Antoninus Pius - The Great Forgotten Emperor of Rome Documentary

The man known to history as Antoninus Pius was born Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Antoninus on the 19th of September 86 AD in Lanuvium, an ancient city 20 miles to the southeast of Rome. Although Antoninus would reign for 23 years as Roman emperor from 138 AD to 161 AD, ancient sources for his life are scarce by comparison with other Roman emperors, as the detailed historical works which the Roman historians Suetonius and Tacitus produced only dealt with the Julio-Claudian and Flavian dynasties of the first century AD. Conversely, the only full account of Antoninus’ life to survive from antiquity

is found in the Historia Augusta or Augustan History, a collection of 30 biographies of Roman emperors from 117 AD to 284 AD. Although the biographies are attributed to six different authors, most scholars now believe that this was a literary device and that the Historia Augusta is actually the work of a single fourth-century AD author adopting different pseudonyms. While scholars consider the Historia Augusta a sometimes unreliable historical source, as it makes unsubstantiated claims or fabricates evidence, it is often the only source to give a comprehensive account of this period of Roman history, as the otherwise valuable

Roman History of the third-century AD Greco-Roman historian, Cassius Dio, has only survived in fragments and the books which addressed Antoninus’ reign were lost in the medieval era. Most of the biographical information about Antoninus and the chronology of his reign is therefore reconstructed from the correspondence and writings of his close associates, including his adopted son and successor Marcus Aurelius, and from archaeological evidence such as coins and the ruins of buildings constructed during Antoninus’ reign. Antoninus was born into a branch of a prominent Roman aristocratic family which had strong roots in the large town of Nemausus in

the province of Gallia Narbonensis, now Nîmes in southern France. His grandfather, Titus Aurelius Fulvus, had served as legate or commander of the local Roman legion, and was one of the earliest supporters of Flavius Vespasianus, who would emerge triumphant from the civil wars of 68 and 69 AD to become the Emperor Vespasian. Titus Aurelius Fulvus was subsequently rewarded with two terms as consul in Rome, the latter in 85 AD. This was the most senior magistrate’s office in the Roman Empire and a great honour. His son of the same name, Antoninus’ father, also held high office and

served as consul in 89 AD. The younger Aurelius Fulvus married Arria Fadilla, the daughter of Gnaeus Arrius Antoninus, a leading aristocrat who had also been consul twice. The couple had one son, the future emperor Antoninus Pius. The future emperor’s father is presumed to have died young, as his mother Arria Fadilla later married for a second time to Publius Julius Lupus, although divorce was common in Roman culture. Antoninus spent his childhood at his family’s villa in Lorium to the west of Rome. Following his father’s death, he was brought up by his two grandfathers, Titus Aurelius Fulvus

and Gnaeus Arrius Antoninus, both of whom were among the most powerful Roman officials in Gallia Narbonensis. Given his family’s status, Antoninus received an education fit for a young Roman aristocrat who was likely to be appointed to various provincial governorships, and to follow in his father and grandfather’s footsteps by serving a term or two as consul, an office that had lost a lot of its political power since the end of the Roman Republic and advent of the Empire a century earlier, but which still retained considerable official prestige and served as a stepping stone for provincial governorships

and other prominent imperial offices. As a child, and indeed for much of his adult life, Antoninus could never have expected that he would eventually become emperor himself as the Flavian dynasty established by Vespasian in 69 AD seemed firmly entrenched. The Roman Empire had been founded in 27 BC by Octavian, the adopted son and biological great-nephew of the dictator Julius Caesar, who after defeating his rival Mark Antony in 30 BC in a civil war claimed absolute power over the republic and implemented a series of constitutional changes which saw him take the name Caesar Augustus. Although Augustus

had no sons of his own, he was succeeded by his stepson Tiberius after his death in 14 AD. Despite considerable infighting amongst members of the imperial family, Augustus’ Julio-Claudian dynasty continued to hold imperial power until 68 AD when the Emperor Nero took his own life following a military revolt against him which led to him being declared a public enemy by the Roman Senate. Nero’s death led to a period of political instability known as the Year of the Four Emperors, during which three contenders, Galba, Otho and Vitellius all came and went before Vespasian claimed the imperial

title and established the Flavian dynasty. He ruled for a decade before he was succeeded by his son Titus in 79 AD. The short reign of Titus, who died of some largely unexplained fever in 81 AD at the age of 42, led to the succession of his brother Domitian, who was emperor at the time of Antoninus’ birth in 86 AD. Although Domitian initially followed the policies of his father and brother, who gained favour among the Roman people for the construction of leisure and entertainment venues such as the Flavian Amphitheatre, latterly known as the Colosseum, over time

he allegedly exhibited increasingly tyrannical qualities that led to his assassination by officers of the Praetorian Guard in September 96 AD, the day before Antoninus turned ten years old. That same day the Senate proclaimed the 66-year-old Marcus Cocceius Nerva as emperor. The new emperor was a prominent aristocrat who was distantly related to the Julio-Claudian dynasty and also enjoyed favour among the Flavian emperors. In order to avoid a repeat of the civil wars after Nero’s death a century earlier, Nerva pursued pragmatic policies during his brief reign and was really more of an interim ruler prior to his

