Early life of Marcus Aurelius

The early life of Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180) spans the time from his birth on 26 April 121 until his accession as Roman emperor on 8 March 161. 
Following the death of his father, Marcus Annius Verus (III), Marcus Aurelius was raised by his grandfather, Marcus Annius Verus (II). Educated at home, Marcus became an adherent of Stoicism at a young age. In 138 he was adopted by Antoninus Pius, himself the adopted heir of Emperor Hadrian. Hadrian died later that year and was succeeded by Antoninus. 
Among Marcus' tutors were the orators Marcus Cornelius Fronto and Herodes Atticus. Marcus held the consulship jointly with Antoninus in 140, then he was quaestor, then he and Antoninus were consuls again for the year 145. In 145, he married Antoninus' daughter Faustina. Several children were born to the couple during Antoninus' reign, of whom only the future empress Lucilla survived. Marcus took on more responsibilities of state as Antoninus aged; at the time of Antoninus' death in 161, he was consul with his adoptive brother Lucius.
Sources.
The major sources for the life and rule of Marcus Aurelius are patchy and frequently unreliable. This is particularly true of his youth. The biographies contained in the "Historia Augusta" claim to be written by a group of authors at the turn of the fourth century, but are in fact written by a single author (referred to here as "the biographer") from the later fourth 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 better. For Marcus Aurelius' life and rule, the biographies of Hadrian, Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus are largely reliable, but those of Aelius Verus and Avidius Cassius are full of fiction.
A body of correspondence between Marcus Aurelius' tutor Fronto and various Antonine officials (with a focus on Marcus Aurelius himself) survives in a series of patchy manuscripts, covering the period from c. 138 to 166. Marcus Aurelius' 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 Aurelius' legal work. Inscriptions and coin finds supplement the literary sources.
Family and childhood.
The "gens Annia", to which Marcus Aurelius belonged, had an undistinguished history. Their only famous member was Titus Annius Milo, a man known for hastening the end of the free republic through his use of political violence. Marcus Aurelius' paternal family originated in Ucubi, a small town southeast of Córdoba in Iberian Baetica. The family rose to prominence in the late first century AD. Marcus Aurelius' 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. Cassius Dio asserts that the Annii were near-kin of Hadrian, and that it was to these familial ties that they owed their rise to power. The precise nature of these kinship ties is nowhere stated. One conjectural bond runs through Annius Verus (II). Verus' wife Rupilia Faustina was the daughter of the consular senator Libo Rupilius Frugi and an unnamed mother. It has been hypothesized Rupilia Faustina's mother was Matidia, who was also the mother (presumably through another marriage) of Vibia Sabina, Hadrian's wife. Verus' elder son—Marcus Aurelius' father—Marcus Annius Verus (III) married Domitia Lucilla Minor.
Lucilla was the daughter of the patrician P. Calvisius Tullus Ruso and the Domitia Lucilla Major. Domitia Lucilla Major 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.
Lucilla and Verus (III) had two children: a son, Marcus Aurelius, born on 26 April 121, and Annia Cornificia Faustina, probably born in 122 or 123. Verus (III) probably died in 124, during his praetorship, when Marcus Aurelius 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 Aurelius was in the care of "nurses". Marcus Aurelius credits his mother with teaching him "religious piety, simplicity in diet" and how to avoid "the ways of the rich". In his letters, Marcus Aurelius 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, Marcus 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 Aurelius' "maternal great-grandfather"; he is probably the stepfather of the elder Lucilla. Marcus Aurelius was raised in the home of his mother (the "Horti Domitiae Lucillae") 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. The most famous of these villas was the Lateran Palace, seized under Nero ("r". 54–68) and thenceforth imperial property. Marcus Aurelius' grandfather owned his own palace beside the Lateran, where Marcus Aurelius would spend much of his childhood.
Marcus Aurelius 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. Anthony Birley, Marcus Aurelius' modern biographer, detects a hint of sexual tension in Marcus Aurelius' writings on the mistress. Marcus Aurelius was grateful that he did not have to live with her longer than he did. Marcus Aurelius thanks the gods that he did not lose his virginity before its due time, and even held out a bit longer. He is proud that he did not indulge himself with Benedicta or Theodotus (household slaves, presumably).
