(Marcus Aurelius), the Roman emperor, born at Rome, the 26th of April, in the 121st year of the Christian era. He was called by several names till he was admitted into the Aurelian Antoninusian family, when he took that of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Hadrian, upon the death of Ceionius Commodus, turned his eyes upon Marcus Aurelius; but, as he was not then 18 years of age, and consequently too young for so important a station, he fixed upon Antoninus Pius, whom he adopted, upon condition that he should likewise adopt Marcus Aurelius. The year after this adoption, Hadrian appointed him quaestor, though he had not yet attained the age prescribed by the laws. After the death of Hadrian, Aurelius married Faustina, the daughter of Antoninus Pius, by whom he had several children. In the year 139, he was invested with new honours by the emperor Pius, in which he behaved in such a manner as endeared him to that prince and the whole people.

Upon the death of Pius, which happened in the year 161, he was obliged by the senate to take upon him the government; in the management of which he took Lucius Verus as his colleague. Dion Cassius says, that the reason of doing this was, that he might have leisure to pursue his studies, and on account of his ill state of health; Lucius being of a strong vigorous constitution, and consequently more fit for the fatigues of war. The same day he took upon him the name of Antoninus, which he gave likewise to Verus his colleague, and betrothed his daughter Lucilla to him. The two emperors went afterwards to the camp; where, after having performed the funeral rites of Pius, they pronounced each of them a panegyric to his memory. They discharged the government in a very amicable manner. It is said that, soon after Antoninus had performed the apotheosis of Pius, petitions were presented to him by the Pagan priests, philosophers, and governors of provinces, in order to excite him to persecute the Christians; which he rejected with indignation, and imposed his authority for their protection, by writing a letter to the common assembly of Asia, then held at Ephesus (a). The happiness which the empire began to enjoy under these two emperors was interrupted, in the year 162, by a dreadful inundation of the Tiber, which destroyed a vast number of cattle, and occasioned a famine at Rome. This calamity was followed by the Parthian war; and at the same time the Catti ravaged Germany and Rhaetia. Lucius Verus went in person to oppose the Parthians; and Antoninus continued at Rome, where his presence was necessary.

During this war with the Parthians, about the year 163 or 164, Antoninus sent his daughter Lucilla to Verus, she having been betrothed to him in marriage, and attended her as far as Brundusium; he intended to have conducted her to Syria; but it having been insinuated by some persons, that his design of going into the east was to claim the honour of having finished the Parthian war, he returned to Rome. The Romans having gained a victory over the Parthians, who were obliged to abandon Mesopotamia, the two emperors triumphed over them at Rome in the year 166; and were honoured with the title of Fathers of their country. This year was fatal, on account of a terrible pestilence which spread itself over the whole world, and a famine under which Rome laboured: it was likewise in this year that the Marcomanni, and many other people of Germany, took up arms against the Romans; but the two emperors having marched in person against them, obliged the Germans to sue for peace. The war, however, was renewed the year following; and the two emperors marched again in person; but Lucius Verus was seized with an apoplectic fit, and died at Altinum. The Romans were now defeated with great slaughter; and the emperor, not choosing to burden his subjects with new taxes, exposed to public sale the furniture of the palace, the gold and silver plate belonging to the crown, and his wife's rich garments embroidered with gold, and a curious collection of pearls, which Adrian had purchased during his long progress through the provinces of the empire, and was called Adrian's cabinet.

In the year 170, Antoninus made vast preparations against the Germans, and carried on the war with great vigour. During this war, in 174, a very extraordinary event is said to have happened, which, according to Dion Cassius, was as follows: Antoninus's army being blockaded by the Quadi, in a very disadvantageous place, where there was no possibility of procuring water; in this situation, being worn out with fatigue and wounds, oppressed with heat and thirst, and incapable of retiring or engaging the enemy, in an instant the sky was covered with clouds, and there fell a vast quantity of rain; the Roman army were about to quench their thirst, when the enemy came upon them with such fury, that they must certainly have been defeated, had it not been for a shower of hail, accompanied with a storm of thunder and lightning, which fell upon the enemy, without the least annoyance to the Romans, who by this means gained the victory (b). In 175, Antoninus made a treaty with several nations of Germany. Soon after, Avidius Cassius, governor of Syria, revolted from the emperor: this insurrection, however, was put an end to by the death of Cassius, who was killed by a centurion named Anthony. Antoninus behaved with great lenity towards those who had been engaged in Cassius's party:

(a) Eusebius has preserved this letter, Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. 13, but he falsely attributes it to Antoninus Pius, whereas it was wrote by Marcus Antoninus, as Valerius makes it appear in his annotations on Eusebius.