death a year and a half later in 98 AD. In order to strengthen his support among the army, the childless Nerva adopted as his heir the 44-year-old Marcus Ulpius Traianus, the commander of three legions in Germany, who duly became the Emperor Trajan following Nerva’s death in 98 AD. Thereafter for the next eighty years a tradition of each emperor adopting a well-regarded individual as their successor was practiced, rather than following a strict dynastic principle. It was this practice which would pave the way for Antoninus to become emperor one day. In around March 101 AD, during Trajan’s

third year as emperor, the young Antoninus came of age at 14 years old and assumed the toga virilis, the pure white toga worn by adult male Romans. Little is known about Antoninus’ career for the next two decades, although he would have been preparing to one day begin climbing the first ranks of the cursus honorum, the series of military and civil offices that a Roman politician was required to hold in order to qualify for a consulship and with it the chance of becoming a provincial governor one day. Although the requirements were occasionally waived for men who

were in particular favour with the imperial family, there is no indication that Antoninus would have received such favours at this stage in his career. Aspiring Roman politicians were first expected to enter military service, eventually attaining the office of military tribune. The first civil office in the cursus honorum was that of quaestor, which was open to men aged 24 and above, and these same requirements also applied to the right to sit in the Roman Senate. Accordingly, Antoninus could not have become a quaestor or senator until 111 AD, when he was 24 years old. While Antoninus is

presumed to have had military experience prior to his quaestorship, the ancient sources are silent about where and when he served. As a young man, Antoninus married Annia Galeria Faustina, the daughter of Marcus Annius Verus, a prominent politician who was a close associate of Antoninus’ grandfathers. The year of Antoninus and Faustina’s marriage is unknown, but it is assumed to have taken place between 110 AD and 115 AD, based on estimates of Faustina’s year of birth in 97 AD. The couple would have four known children, two sons and two daughters. The two sons, Marcus Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus

and Marcus Galerius Aurelius Antoninus, are presumed to have died young, since there is no record of them attaining any political office. Their elder daughter, Aurelia Fadilla, died in 135 AD, while their younger daughter, Faustina the Younger, would marry the future emperor Marcus Aurelius in 146 AD. According to the Historia Augusta, Antoninus was a “generous quaestor and an illustrious praetor” before he became consul in 120 AD, serving alongside an older colleague of some distinction named Catilius Severus. By the time of Antoninus’ consulship, Trajan had already died three years earlier in 117 AD, leaving behind a legacy

as one of Rome’s greatest emperors, under whose rule the boundaries of the empire stretched to their furthest extent, as he had conquered the Kingdom of Dacia in what is now Romania, annexed the Nabataean Kingdom in Jordan and north-western Arabia, and conducted the most successful military campaign ever undertaken against Rome’s perennial eastern enemy, the Parthian Empire in Mesopotamia and the Caucasus. Following his death in 117 AD he was succeeded by his 41-year-old cousin Hadrian, whose reign would see Antoninus become one of the leading men in Rome. At the age of 33, Antoninus was just over the

minimum age limit of 32 when he began his consulship in 120 AD. Nevertheless, he was seemingly not an overly ambitious man at this time and after his year in high office he returned to his villa as a private citizen, seemingly not over anxious to acquire the governorship of one of the Roman provinces, the ultimate goal for any Roman politician at this time. Instead he enjoyed fishing and hunting on his extensive estates and he was also a diligent administrator of his private property, while the Historia Augusta claims that he used his abundant wealth to improve the

livelihoods of people by lending money at the low rate of 4%. Early in his reign, Hadrian reorganised the government in Italy, hitherto governed by the Senate, by placing political control of the peninsula under four proconsuls, men who exercised authority on behalf of the emperor. Antoninus was one of the four proconsuls, holding power over the region of Etruria in central Italy, where he had most of his estates. Antoninus’ appointment to the post may have partly been motivated by his lack of ambition, as Hadrian, more so than any other previous emperor, spent most of his reign away

from Rome touring the provinces and reforming them. Because of this he needed proconsuls governing Italy who were not overly ambitious men and instead were people he could trust not to try and rebel and claim the imperial title themselves. It is a sign of the trust Hadrian felt towards Antoninus that while he was away in the provinces undertaking tasks such as the building of a great northern defensive wall across Britain that he appointed Antoninus to serve as his representative in central Italy. This makes it all the more frustrating that we do not know the specifics of

Antoninus’ and Hadrian’s personal relationship both in the 110s AD before Hadrian became emperor and then in the 120s AD. Moreover, the ancient sources do not indicate the length of time Antoninus spent as proconsul in Italy, though he appears to have carried out his duties diligently and efficiently. After his tenure as one of the four governors in Italy, Antoninus served for a year as proconsul of Asia, governing a province in the western part of modern-day Turkey which other than Rome and Italy itself was the wealthiest part of the entire empire. Julius Capitolinus, the alleged author of