Early education, 128–136.
Marcus Aurelius probably began his education at the age of seven. He was taught at home, in line with contemporary aristocratic trends; Marcus Aurelius thanks Catilius Severus for encouraging him to avoid public schools. Three of his childhood tutors are known: Euphoric, Geminus, and an unnamed "educator". These three are otherwise unattested in the ancient sources, and would probably have been household slaves or freedmen. Since Euphoric had a Greek name, he probably taught Marcus Aurelius the basics of that language. (He is said to have taught Marcus Aurelius literature.) Geminus is described as an actor, and he may have taught Marcus Aurelius Latin pronunciation and general elocution. The "educator" would have been Marcus Aurelius' overall supervisor, charged with his moral welfare and general development. Marcus Aurelius speaks of him with admiration in his "Meditations": he taught him to "bear pain and be content with little; to work with my own hands, to mind my own business, to be slow to listen to slander".
At the age of twelve, Marcus Aurelius would have been ready for secondary education, under the "grammatici". Two of his teachers at this age are known: Andro, a "geometrician and musician"; and Diognetus, a painting-master. Marcus Aurelius thought of Diognetus as more than a mere painter, however. He seems to have introduced Marcus Aurelius to the philosophic way of life. Marcus Aurelius writes that Diognetus taught him "to avoid passing enthusiasms; to distrust the stories of miracle-workers and impostors about incantations and exorcism of spirits and such things; not to go cock-fighting or to get excited about such sports; to put up with outspokenness; and to become familiar with philosophy" and "to write philosophical dialogues in my boyhood". In April 132, at the behest of Diognetus, Marcus Aurelius 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 Aurelius' education in about 132 or 133. Little is known of the latter two (both teachers of Latin), but Alexander was a major littérateur, the leading Homeric scholar of his day. Marcus Aurelius 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 Aurelius' "Meditations""
Civic duties and family connections, 127–136.
In 127, at the age of six, Marcus Aurelius was enrolled in the equestrian order on the recommendation of Emperor Hadrian. Though this was not completely unprecedented, and other children are known to have joined the order, Marcus Aurelius was still unusually young. In 128, Marcus Aurelius was enrolled in the priestly college of the Salii. Since the standard qualifications for the college were not met—Marcus Aurelius did not have two living parents—they must have been waived by Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius' nominator, as a special favor to the child. Hadrian had a strong affection for the child, and nicknamed him Verissimus, "most true".
The Salii, after their name ("salire": to leap, to dance), were devoted to ritual dance. Twice a year, at the Quinquatria on 19 March and the Armilustrium on 19 October, they played important roles in public ceremonies marking the opening and closing of the campaigning season. On other days in March and October (and especially during the festival of Mars from 1 to 24 March), they would march through the streets of Rome, halting at intervals to perform their ritual dances, beat their shields with staffs, and sing the Carmen Saliare, a hymn in archaic Latin. The song would have been nearly unintelligible, but Marcus Aurelius learned it by heart. He took his duties seriously. Marcus Aurelius rose through the offices of the priesthood, becoming in turn the leader of the dance, the "vates" (prophet), and the master of the order. Once, when the Salii were throwing their crowns onto the banqueting couch of the gods, as was customary, Marcus Aurelius' fell on the brow of Mars. In later years, this event would be read as an auspicious omen heralding Marcus Aurelius' future rule.
Hadrian did not see much of Marcus Aurelius in his childhood. He spent most of his time outside Rome, on the frontier, or dealing with administrative and local affairs in the provinces. By 135, however, he had returned to Italy for good. He had grown close to Lucius Ceionius Commodus, husband of the daughter of Gaius Avidius Nigrinus, a dear friend of Hadrian whom the emperor had killed early in his reign. In 136, shortly after, Marcus Aurelius assumed the "toga virilis" symbolizing his passage into manhood, Hadrian arranged for his engagement to one of Commodus' daughters, Ceionia Fabia. Marcus Aurelius was made prefect of the city during the "feriae Latinae" soon after (he was probably appointed by Commodus). Although the office held no real administrative significance—the full-time prefect remained in office during the festival—it remained a prestigious office for young aristocrats and members of the imperial family. Marcus Aurelius conducted himself well at the job.