(b) The Pagans as well as Christians, according to Mr Tillemont (p. 621, art. xvi.), have acknowledged the truth of this prodigy, but have greatly differed as to the cause of such a miraculous event; the former attributing it, some to one magician and some to another: In Antoninus's Pillar, the glory is ascribed to Jupiter, the god of rain and thunder. But the Christians affirmed, that God granted this favour at the prayer of the Christian soldiers in the Roman army, who are said to have composed the twelfth or Melitene legion; and, as a mark of distinction, we are told that they received the title of the Thundering Legion, from Antoninus (Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. v. cap. 5.) Mr Moyle, in the letters published in the second volume of his works, has endeavoured to explode this story of the Thundering Legion; which occasioned Mr Whitton to publish an answer, in 1726, intitled, Of the Thundering Legion, or, Of the miraculous deliverance of Marcus Antoninus and his army, upon the prayers of the Christians. he would not put to death, nor imprison, nor even fit in judgment himself upon any of the senators engaged in this revolt; but he referred them to the senate, fixing a day for their appearance, as if it had been only a civil affair. He wrote also to the senate, desiring them to act with indulgence rather than severity; not to shed the blood of any senator or person of quality, or of any other person whatsoever, but to allow this honour to his reign, that, even under the misfortune of a rebellion, none had lost their lives, except in the first heat of the tumult. In 176, Antoninus visited Syria and Egypt: the kings of those countries, and ambassadors also from Parthia, came to visit him. He staid several days at Smyrna; and, after he had settled the affairs of the east, went to Athens, on which city he conferred several honours, and appointed public professors there. From thence he returned to Rome with his son Commodus, whom he chose consul for the year following, though he was then but 16 years of age, having obtained a dispensation for that purpose. On the 27th of September, the same year, he gave him the title of Imperator; and on the 23rd of December, he entered Rome in triumph, with Commodus, on account of the victories gained over the Germans. Dion Cassius tells us, that he remitted all the debts which were due to himself and the public treasury during 46 years, from the time that Hadrian had granted the same favour, and burnt all the writings relating to those debts. He applied himself likewise to correct many enormities, and introduced several excellent regulations. In the year 179, he left Rome with his son Commodus, in order to go against the Marcomanni, and other barbarous nations; and the year following gained a considerable victory over them, and would, in all probability, have entirely subdued them in a very short time, had he not been taken with an illness, which carried him off on the 17th of March 180, in the 59th year of his age, and 19th of his reign. The whole empire regretted the loss of so valuable a prince, and paid the greatest regard to his memory: he was ranked amongst the gods, and almost every person had a statue of him in their houses. His book of meditations has been much admired by the best judges.

Antoninus's Column. See Column.