Antoninus’ biography in the Historia Augusta, writes that Antoninus’ elder daughter Fadilla died shortly before his departure for Asia. This would indicate that Antoninus served as governor of Asia around 135 AD. Since, Asia was the empire’s richest province, its governorship was regarded as the most prestigious of the provincial offices. According to the Historia Augusta, Antoninus governed Asia “in such a fashion that he alone excelled his grandfather,” a reference to his maternal grandfather Arrius Antoninus, who had held the same office under Vespasian in the late 70s AD. The region’s economy flourished during Antoninus’ governorship, and in addition

to his political duties he cultivated friendships with prominent individuals, including Herodes Atticus, an Athenian scholar and official who governed the free cities in the province of Asia at the time. According to an anecdote told by the third-century AD scholar Philostratus of Athens, while Antoninus was visiting the district of Smyrna, now known by its Turkish name of Izmir, he was staying at the house of Polemon, a teacher of rhetoric who enjoyed the favour of emperors Trajan and Hadrian. Following his return to Rome, Antoninus was appointed to Hadrian’s imperial council, a body made up of prominent politicians,

orators and jurists to advise the emperor on a wide range of political, legal and judicial matters. Now in his late forties, Antoninus was part of Hadrian’s inner circle and gained a reputation for recommending leniency and moderation during meetings of the council. By this time Hadrian was in his early sixties and in increasingly poor health. During the early part of his reign, the childless Hadrian seems to have regarded his brother-in-law Lucius Servianus as his unofficial successor, but the latter was entering his nineties by the mid-130s AD, prompting Hadrian to turn towards Servianus’ young grandson, Lucius Salinator.

However, following a near-fatal haemorrhage in 136 AD, the emperor decided instead on the adoption of the 35-year-old Lucius Ceionius Commodus, who was one of the two consuls that year. He took the name Lucius Aelius Caesar following his adoption. The motivation behind Hadrian’s adoption of Lucius Aelius as his successor is not entirely clear. Perhaps Hadrian had made the surprising choice on account of Lucius Aelius’ family connections. While the new heir had a young son of his own, he had two older daughters, the elder of whom was engaged to Marcus Annius Verus, the 15-year-old grandson of the

three-time consul who was Antoninus’ father-in-law. According to the Roman historian Cassius Dio, writing at the beginning of the third century AD, Hadrian was particularly fond of the young Marcus and envisaged him as his ultimate successor. But the plan was soon scuppered. In 137 AD, shortly after being appointed to a second consulship, Lucius Aelius was dispatched to take control of the provinces of Pannonia in modern-day Hungary. He spent a brief time there before returning to Rome in the winter, seemingly already ill. There he died on the 1st of January 138 AD, forcing Hadrian to choose a

new successor. Three weeks after Lucius Aelius’ death, on the 24th of January, Hadrian convened a meeting of his council on his 62nd birthday in which he announced the formal adoption of the 51-year-old Antoninus as his heir. While Antoninus had little military experience and had spent most of his political career in Italy, he had been a capable provincial administrator and was well-respected among the Roman political elite. His age and the absence of any surviving sons may have also worked in his favour, as Hadrian seemed to be seeking a temporary placeholder to occupy the imperial seat for

a few years until the teenage Marcus Annius Verus, the future Emperor Marcus Aurelius, was old enough to assume the imperial mantle. Accordingly, as a condition of his adoption by Hadrian, Antoninus was asked to adopt both Marcus Annius Verus and the seven-year-old Lucius Ceionius Commodus, son of the late Lucius Aelius. While the former took the name Marcus Aurelius Verus Caesar, the latter’s name remained unchanged, signalling Marcus’ superior claim to the succession. While Antoninus was already Marcus’ uncle by marriage, after becoming emperor he further strengthened his connections with the young man by cancelling the existing betrothal arrangements

among the younger generation and instead arranging an engagement between his surviving daughter, Faustina the Younger, and Marcus Aurelius. Hence, owing to a set of unusual political arrangements and the premature death of Lucius Aelius, Antoninus suddenly found himself promoted to become Hadrian’s immediate successor. Antoninus’ nomination as heir was not universally welcomed, and his opponents included Catilius Severus, his consular colleague from 120 AD, and a man named Ummidius Quadratus, both of whom were also related to Marcus Aurelius. While Catilius Severus was removed from his office as city prefect of Rome for his opposition to Antoninus, there were

no further punishments and the bloodshed that had accompanied Hadrian’s adoption of Lucius Aelius was avoided. Antoninus did not accept Hadrian’s offer immediately and asked for time to consider it. It was only a month later, on the 25th of February, that the formal adoption ceremony took place. Following his adoption, Antoninus was granted the Tribunicia Potestas and the Proconsulare Imperium, the two old republican offices which under Augustus had formed the formal basis for the emperor’s political and military power respectively. Antoninus became the effective ruler of the empire as the ailing Hadrian lived out the final months of

his life in substantial pain from a deteriorating heart condition. According to Julius Capitolinus, Antoninus had to intervene to prevent the emperor from attempting to take his own life. A temporary improvement in Hadrian’s condition followed and enabled him to travel to Baiae in southern Italy, where he died on the 10th of July 138 AD with his adopted heir in attendance. Antoninus’ first task as emperor was to bring his predecessor’s body to Rome for burial. Although most of the early Roman emperors had been buried at the Mausoleum of Augustus at the Field of Mars on the eastern

bank of the River Tiber, the tomb was running out of space, and Hadrian decided to build a new mausoleum of a similar design on the opposite bank of the Tiber a short distance to the southwest. While construction work began under Hadrian, it is possible that it remained unfinished upon his death, and Antoninus had to complete work on the building, which several centuries later was converted into a castle and papal residence known as the Castel Sant’Angelo. Antoninus’ accession was welcomed by many senators, who had seen their political powers and privileges reduced during Hadrian’s reign. The new

