolt in the East
led by Avidius Cassius failed to gain momentum and was suppressed
immediately.
Marcus Aurelius' Stoic tome Meditations,
written in Greek while on campaign between 170 and 180, is still revered
as a literary monument to a philosophy of service and duty, describing
how to find and preserve equanimity in the midst of conflict by
following nature as a source of guidance and inspiration.
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 4th century, but are in fact written by a single author
(referred to here as "the biographer") from the later 4th 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 more accurate. For
Marcus' life and rule, the biographies of Hadrian,
Antoninus Pius, Marcus and Lucius Verus are largely reliable, but those
of Aelius Verus and Avidius Cassius are full of fiction.
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
Marcus' family
originated in Ucubi,
a small town southeast of Córdoba in
Iberian Baetica.
The family rose to prominence in the late 1st 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 (II), was made a patrician. Verus'
elder son—Marcus Aurelius' father—Marcus
Annius Verus (III) 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.
A bust of Marcus Aurelius as a young boy (
Capitoline
Museum). Anthony Birley, Marcus' modern
biographer, writes of the bust: "This is certainly a grave
young man."
Lucilla and
Verus (III) had two children: a son, Marcus, born on 26 April 121, and a
daughter, 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". Even
so, 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, Lucius
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 an
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 leadingHomeric 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.
Succession to Hadrian, 136–38
In late 136,
Hadrian almost died from hemorrhage.
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 hemorrhage 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
Verus, 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."
Baiae, seaside resort and site of Hadrian's last days.
Marcus would holiday in the town with the imperial family in
the summer of 143.
(
J.M.W.
Turner,
The
Bay of Baiae, with Apollo and Sybil, 1823)
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, 138–45
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.
Antoninus
bolstered Marcus' dignity: Marcus was made consul for 140, with
Antoninus 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.
Antoninus
demanded that Marcus take up residence in the House of Tiberius, the
imperial palace on the Palatine. Antoninus 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 Antoninus 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, Antoninus Pius' son, under Roman law he was marrying
his sister; Antoninus 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 Antoninus, 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. The latter two were the
most esteemed orators of the day. (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.
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 1st 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, 147–160
On November 30,
147, Faustina gave birth to a girl, named Domitia Faustina. She was the
first of at least thirteen children (including two sets of twins) that
Faustina would bear over the next twenty-three years. The next day, 1
December, Antoninus 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 Antoninus
could introduce. His tribunican powers would be renewed, with Antoninus',
on 10 December 147.
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 6.146
Another 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.
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's dead
sisters, and Cornificia, after Marcus' dead sister.
Antoninus 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 25 (Marcus
held the office at 17). In 154, he was consul, nine years before the
legal age of 32 (Marcus held the office at 18 and 23). Lucius had no
other titles, except that of "son of Augustus". Lucius had a markedly
different personality from 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. Antoninus 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,
Antoninus Pius turned 70. 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 Antoninus 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
Antoninus was already ill; in any case, he died before the year was out.
Two days before
his death, the biographer reports, Antoninus 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, 7 March 161, 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. Antoninus
turned over, as if going to sleep, and died.
Emperor
Accession of Marcus and Lucius, 161
After 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 asPontifex
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 Antoninus' 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, with 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.
Upon his
accession he also devalued the Roman
currency. He decreased the silver purity of the denarius from
83.5% to 79% — the silver weight dropping from 2.68 grams to 2.57 grams. However,
Marcus would later revisit the issue of currency reform.
Antoninus 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 Antoninus' 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
Antoninus, now Divus
Antoninus. 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, Antoninus' 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
This marble portrait depicts Marcus Aurelius (reigned AD
161-180)
The
Walters Art Museum.
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, evidenced 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.
Tiber Island seen
at a forty-year high-water mark of the Tiber, December 2008.
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,
Antoninus 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.
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. Antoninus seems to have given him no military
experience; the biographer writes that Marcus spent the whole of
Antoninus' 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 (Antoninus
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
The dissolute Syrian army was said to spend more time in
Antioch's open-air cafés than with their units.
(Engraving
by
William
Millerafter a drawing by H. Warren from a sketch
by Captain
Byam
Martin, R.N., 1866)
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. 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, Gaius
Julius 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 Rex
armeniis Datus: 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. 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. 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 asimperatores 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 a 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. 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.
However, her will was invalid under the lex
Falcidia: Matidia had assigned more than three-quarters of her
estate to non-relatives. This was because many of her clients were
included in codicils to
her will. Matidia had never confirmed the documents, but as she was
dying, her clients had sealed them in with the original, making them
valid. Fronto urged Marcus to push the family's case, but Marcus
demurred, saying his brother would make the final decision.
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 ormeasles,
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 many
emperors, Marcus spent most of his time addressing matters of law such
as petitions and hearing disputes. 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). In
168 he revalued the denarius,
increasing the silver purity from 79% to 82% — the actual silver weight
increasing from 2.57 grams to 2.67 grams. However, two years later
Marcus reverted to the previous values because of the military crises
facing the empire.
War with Germanic tribes 166–180
-
For details, see: Marcomannic
Wars
The Roman Empire during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. His
annexation of lands of the Marcomanni and the Jazyges –
perhaps to be provincially called
Marcomannia and
Sarmatia
– was
cut short in 175 by the revolt of Avidius Cassius and in 180
by his death.
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
further 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 Czech Republic and Hungary. Some Germans who settled
in Ravenna revolted
and managed to seize possession of the city. For this reasion, Marcus
Aurelius decided not only to bring more barbarians into Italy, but even
banished those who had previously been brought there.
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, onlyCappadocia 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 annexBohemia seemed
poised for success but was abandoned after Marcus Aurelius again fell
ill in 180.
Death and
succession 180
Marcus Aurelius
died on 17 March 180, in the city of Vindobona (modern Vienna).
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 cityin 410. His campaigns against Germans and
Sarmatians were also commemorated by a column and
a temple built
in Rome.
Marcus gave the
succession to his son Commodus,
whom he had named Caesar in 166 and made co-emperor in 177. This
decision, putting an end to the 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.
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 son 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
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
acquired 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 philanthropic and
philosophic" than Antoninus Pius and Hadrian, and set him against the
persecuting emperors Domitian and Nero to make the contrast bolder. "Alone
of the emperors," wrote the historian Herodian, "he gave proof of his
learning not by mere words or knowledge of philosophical doctrines but
by his blameless character and temperate way of life."
The 1964 movie The
Fall of the Roman Empire and
the 2000 movie Gladiator featured
characters based on him. Both plots posited that Marcus Aurelius was
assassinated because he intended to pass down power to Aurelius's
adopted son, a Roman general, instead of his biological son Commodus.
Attitude
towards Christians
Although, before
becoming emperor, Marcus Aurelius followed the lenient line of the
emperors Hadrian and Antoninus
Pius, he is listed among the persecutors
of Christians along
with Nero, Domitian and Decius.
Henry Wace attributes his severity as emperor to rivalry between the
rising teachers of Christianity and the professors of the school of Stoicism to
which the emperor belonged, to a personal bitterness to which he gave
expression in his Meditations,
and to the occurrence of natural calamities that the populace attributed
to the anger of the gods against those who denied them and that the
Christians saw as signs of the end of the world.
Marriage and children
Aurelius married
his first
cousin 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)
- Annia Aurelia 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. The title
of this work was added posthumously—originally he entitled his work
simply: "To Myself". 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, Wen
Jiabao, and Bill
Clinton.
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.