Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (26 April 121-17 March 180) was the Emperor of the Roman Empire from 169 to 17 March 180, succeeding Antoninus Pius and preceding Commodus. Marcus Aurelius was considered one of the last great Roman emperors, as he was an accomplished political leader, military commander (especially during the Marcomannic Wars, and Stoic philosopher.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Marcus Aurelius in 180
Marcus Aurelius was born in 121 AD, the son of the praetor Marcus Annius Verus III and the wealthy heiress Domitia Lucilla. He was given the typical homeschooled education as other Roman aristocrats, and he was educated by his maternal grandmother's stepfather Lucius Catilius Severus. Marcus was betrothed to the daughter of Lucius Aelius, Emperor Hadrian's adopted son and heir, but Aelius died in 138 and Hadrian chose Antoninus Pius as his new heir on the condition that he adopt Marcus Aurelius and Aelius' son Lucius Commodus (later known as "Lucius Verus") as his heir. While imperial heir, Marcus studied Greek and Latin, and he became a notable Stoic philosopher (writing Meditations), a quaestor, the symbolic head of the Roman equites, and a consul in 140, 145, and 161. In 145, he married Antoninus' daughter Faustina the Younger, and, in 161, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus became co-emperors upon Antoninus Pius' death.
Reign[]
A statue of Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius' reign was marked by wars with the Parthian Empire and the Kingdom of Armenia in the east and the Marcomanni, Quadi, and Sarmatians along the Rhine-Danube frontier of Central and Eastern Europe. In the Marcomannic Wars, Marcus Aurelius waged war against the Germanic tribes for fourteen years, receiving the victory titles "Germanicus" and "Sarmaticus" for his brilliant campaigns into barbarian territory. He also modified the silver purity of the denarius (the Roman currency), permitted the local persecution of Christians in Gaul, and had at least thirteen children, becoming the first Roman emperor to die with a living, adult son since Titus succeeded his father Vespasian a century earlier. Marcus Aurelius died during a plague outbreak at Vindobona (Vienna, Austria) in 180 at the age of 58.