emperor reversed some of Hadrian’s most unpopular policies, including the abolition of the four proconsuls governing Italy and the restoration of the government of the peninsula to the Senate. However, Antoninus’ proposal to bestow divine honours on Hadrian was initially rejected. It was only by threatening to relinquish his imperial powers that he managed to persuade the Senate to deify Hadrian. Why they were seemingly reluctant is unclear, as it was standard practice to deify emperors when they died and Hadrian was a reasonably well-liked emperor. It may have been owing to Hadrian’s overt fondness for Greek culture over Roman

traditions. In a mark of appreciation for Antoninus, in September 138 AD the Senate conferred the title of Augusta upon his wife Faustina, as well as granting him the name of Pius. The Historia Augusta gives no fewer than five possible reasons to explain why Antoninus was honoured with this name, including his care for his elderly father-in-law, Annius Verus, his filial devotion to Hadrian after his adoption and his efforts to convince the Senate to deify him, as well as the general reputation for clemency and kindness that he had attained over the course of his political career. Based

on the accounts of contemporaries, Antoninus fully deserved this epithet. His successor, Marcus Aurelius, writing in his famous Meditations, underlined Antoninus’ sense of propriety and duty by writing of his adoptive father’s example of, quote, “gentleness and to be unshakeably resolute in judgements made after full investigation; no vainglory about outward honours; love of work and perseverance; readiness to listen to any who had something to contribute to the good of the state; his practice of rewarding every man impartially according to his deserts; knowing from experience where to tighten the reins, where to relax them.” By the time Antoninus

became emperor, he was already one of the wealthiest men in the empire, having received inheritances from both his paternal and maternal grandparents. According to an anecdote in the Historia Augusta, Antoninus’ wife Faustina had hoped to make further financial gains from her husband’s assumption of imperial power, to which the emperor replied, “Foolish woman, now that we have gained an empire we have lost what we had before.” Nevertheless, Antoninus may have wanted to prevent his private wealth from being used for state expenditures, and the establishment of the res privata, a separate department to manage the emperor’s private

financial interests, may date from the time of Antoninus’ reign. Marcus Aurelius writes that Antoninus was not interested in empty honours and was, quote, “prudent and economical in his provision of shows,” though he recognised that entertainments such as gladiatorial combats and chariot racing were considered essential elements of Roman life. Antoninus himself appears to have particularly enjoyed chariot racing and agreed to the Senate’s request to hold races to celebrate his first anniversary as emperor on his birthday, the 19th of September 139 AD. While there are monuments bearing inscriptions to Antoninus as emperor dating from 138 AD, it

was not until the following year that news of his accession was received in some of the more remote parts of the empire. The accession of a new emperor was typically marked with a gift of gold to the emperor known as the Aurum Coronarum, but in line with his reputation for austerity and generosity, Antoninus returned all of the gold he had received from Italy, and half of that from the provinces. He was also generous in providing the financial resources to complete construction work begun or planned by Hadrian, and inscriptions from 139 AD show that he provided

the funds for the construction of bath houses at the port of Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber, and was also responsible for dedicating the amphitheatre in Capua that had been restored by Hadrian. Antoninus’ generosity towards his subjects prompted the Senate to offer him the title of Pater Patriae or ‘Father of the Country’ which he had refused the previous year, and on this occasion the emperor chose to accept. Unlike most previous emperors, Antoninus was in no hurry to replace his predecessor’s appointees, which indicates that his rule was widely accepted throughout the empire and he had

no need to appoint his own men to consolidate his authority. For most of his reign, an individual named Marcus Gavius Maximus served as praetorian prefect, an office held by the commander of the Praetorian Guard, but one which also came with considerable informal military and civilian authority in the city of Rome itself. While Capitolinus claims that Antoninus kept in post successful provincial governors for up to seven and nine years, it appears that most Roman officials continued to rotate between provincial governorships every few years, and in 139 AD Quintus Lollius Urbicus was transferred from the governorship of

one of the German provinces to Britannia. Soon after his appointment, there appears to have been a rebellion against Roman rule by the Brigantes, an ancient Brittonic-Celtic tribe that occupied a large part of what today is northern England and who lived on both sides of Hadrian’s Wall. The disturbance led Antoninus to abandon Hadrian’s policy of establishing his frontier at Hadrian’s Wall and Lollius Urbicus was instructed to drive the Brigantes further north towards Scotland, then known by the Romans as Caledonia. While there are no textual sources which provide a comprehensive account of Lollius’ campaign in Britain, archaeological

evidence indicates that the Roman general began his preparations by establishing a base at the town of Corbridge, just south of Hadrian’s Wall. In around 141 AD, he led the three legions stationed in Britain to attack the Brigantes as well as several Caledonian groups. By 142 AD the Romans had conquered much of lowland Scotland, and Antoninus was honoured with the title of Imperator, meaning ‘conqueror’, for a second time. In republican times, this title was awarded to generals following victorious campaigns, but after Augustus it became associated with the emperor and the word emperor itself derives from imperator.