Antoninus's Wall, the name of the third rampart or defence that had been built or repaired by the Romans against the incursions of the North Britons. It is called by the people in the neighbourhood, Graham's Dyke; from the notion that one Graham, or Grumus, first made a breach in it after the retreat of the Romans out of Britain. The first barrier erected by the Romans was the Agri-chain of forts made by Agricola* from the frith of Forth to that of Clyde, in the year 81, to protect his conquests from the inroads of the Caledonians. The second was the vallum, or dyke, flung up by Adrian† in the year 121. It terminated on the western side of the kingdom at Alexandria, or Brugh, on the Solway sands, and was supposed to have reached no further than Fons Aelii, or Newcastle, on the eastern. But from an inscription lately discovered, it appears to have extended as far as the wall of Severus‡. This rampart of Adrian's was situated much farther south than Agricola's chain; the country to the north having been either, according to some authors, recovered by the native Britons after the departure of Agricola; or, according to others, voluntarily flighted by Adrian. However, this work of Adrian's did not long continue to be the extreme boundary of the Roman territories to the north in Britain. For Antoninus Pius, the adopted son and immediate successor of Adrian, having, by his lieutenant Lollius Urbicus, recovered the country once conquered by Agricola, commanded another rampart to be erected between the friths of Forth and Clyde, in the tract where Agricola had formerly built his chain of forts. The great number of inscriptions which have been found in or near the ruins of this wall, or rampart, to the honour of Antoninus Pius, leave us no room to doubt its having been built by his direction and command. If the fragment of a Roman pillar with an inscription, now in the college library of Edinburgh, belonged to this work, as it is generally supposed to have done, it fixes the date of its execution to the third confulship of Antoninus, which was A.D. 140, only 20 years after that of Adrian, of which this seems to have been an imitation. This wall or rampart, as some imagine, reached from Caer-ridden on the frith of Forth to Old Kirkpatrick on the Clyde; or, as others think, from Kinniel on the east to Dunglas on the west. These different suppositions hardly make a mile of difference in the length of this work, which, from several actual mensurations, appears to have been 37 English or 40 Roman miles. Capitolinus, in his life of Antoninus Pius, directly affirms, that the wall which that emperor built in Britain was of turf. This in the main is unquestionably true; though it is evident (from the vestiges of it still remaining, which not very many years ago were dug up and examined for near a mile together) that the foundation was of stone. Mr Camden also tells us, from the papers of one Mr Anthony Pont, that the principal rampart was faced with square stone, to prevent the earth from falling into the ditch. The chief parts of this work were as follows: 1. A broad and deep ditch, whose dimensions cannot now be discovered with certainty and exactness, tho' Mr Pont says it was 12 feet wide. 2. The principal wall or rampart was about 12 feet thick at the foundation, but its original height cannot now be determined. This wall was situated on the south brink of the ditch. 3. A military way on the south side of the principal wall, well paved, and raised a little above the level of the ground. This work, as well as that of Adrian, was defended by garrisons placed in forts and stations along the line of it. The number of these forts or stations, whose vestiges were visible in Mr Pont's time, were 18, situated at about the distance of two miles from each other. In the intervals between the forts, there were turrets or watch-towers. But the number of these, and their distance from each other, cannot now be discovered.

It is not a little surprising, that though it is now more than 1600 years since this work was finished, and more than 1500 since it was flighted, we can yet discover, from authentic monuments, which are still remaining, by what particular bodies of Roman troops almost every part of it was executed. This discovery is made from inscriptions upon stones, which were originally built into the face of the wall, and have been found in or near its ruins, and are carefully preserved. The number of stones with inscriptions of this kind now extant, is 11: of which six may be seen at one view Antoninus, in the college of Glasgow, one in the college of Aberdeen, one in the college of Edinburgh, one in the collection of Baron Clerk, one at Cochnoch-houle, and one at Calder-houle. From these inscriptions it appears in general, that this great work was executed by the second legion, the vexillation of the fifth legion and of the twentieth legion, and one cohort of auxiliaries. If these corps were all complete, they would make in all a body of 7800 men. Some of these inscriptions have suffered greatly by the injuries of time and other accidents; so that we cannot discover from them with absolute certainty, how many paces of this work were executed by each of these bodies of troops.

The sum of the certain and probable information contained in these inscriptions, as it is collected by the learned and illustrious Mr Horlsey, stands thus:

| Paces | |-------| | The second legion built | 11,603 | | The vexillation of the fifth legion | 7,411 | | The vexillation of the twentieth legion | 7,801 | | All certain | 26,815 | | The vexillation of the twentieth legion, the monument certain, and the number probable | 3,411 | | The same vexillation, on a plain monument, no number visible, supposed | 3,500 | | The fifth legion, a monument, but no number, supposed | 3,000 | | Cohors prima Cugernorum | 3,000 |

Total 39,726

or 39 miles 726 paces, nearly the whole length of the wall. It would have been both useful and agreeable to have known how long time these troops were employed in the execution of this great work. But of this we have no information. Neither do we know what particular bodies of troops were in garrison in the several forts and stations along the line of this wall, because these garrisons were withdrawn before the Notitia Imperialis was written.

Though we cannot discover exactly how many years this wall of the emperor Antoninus continued to be the boundary of the Roman territories in Britain, yet we know with certainty that it was not very long. For we are told by an author of undoubted credit, that, in the reign of Commodus, A.D. 180, "he had wars with several foreign nations, but none so dangerous as that of Britain. For the people of the island, having passed the wall which divided them from the Romans, attacked them, and cut them in pieces."