He was succeeded by Aurelius, who was born at Rome A. D. 121. This prince is known as the Philosopher; and the wish of Plato that phil osophers might be kings, or kings philosophers, seems to have been fulfilled at his accession. Aurelius had been from his youth a lover of truth. His morals and his intellect were trained by the purest and wisest men of his age. He had studied under Herodes Atticus and Cornelius Pronto, two famous rhetoricians, and also under the Stoic philoso Ph ers Junius Rusticus and Apollonius; and he had been constantly employed by his adopted father Antoninus as an associate in all his useful and benevolent designs. His health was, however, delicate, and he now admitted to a share in the empire his adopted brother, L. Verus, who possessed a vigorous constitution, but was addicted to licentious pleasures.
The general peace which had prevailed during the reign of Marcus Antoninus was forever passed away, and the world was in future to be desolated by almost perpetual hostilities. The Parthian king Vologeses
III. having invaded the eastern provinces, and cut to pieces a Roman legion, L. Verus was sent to oppose his advance; but upon arriving at Antioch, Verus remained there, plunged in dissipation, while his brave lieutenant Avidius Cassius drove back the Parthians, invaded Mesopotamia, destroyed Seleucia, and penetrated to Babylon. Another Roman general conquered Armenia, and restored the legitimate king Soaemus to his throne. At the close of the war, Verus, A. D. 166, returned to Rome, and triumphed. His army brought the plague with it from the East, which now desolated Italy and Rome. Many illustrious men died; but the famous physician Galen (Claudius Galenus), who had come from Pergamus to Rome, was now enabled to exhibit his uncommon professional skill. This pestilence lasted for several years.
Verus died ofintemperance A. D. 171, and Aurelius prevailed upon the Senate to rank him among the gods. He now marched against the Marcomanni, but was defeated in a great battle, and, in order to provide a new army, sold the imperial plate and jewels. He now took up a position at Sirmium (Sirmich), and endeavoured to wear out the barbarians by skirmishes and sudden attacks, without venturing far
From his strong-hold. At length, however, upon one occasion, having been drawn into a defile, the Roman army was relieved by a fierce storm of thunder and rain, which terrified the barbarians. Tradition attributes this sudden storm to the prayers of a Christian legion. The barbarians now submitted, and withdrew beyond the Danube.
Soon after, an insurrection broke out in Syria, where Avidius Cassius, at the instigation, it is said, of the emperor’s wife Faustina, had proclaimed himself emperor. But Cassius, by his severity, disgusted his own soldiers, and was assassinated by a centurion. Aurelius lamented this event, since it deprived him ofan opportunity ofshowing clemency to an erring friend. He at once set out for the East, and there freely forgave all those who had conspired against him. He took the young family of Cassius under his protection, and ordered the papers of that officer to be destroyed, lest they might disclose the names of the conspirators. Faustina, who had accompanied her husband to Cilicia, died soon after, it is said, by her own hand.
It is remarkable that this philosophic emperor should have permitted a cruel persecution of the Christians in A. D. 177, perhaps at the instigation ofthe Stoic philosophers - the only blot upon his general humanity and benevolence. Among the victims of this persecution was Justin Martyr, the author of the Apologies for Christianity, addressed to Antoninus, as well as to Aurelius himself. Toward the close of his reign, having become convinced of the falseness of the charges made against the Christians, Aurelius became once more tolerant and phil osophic.
In A. D. 176 the emperor triumphed at Rome for his various successes. He gave a donation of eight pieces of gold to every citizen, and made his son Commodus his colleague. In the mean time the barbarians in the interior of Europe, moved by a general impulse, began to press upon the frontiers of the empire, and from this time seem never to have ceased their inroads until the final destruction of the Roman power. Aurelius marched, A. D. 177, to the frontier, defeated the barbarians in various engagements, and had perhaps proved the saviour and second founder of Rome, when he was seized with a fever at Vindobona (Vienna), A. D. 180, and died after a few days’ illness. He was the last of the Roman emperors who laboured for the welfare of his people. He was, no doubt, the greatest and wisest of them all, and he united the different talents of a man of learning, a fine writer, a skilful soldier, and a benevolent, judicious ruler. His “Meditations,” which have made him known to posterity, are among the most delightful productions of the human intellect, while his private character seems to have been no less attractive than his writings.
World History