Antoninus had received the title of Imperator for the first time in 138 AD upon his adoption by Hadrian, but this second accolade was the result of military victory. Unlike Hadrian, who had spent most of his reign touring the provinces, Antoninus remained in Italy for almost the entirety of his 23-year reign, moving between Rome and his other properties in the peninsula. This approach was welcomed by the senators in Rome, who felt that Hadrian had neglected Rome and Italy during his long absences. By remaining in the capital, Antoninus was also able to respond to reports from his

provincial governors immediately, and imperial messengers did not have to constantly chase after him to bring him news. While Antoninus did not accompany his armies on campaign and entrusted the task of commanding armies to those who were more experienced and capable, he was not ignorant of military affairs and appears to have been responsible for the major strategic decisions. The orator Marcus Cornelius Fronto, who served as one of the tutors to the emperor’s adopted sons and several of whose letters from the mid-second century AD have survived, wrote of Antoninus’ approach to the campaign in Britannia, quote, “Although

he committed the conduct of the campaign to others while remaining in the palace at Rome, yet as with the helmsman at the tiller of a warship, the glory of the whole navigation and voyage belongs to him.” In order to protect his territorial gains, Lollius Urbicus and his legions built a wall of earth covering the distance of some 40 miles between the Firth of Clyde in the west and the Firth of Forth in the east. The Antonine Wall was protected by 16 forts and linked to Hadrian’s Wall by a military road to enable men and supplies

to move quickly between the two defensive lines. Although Hadrian’s Wall is far more well-known, Antoninus did actually establish Roman rule further north in Britain and his wall, while shorter than Hadrian’s, did have more forts along its course. While Lollius Urbicus was preparing his campaign in the north of Britain, in around 140 AD a devastating earthquake struck Asia Minor. The orator Aelius Aristides vividly described the impact on the Greek island of Rhodes, which was also hit by a tsunami, as follows: “when the earthquake was coming upon the island, the sea retreated and left the harbours dry;

houses and tombs were rent asunder and thrown down; tower fell on tower; dockyard on trireme, temples on altars, men on men.” This picture of complete devastation was repeated on other islands in the region and along the coast of the mainland. Since Antoninus had previously served as proconsul in Asia, he was familiar with the region and its officials and may have had a sentimental attachment to it. Julius Capitolinus writes that the emperor rebuilt the cities “in splendid fashion.” In addition to providing financial support following natural disasters in Asia Minor and elsewhere, Antoninus’ general approach towards the

provinces was to reduce the tax burden of its subjects. This was achieved in part by eliminating corruption associated with the imperial postal system, which Romans from Italy were in the habit of using to travel around the empire on non-official businesses at the expense of provincial taxpayers. 140 AD also saw the death of Antoninus’ wife Faustina the Elder, who was buried in the Mausoleum of Hadrian. According to Capitolinus, there were many rumours of Faustina’s, quote, “licence and loose living” during her life, which Antoninus sought to suppress. There is little contemporary evidence to support these claims, though

Faustina’s lifestyle and spending habits might have been less austere than those of her husband. Antoninus was devoted to his wife and honoured her with a charitable scheme to support orphaned girls, who were known as Faustininae. Following Faustina’s death, the Senate honoured her memory by deifying her, holding games in her memory, and establishing a temple in the Roman Forum with priests and silver and golden statues. Faustina’s image appeared frequently in monuments dating from Antoninus’ reign and she was often depicted alongside him as an example of marital harmony. The early 140s AD saw disturbances on the frontiers

of the empire, particularly in the northeast. An apparent insurrection in Dacia prompted the emperor to send legions back into the province of Lower Dacia to confer greater military powers upon its governor. In Pannonia, Antoninus installed a new king for the Quadi tribe, a Germanic people who straddled the border, and he had to do the same when the throne of Armenia fell vacant. The Parthians responded to this development by sending an invasion force against Armenia, but relented after Antoninus sent the king of Parthia a letter threatening to intervene. Capitolinus’ reference to Antoninus sending an army to

defeat a rebellion in Germany is supported by an inscription in Rome which honours Antoninus’ victory over the Germans, and archaeological evidence in Germany indicates that there was significant roadbuilding activity which may be related to the campaign. Between 143 AD and 145 AD, Antoninus presided over an extensive infrastructure project to improve transportation links to his ancestral province of Gallia Narbonensis, firstly by making improvements to the Via Aemilia in northern Italy, and then by repairing existing roads and building new ones in Gallia Narbonensis. Since these territories were far from the frontiers of the empire, the road improvements

had no military purpose but were intended to facilitate trade between Rome and south-eastern Gaul, which was a major source of wine and timber for Rome. All of this military and infrastructural activity was clearly significant, yet as with so much else of Antoninus’ reign we have only the barest details concerning them. While Antoninus was known for his attachment to Italy, he shared Hadrian’s interest in Greek culture and promoted Greeks to positions of influence in Rome. In 140 AD, for instance, he invited his old friend Herodes Atticus to Rome to serve as tutor to Marcus Aurelius and

Lucius Commodus. As a further sign of the emperor’s favour to his Greek friend, Herodes was made consul in 143 AD. That same year the orator Aristides visited Rome and gave two speeches praising the emperor. In the first, he hailed the establishment of justice and order by Antoninus throughout the empire, highlighting the emperor’s wise government and his concern for his subjects. In his second speech, Aristides contrasted Antoninus with his predecessor in declaring, quote, “the gods took such care that he should come to power purely and piously that they left to others acts of madness and insanity,

and reserve for him actions of justice, beneficence and general piety.” Despite Hadrian’s love for Greece, where he made two visits during his reign as emperor, by the late 130s AD his approach towards the management of the Greek provinces had alienated some Greek intellectuals, whereas Antoninus had shown favour to the Greeks during his proconsulship in Asia and maintained his positive image there after becoming emperor. While the disturbances in the empire’s northern frontier had been quelled by 145 AD, that year saw the peak of a rebellion by the Berbers of Mauretania in North Africa in what is

now Algeria and eastern Morocco. Although Mauretania had been part of the empire for over a century, Roman rule was very loose in places here and the Berbers regularly emerged out of the Atlas Mountains to raid Roman settlements nearer the Mediterranean coast. During the reign of Antoninus, the disturbances reached an intensity that compelled the emperor to deploy an armed force to defeat the Berbers, who were driven back into the mountains and desert. The year may also have seen a challenge to imperial rule in Hispania, as in September 145 AD the Senate condemned a man named Cornelius