Through Commodus, Marcus Aurelius met Apollonius of Chalcedon, a Stoic philosopher. Apollonius had taught Commodus and would be an enormous impact on Marcus Aurelius, who would later study with him regularly. He is one of only three people Marcus Aurelius thanks the gods for having met. At about this time, Marcus Aurelius' younger sister, Annia Cornificia, married Ummidius Quadratus, her first cousin. Domitia Lucilla Minor asked Marcus Aurelius to give part of his father's inheritance to his sister. He agreed to give her all of it, content as he was with his grandfather's estate.
Succession to Hadrian, 136–138.
In late 136, Hadrian almost died from a haemorrhage. 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. As part of his adoption, Commodus took the name Lucius Aelius Caesar. After a brief stationing on the Danube frontier, Aelius 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 haemorrhage 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 Aurelius and Lucius Commodus, the son of Aelius. Marcus Aurelius became M. Aelius Aurelius Verus; Lucius became L. Aelius Aurelius Commodus. At Hadrian's request, Antoninus' daughter Faustina was betrothed to Lucius.
The night of his adoption, Marcus Aurelius had a dream. He dreamed that he had shoulders of ivory, and when asked if they could bear a burden, he found them much stronger than before. He 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 Aurelius be exempt from the law barring him from becoming "quaestor" before his twenty-fourth birthday. The senate complied, and Marcus Aurelius served under Antoninus, consul for 139. Marcus Aurelius' 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 Aurelius probably would have opted for travel and further education instead. As it was, Marcus Aurelius 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."
His attempts at suicide 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. Marcus Aurelius held gladiatorial games at Rome while Pius finalized Hadrian's burial arrangements. 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, 138–145.
Immediately after Hadrian's death, Antoninus approached Marcus Aurelius and requested that his marriage arrangements be amended: Marcus Aurelius' 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 Aurelius consented to Antoninus' proposal.
Pius bolstered Marcus Aurelius' dignity: Marcus Aurelius was made consul for 140, with Pius 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 Aurelius became "princeps iuventutis", head of the equestrian order. He now took the name Caesar: Marcus Aelius Aurelius Verus Caesar. Marcus Aurelius 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 Aurelius 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.
Pius demanded that Marcus Aurelius take up residence in the House of Tiberius, the imperial palace on the Palatine. Pius also made him take up the habits of his new station, the "aulicum fastigium" or "pomp of the court", against Marcus Aurelius' objections. Marcus Aurelius 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.
Marcus Aurelius had much love and respect for his adoptive father. The tribute he gives Pius in the first book of the "Meditations" is the longest of any. He would have more influence on the young Marcus Aurelius than any other person.From my father: gentleness and unshaken resolution in judgments taken after full examination; no vainglory about external honours; love of work and perseverance; readiness to hear those who had anything to contribute to the public advantage; the desire to reward every man according to his desert without partiality; the experience that knew where to tighten the reign, where to relax. Prohibition of unnatural practices, social tact and permission to his suite not invariably to be present at his banquets nor to attend his progress from Rome, as a matter of obligation, and always to be found the same by those who had failed to attend him through engagements. Exact scrutiny in council and patience; not that he was avoiding investigation, satisfied with first impressions. An inclination to keep his friends, and nowhere fastidious or the victim of manias but his own master in everything, and his outward mien cheerful. His long foresight and ordering of the merest trifle without making scenes. The check-in his reign put upon organized applause and every form of lip-service; his unceasing watch over the needs of the empire and his stewardship of its resources; his patience under criticism by individuals of such conduct. No superstitious fear of divine powers nor with a man any courting of the public or obsequiousness or cultivation of popular favour, but temperance in all things and firmness; nowhere want of taste or search for novelty.
As quaestor, Marcus Aurelius would have had little real administrative work to do. He would read imperial letters to the senate when Pius 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 Aurelius 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 Aurelius to have plenty of sleep "so that you may come into the Senate with good colour and read your speech with a strong voice". Marcus Aurelius 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 Aurelius 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 Aurelius married Faustina, as had been planned since 138. Since Marcus Aurelius was, by adoption, Pius' son, under Roman law he was marrying his sister; Pius 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 Pius, as "Pontifex Maximus", would have officiated. Marcus Aurelius makes no apparent reference to the marriage in his surviving letters, and only sparing references to Faustina.
