Marcus Aurelius, a very eminent Roman emperor, born at Rome on 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 family, when he took that of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Adrian, 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, Adrian appointed him questor, though he had not yet attained the age prescribed by the law. After the death of Adrian, 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 he was induced to do this on account of his ill state of health, and that he might have leisure to pursue his studies; 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 interposed his authority for their protection, by writing a letter to the common assembly of Asia, then held at Ephesus. 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 remained 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, and attended 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 Antoninus 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 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 blocked up by the Quadi in a very disadvantageous place, where there was no possibility of procuring water, and 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. 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: he would not put to death, nor imprison, nor even sit 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; nor to shed the blood of any senator or person of quality, or of any other person whatever; 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 settling 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 in 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
---
1 The Pagans, as well as Christians, according to Mr Tillemont (art. xvi. p. 621), have acknowledged the truth of this prodigy, but have greatly differed as to the cause of such a miraculous event, the former ascribing 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 Whiston to publish an answer in 1726, entitled, Of the Thundering Legion; or, Of the Miraculous Deliverance of Marcus Antoninus and his Army upon the Prayers of the Christians.