Priscianus for what was termed, quote, “hostile action disturbing the peace in the province of Spain.” The Historia Augusta states that Priscianus was involved in a conspiracy to take the throne and was forced to die by his own hand. The Historia Augusta adds that Antoninus had also approved of the execution of an Atilius Titianus for a conspiracy to overthrow him, but in both cases the emperor refused to pursue their accomplices and in his general approach to judicial matters he took care to investigate issues thoroughly before he passed judgement. The two men may have been involved in

an attempt to overthrow Antoninus and sought to gain support from the armies in Hispania as they mobilised to suppress the uprising in North Africa. By the mid-140s AD, Marcus Aurelius was in his mid-twenties, and was playing an increasingly active role in Roman politics. He had held his first consulship in 140 AD at the age of 19 alongside the emperor, and in 145 AD the two men once again served together as consuls. In the spring, the 24-year-old Marcus Aurelius married his 15-year-old cousin Faustina the Younger. The latter was awarded the title of Augusta which had remained

vacant since the death of her mother five years earlier. In November 147 AD, they had a daughter named Domitia Faustina, the first of at least fourteen children. Antoninus marked the occasion by conferring upon Marcus the Tribunicia Potestas and the Proconsulare Imperium, as well as the right to present issues to the Senate which would be discussed before any other business. Although Marcus Aurelius now enjoyed the same official powers as Antoninus, the latter continued to hold supreme authority, and made these arrangements to ensure that Marcus was accustomed to the duties and responsibilities of a Roman emperor. This

was an important constitutional development of Antoninus’ reign, being the first time that the imperial powers were held by both a senior and junior ruler, a step on the path towards the concept of having multiple emperors, which would fully emerge in the late third century AD. The year 148 AD marked the 900th anniversary of the foundation of the city of Rome. The jubilee year was marked by lavish games. As part of these a host of exotic animals, including elephants, giraffes, rhinoceroses and crocodiles were exhibited and slaughtered in the amphitheatres. In order to meet the expenses of

these entertainments and other government activities, Antoninus debased the silver coinage by 5%, but this does not appear to have had any immediate negative impact on the Roman economy. Throughout the first decade of his reign, Antoninus had anticipated the 900th anniversary year by issuing coinage depicting founding myths of Rome, including the Trojan warrior Aeneas, the hero of Virgil’s Aeneid, and the brothers Romulus and Remus with the she-wolf who according to legend had raised them on the banks of the River Tiber where they later founded the city in 753 BC. Other coins from the period provide evidence

of a religious revival that focused attention back to the old gods of Greek and Roman mythology, the worship of which was being challenged by the new emphasis on cults such as those of the Sun god Helios in the eastern provinces. Living up to his surname, Antoninus was firmly attached to old religious traditions and never failed to conduct the sacrifices expected of him in his capacity as Pontifex maximus, Rome’s chief priest. In 139 AD, at the beginning of Antoninus’ reign, he restored a temple dedicated to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva and he set up further shrines to

Jupiter in 148 AD and 157 AD. The year 148 AD also marked Antoninus’ tenth year on the imperial throne, which he commemorated by symbolically giving up his powers before accepting them again from the Senate, following a tradition established by Augustus who sought to legitimise his rule as emperor by engaging in this ritual, one which made it appear as though his powers were bestowed to him willingly by the people of Rome. While this formality was abolished by later emperors, Antoninus appears to have made a genuine attempt to strengthen the aristocratic element of the unwritten Roman constitution

by bolstering the powers of the Senate. As a senator himself in years gone by he would have been familiar with the complaints of his colleagues about Hadrian’s rule as being perceived as aloof. As emperor, Antoninus showed deference to the Senate and made generous gifts to individual senators. Despite Antoninus’ efforts to raise the dignity of the Senate, where important matters of state continued to be debated, political decision-making was still restricted to the small number of leading senators who were part of Antoninus’ imperial council and could influence their colleagues to vote in a certain way. According to

Capitolinus, the extensive legal reforms that date from Antoninus’ reign were enacted on the advice of the legal experts who were members of his council. These reforms were motivated by the desire to simplify legal proceedings and to increase protections for weaker members of society. Such measures introduced by Antoninus included additional protections for children being adopted, confirmation that a slave once freed could not be returned to bondage, as well as other rules to protect slaves from overly abusive masters. In matters of law, as in other areas of state administration, Antoninus was not much of an innovator but

sought to improve the operation of existing processes. As emperor, Antoninus personally received petitions from his subjects and diligently investigated complaints. Disputes between individuals or cities which could not be resolved amicably were escalated to the emperor, and his judgement was rarely questioned. According to Aristides, Antoninus’ solution to these difficult issues left both parties satisfied. At the end of his first decade in power, the 62-year-old Emperor Antoninus Pius had avoided the costly wars and internal rebellions of his predecessors and was praised as a wise ruler throughout the empire. Near the beginning of his reign, a calamitous earthquake