Fronto and further education, 136–146.
After taking the "toga virilis" in 136, Marcus Aurelius probably began his training in oratory. He had three tutors in Greek, Aninus Macer, Caninius Celer, and Herodes Atticus, and one in Latin, Fronto. (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 Aurelius would write his inmost thoughts in Greek. The latter two were the most esteemed orators of the day. Marcus Aurelius' tutor in law was Lucius Volusius Maecianus, a knight Antoninus had taken on staff at his adoption by Hadrian, and the director of the public post ("praefectus vehiculorum"). Apollonius was compelled to return from Chalcedon to Rome at the request of Pius, and would continue teaching Marcus Aurelius.
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. He found oratory easy, and preferred subtle, metaphorical oratory to vigorous attack; "graceful" speech, to use the description of Philostratus, author of "Lives of the Sophists". Atticus was an inveterate opponent of Stoicism and philosophic pretensions. He had once given a tramp calling himself a philosopher money to buy bread for a month, publicly declaiming men posing as philosophers all the while. He thought the Stoics' desire for apatheia foolish: they would live a "sluggish, enervated life", he said. Marcus Aurelius 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: he was thought of as second only to Cicero, perhaps even an alternative to him. He did not care much for Herodes, though Marcus Aurelius 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. The Latin literary world of the day was self-consciously antiquarian: authors of the Silver Age—Seneca, Lucan, Martial, Juvenal, Pliny, Suetonius, and Tacitus—were ignored; only the greatest of the Golden Age, Virgil and Cicero, were widely read; only that pair and earlier writers, like Cato, Plautus, Terence, Gaius Gracchus, and (somewhat anachronistically) Sallust, were cited.
A significant amount of the correspondence between Fronto and Marcus Aurelius 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 Aurelius 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 Aurelius asks that Fronto's pain be inflicted on himself, "of my own accord with every kind of discomfort".
Fronto never became Marcus Aurelius' full-time teacher and continued his career as an advocate. One notorious case brought him into conflict with Herodes. Fronto had been retained as defense counsel by Tiberius Claudius Demostratus, a prominent Athenian. Herodes Atticus was chief prosecutor. Because of Herodes' fraught relationship with the city of Athens, the defense's strategy would probably include attacks on his character. Marcus Aurelius 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 Aurelius counted Herodes as a friend (perhaps Herodes was not yet Marcus Aurelius' tutor), but allowed that Marcus Aurelius might be correct, and agreed that the case should not be made into a spectacle. He nonetheless affirmed his intent to make use of the material available: "I warn you that I won't even use in a disproportionate way the opportunity that I have in my case, for 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." Marcus Aurelius was satisfied with Fronto's response.
The outcome of the trial is unknown, but Marcus Aurelius succeeded in reconciling the two men. Soon after Fronto's tenure as "consul suffectus" in July and August 143, Marcus Aurelius wrote a letter to him mentioning that Herodes' new-born son had recently died. Marcus Aurelius asked Fronto to write Herodes a note of condolence. Fronto did, and part of the letter, written in Greek, survives. Fronto himself commended Marcus Aurelius for his talents as a reconciler: "If anyone ever had power by his character to unite all his friends in mutual love for one another, you will surely accomplish this much more easily".
By the age of twenty-five (between April 146 and April 147), Marcus Aurelius 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 Aurelius 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 Aurelius' formal education was now over. He had kept his teachers on good terms, following them devotedly. His biographer records that he "kept gold statues of them in his private chapel, and always honoured their tombs by personal visits". It "affected his health adversely", his biographer adds, to have devoted so much effort to his studies. It was the only thing the biographer could find fault in Marcus Aurelius' entire boyhood.
The Stoic prince, 146–161.
Fronto had warned Marcus Aurelius 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 Aurelius' sessions with Apollonius of Chalcedon and others in this circle. Fronto put an uncharitable interpretation of Marcus Aurelius' "conversion to philosophy": "in the fashion of the young, tired of boring work", Marcus Aurelius had turned to philosophy to escape the constant exercises of oratorical training. Marcus Aurelius kept in close touch with Fronto, but he would ignore his scruples.
Apollonius may have introduced Marcus Aurelius 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 Aurelius, 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 first century; the true successor of Seneca (as opposed to Fronto, the false one). Marcus Aurelius' tribute to him in the "Meditations" points to a move away from the oratorical training of Fronto. He 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'".
Claudius Severus, another friend, from a Greek family of Paphlagonia, gave Marcus Aurelius an understanding of what these philosophers stood for. Severus was not a Stoic, but a Peripatetic (an Aristotlean); the strength of his influence illustrates the breadth of Marcus Aurelius' philosophical horizons. Marcus Aurelius thanks three other friends for their influence: Claudius Maximus, Sextus of Chaeronea, and Cinna Catulus. Maximus is one of Marcus Aurelius' three most significant friends, alongside Apollonius and Rusticus. He taught Marcus Aurelius "mastery of self" and "to be cheerful in all circumstances". Unlike Marcus Aurelius' other friends, Sextus was a professional philosopher, devoted to teaching philosophy. Marcus Aurelius continued to attend his lectures even after becoming emperor, scandalizing the polite classes of Rome. Catulus is totally unknown outside Marcus Aurelius' brief words of praise in the "Meditations" and the notice in the "Historia Augusta"; Edward Champlin reckons him a senator.
Births and deaths, 147–152.
On 30 November 147, Faustina gave birth to a girl, named Domitia Faustina. It was the first of at least fourteen children (including two sets of twins) she would bear over the next twenty-three years. The next day, 1 December, Pius gave Marcus Aurelius the tribunician power and the "imperium"—authority over the armies and provinces of the emperor. As tribune, Marcus Aurelius had the right to bring one measure before the senate after the four Pius could introduce. His tribunican powers would be renewed, with Pius', on 10 December 147.
The first mention of Domitia in Marcus Aurelius' 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 Aurelius 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 baby boy. 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 Aurelius 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":<poem> leaves,
the wind scatters some on the face of the ground;
like unto them are the children of men.</poem>
– "Iliad" 6.146Another daughter was born on 7 March 150, Annia Aurelia Galeria Lucilla. At some time between 155 and 161, probably soon after 155, Marcus Aurelius' mother, Domitia Lucilla Minor, 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 Aurelius' sister, Cornificia.
A son was born in the late 150s. The synod of the temple of Dionysius at Smyrna sent Marcus Aurelius a letter of congratulations. By 28 March 158, however, when Marcus Aurelius replied, the child was dead. Marcus Aurelius 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 dead sisters, and Cornificia, after Marcus Aurelius' dead sister.
Pius' last years, 152–161.
In 152, Lucius was named quaestor for 153, two years before the legal age of twenty-five (Marcus Aurelius held the office at seventeen). In 154, he was consul, nine years before the legal age of thirty-two (Marcus Aurelius held the office at eighteen and twenty-three). Lucius had no other titles, except that of "son of Augustus". Lucius had a markedly different personality than Marcus Aurelius: 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. 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, Pius turned seventy. He found 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 Pius aged, Marcus Aurelius 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 Aurelius and Lucius were designated joint consuls for the following year. Perhaps Pius was already ill; in any case, he died before the year was out. Two days before his death, the biographer records, Pius 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, he summoned the imperial council, and passed the state and his daughter to Marcus Aurelius. He ordered that the golden statue of Fortune, which had been in the bedroom of the emperors, should go to Marcus Aurelius' bedroom. Pius turned over, as if going to sleep, and died. It was 7 March 161. Marcus Aurelius was now emperor.
Chronology.
This table largely follows the chronology of Birley's "Marcus Aurelius". The chronology of Fronto's letters and miscellaneous works largely follows Champlin's "The Chronology of Fronto" and his "Fronto and Antonine Rome". A † indicates that a date is uncertain.
Citations.
All citations to the "Historia Augusta" are to individual biographies, and are marked with a "HA". Citations to the works of Fronto are cross-referenced to C.R. Haines' Loeb edition.