had struck Asia Minor, and in around 151 AD or 152 AD, the province suffered another earthquake, this time affecting the cities in the northwest, including Smyrna, Nicomedia, and Ephesus, three of the wealthiest and most populous cities of the Eastern Mediterranean. On this occasion, Marcus Aurelius played a prominent role in the relief efforts, as evidenced by a coin which states that Marcus was responsible for the reconstruction of Smyrna. Antoninus is known to have built baths in Nicomedia and Ephesus which may have been part of the reconstruction work, although further details are scarce. The city of Ephesus

seems to have been especially favoured during Antoninus’ reign, as it hosted two temples dedicated to the imperial cult. His favour towards the Greek world is also demonstrated by extensive building work at Epidauros in mainland Greece, which hosted the sanctuary of the healer god Asclepius, while at Athens he completed an aqueduct that had been started by Hadrian. In the early 150s AD, possibly in 153 AD, Antoninus faced a serious revolt in Egypt which broke out near the coast of the Red Sea. While Julius Capitolinus asserts that Antoninus spent the entirety of his reign as emperor in

Italy, both Aristides and the sixth-century AD Byzantine chronicler John Malalas claim that Antoninus visited Egypt and Syria, and that the emperor personally led an armed force to defeat the rebellion. The pacification campaign seems to have been straightforward, and Antoninus visited the city of Alexandria, where he restored the Gates of the Sun and the Moon and built a racecourse. After leaving Egypt, Antoninus travelled to Antioch in Syria. Antoninus’ presence in the East would have served to calm the anxieties of his subjects while inspiring fear among Rome’s rivals, in particular the Parthian Empire. Aristides makes reference to

a peace treaty in 155 AD concluded between the king of Parthia and Antoninus, who was also accompanied by Marcus Aurelius. In his biography of Antoninus in the Historia Augusta, Julius Capitolinus claims that the emperor also defeated a Jewish revolt, although it is difficult to establish a date for this insurrection and given how well-documented previous Jewish revolts against Roman rule since the mid-60s AD had otherwise been, it seems plausible that this was little more than a small bout of unrest in Judaea in Antoninus’ reign. More broadly, Antoninus allowed many Jews who had fled from Judaea during

the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian following revolts there to return and he loosened the generally anti-Jewish policies which the Roman state had been pursuing for a century. References to a Jewish revolt during Antoninus’ reign are also found in the First Apology of a man known to history as Justin Martyr, a Greek philosopher from Judaea who had converted to Christianity and sought to defend Christians from religious persecution. The First Apology was addressed to Antoninus and dated to between 155 AD and 157 AD. The emperor may have been in Syria when he received Justin’s petition. In it

he urged Antoninus to stop the persecution of Christians. He also provided an intellectual defence of Christian thought by making comparisons to Greek and Roman mythology, and denied that the religion posed any political threat to Rome. Martyr’s intervention is curious, as there was no concerted Roman policy of persecuting Christians by the middle of the second century AD. That would only commence a century later once the number of Christians in the empire rose dramatically and the state became genuinely concerned about the threat they posed. Instead Martyr’s First Apology should probably be read as one of the many

early Christian efforts to convince the Roman state that the Christians were not a heretical branch of Judaism, but rather adherents of an entirely different religion. By the time Antoninus returned to Rome, the empire was again facing disturbances along its European frontiers. Another uprising in Dacia in the 150s AD was crushed by the governor Marcus Statius Priscus, who was rewarded for his efforts with the consulship in 159 AD. The late 150s AD also saw changes of policy in the defence of Britannia and Germania, as the Antonine Wall in Scotland was abandoned within a decade of its

construction, and its garrison withdrawn to Hadrian’s Wall. At around the same time, the frontier in Upper Germany and the neighbouring province of Raetia was moved forward by some 15 miles. These developments seem to have been accompanied by the movement of legions from Germania to Britannia. The reasons behind the abandonment of the Antonine Wall so soon after its construction remain unclear, but the governor of Britannia Gnaeus Julius Verus may have been transferred from his previous office in Germany to put down another revolt by the Brigantes and Caledonians, following which the Antonine Wall was considered indefensible and

abandoned. Alternatively, these developments may have been the result of changes in policy at Rome following the death of the praetorian prefect Gavius Maximus after two decades in the post. Antoninus’ name is also associated with an attempt to establish commercial relations with China, although his involvement in the embassy cannot be proven. The Book of the Later Han, which chronicles the history of the Later or Eastern Han Dynasty in China in the first and second centuries AD, records Emperor Huan receiving an embassy from “Andun,” who is described as the “King of Daqin,” the name used in ancient

China to refer to the Roman Empire. The Romans and the Chinese had been trading in silk and glassware indirectly for centuries through intermediaries in Central Asia and India, and in 97 AD the Eastern Han general Ban Chao attempted to send an emissary directly to the Romans, but was prevented from doing so by the Parthians. The meeting between the Roman envoys and the Chinese emperor recounted in the Book of the Later Han is dated to 166 AD, five years after Antoninus Pius’ death. This would seem to clearly suggest that the embassy was sent by the late

emperor, as it would have taken those involved years potentially to reach China from the Mediterranean. Alternatively, as the Book of the Later Han states that the envoys entered China via Vietnam, they may have been enterprising Roman merchants who sought trading privileges without official accreditation and avoided the Parthians by making their journey by sea. While the envoys brought gifts from southeast Asia, the Chinese court does not appear to have been particularly impressed by what the Romans had to offer, and the Romans and Chinese never managed to establish a direct diplomatic or commercial relationship despite further embassies

in the 3rd century AD. A final coda to Antoninus’ reign was a rather bleak one. In 165 AD a mysterious, though deadly plague began to sweep across the Roman Empire. Although it would primarily dominate the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the epidemic is known as the Antonine Plague, as it first arrived in the Mediterranean during the final stages of Antoninus’ reign. To this day there is no agreement as to what disease was involved. The most likely contenders are measles or smallpox, the latter being the most probable from contemporary descriptions of the symptoms. It clearly arrived from

the east somewhere in Asia, as the first concerted reports of it come from the eastern borders of Rome’s empire. And it was clearly devastating, particularly in a state which by ancient standards was highly urbanized, and which had lots of large, cramped and dirty cities that disease spread like wildfire through. By the time the first major wave of it ended around 180 AD an estimated 10 million Romans had died, though the number may have been significantly higher. This would have represented somewhere between 10% and 25% of the population of the empire and was one of the

deadliest plague epidemics to ever strike the Mediterranean world. Old age, rather than the plague, was what would claim Antoninus’ life when the end came. By the late 150s AD, he was in his early seventies and was in poor health. According to the Historia Augusta he could no longer stand upright without supports. Due to the emperor’s deteriorating health, Marcus Aurelius assumed a greater share of political responsibilities over time. Indeed, more broadly, the two men had worked effectively together during the second decade of Antoninus’ reign and during the 150s AD Marcus Aurelius’ name often appeared alongside that

of Antoninus in inscriptions honouring them. In 161 AD Marcus Aurelius was appointed as consul for the year. It was a fitting appointment. Antoninus died early in the year, probably on the 7th of March 161 AD, at the age of 75, and was succeeded by Aurelius. According to the account in the Historia Augusta, a few days before his death, Antoninus was at his estate at Lorium when he ate a large amount of cheese at dinner and fell violently ill. The following day, he became feverish. As he realised he was dying, he summoned Marcus Aurelius to his

bedside and entrusted the state to him. It was already late, and a guard came to the dying emperor to ask for the password for the night. Antoninus replied with the word “equanimity” before turning over to his side as if to sleep, and passed away. He had been emperor for over 23 years, making him the second-longest reigning Roman emperor after Augustus at the time. Antoninus had adopted his heir at the beginning of his reign and Marcus Aurelius succeeded to the throne without any impediment. Antoninus’ popularity among the Roman political elite was such that Marcus Aurelius had

no trouble in persuading the Senate to deify his predecessor and to hold funerary games in his memory. The late emperor’s remains were deposited at Hadrian’s Mausoleum, and the Temple of Faustina was rededicated to Antoninus and Faustina. In a departure from tradition, Marcus Aurelius petitioned the Senate to confer the Tribunicia Potestas and the Proconsulare Imperium as well as the title of Augustus upon his adoptive brother Lucius Commodus, making him his co-emperor with the name Lucius Verus. This was the first time in the history of the Roman empire that two men held the title of Augustus at

the same time, and the two ruled as joint emperors until Lucius Verus’ death in 169 AD, quite possibly having contracted the plague that was sweeping the empire. Despite this sharing of the imperial honour, Marcus’ position as the senior emperor was never questioned. Although Marcus Aurelius had hoped to emulate his adoptive father in presiding over an era of peace and stability, his reign would be dominated by the Marcomannic Wars, a series of conflicts fought in the region around the Carpathian Basin and northwards into southern Germania, through which Germanic and Asiatic tribes such as the Marcomanni, Quadi

and Sarmatians sought to invade the Roman Empire. These foreshadowed the invasions which would destroy the empire between the third and fifth centuries AD. Antoninus Pius was the fourth of the so-called “Five Good Emperors” who ruled Rome between the accession of Nerva in 96 AD and the death of Marcus Aurelius in 181 AD. Although he was the longest-reigning of the five emperors, we know frustratingly little about his reign owing to a lack of sources, although archaeological evidence does compensate for this to some degree. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that he was a comparatively successful ruler who

prioritised effective administration and peace. Beyond a brief effort to expand north in Britain, he was happy to maintain the existing borders of the realm and mostly engaged in infrastructure development and sound governance. Criticism could be levelled at him that he was singularly unambitious. He did not conquer new lands or build a great forum in Rome, nor did he attempt any novel administrative projects in the provinces. Even the Antonine Wall which he built in Scotland was quickly abandoned once resistance to it was offered by the Brigantes and the Caledonians. But maybe this was the best thing.

Undoubtedly a Roman who lived through the civil wars of the age of Julius Caesar and Caesar Augustus or the chaos that was to come between the third and fifth centuries AD would certainly have traded the war and instability of their own times for the rather boring peace and tranquillity of the reign of Antoninus Pius. What do you think of Emperor Antoninus Pius? Does he deserve his ancient reputation as a wise ruler who enjoyed the support of both the elites and the common people, or was he an unimaginative bureaucrat who did little that was ambitious during

his long reign? Please let us know in the comment section and in the meantime, thank you very much for watching.