No More Learning

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 2 1 The life of Ceionius Commodus, also called Aelius p85 Verus,2 adopted by Hadrian3 after his journey through the world, when he was burdened by old age and weakened by cruel disease, contains nothing worthy of note except that he was the first to receive only the name of Caesar. 2 This was conferred, not by last will and testament, as was previously the custom,4 nor yet in the fashion in which Trajan was adopted,5 but well nigh in the same manner as in our own time your Clemency conferred the name of Caesar on Maximianus and on Constantius, as on true sons of the imperial house and heirs apparent of your August Majesty.

3 Now whereas I must needs tell something of the name of the Caesars, particularly in a life of the man who received this name alone of the imperial titles, men of the greatest learning and scholarship aver that he who first received the name of Caesar was called by this name, either because he slew in battle an elephant,6 which in the Moorish tongue is called caesai, 4 or because he was brought into the world after his mother's death and by an incision in her abdomen,7 or because he had a thick head of hair8 when he came forth from his mother's womb, or, finally, because he had bright grey eyes9 and was vigorous beyond the wont of human beings. 5 At any rate, whatever be the truth, it was a happy fate which ordained the growth of a name so illustrious, destined to last as long as the universe endures.

6 This man, then, of whom I shall write, was at first called Lucius Aurelius Verus,10 but on his adoption by Hadrian he passed into the family of the Aelii, that p87 is, into Hadrian's, and received the name of Caesar. 7 His father was Ceionius Commodus,11 whom some have called Verus, others, Lucius Aurelius, and many, Annius. 8 His ancestors, all men of the highest rank, had their origin for the most part in Etruria or Faventia. 9 Of his family, however, we will speak at greater length in the life of his son, Lucius Aurelius Ceionius Commodus Verus Antoninus,12 whom Antoninus was ordered to adopt. 10 For all that pertains to the family-tree should be included in the work which deals with a prince of whom there is more to be told.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 3 1 Aelius Verus was adopted by Hadrian at the time when, as we have previously said,13 the Emperor's health was beginning to fail and he was forced to take thought for the succession. 2 He was at once made praetor14 and appointed military and civil governor of the provinces of Pannonia; afterwards he was created consul, and then, because he had been chosen to succeed to the imperial power, he was named for a second consulship. 3 On the occasion of his adoption largess was given to the populace,15 three hundred million sesterces were distributed among the soldiers, and races were held in the Circus; in short, nothing was omitted which could signalize the public rejoicing. 4 He had, moreover, such influence with Hadrian, even apart from the affection resulting from his adoption, which seemed a firm enough tie between them, that he was the only one who obtained his every desire, even when expressed in a letter. 5 Besides, in the province to which he had been appointed he was by no means a failure; 6 for he carried on a campaign with success, or rather, with good fortune, and achieved p89 the reputation, if not of a pre-eminent, at least of an average, commander.

7 Verus had, however, such wretched health that Hadrian immediately regretted the adoption, and since he often considered others as possible successors, he might have removed him altogether from the imperial family had Verus chanced to live longer. 8 In fact, it is reported by those who have set down in writing all the details of Hadrian's life, that the Emperor was acquainted with Verus' horoscope, and that he adopted a man whom he did not really deem suitable to govern the empire merely for the purpose of gratifying his own desires, and, some even say, of complying with a sworn agreement said to have been contracted on secret terms between himself and Verus. 9 For Marius Maximus represents Hadrian as so expert in astrology, as even to assert that he knew all about his own future, and that he actually wrote down beforehand what he was destined to do on every day down to the hour of his death. 16 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 4 1 Furthermore, it is generally known that he often said about Verus:

"This hero Fate will but display to earth
Nor suffer him to stay. "17
2 And once when Hadrian was reciting these verses while strolling about in his garden, one of the literary men, in whose brilliant company he delighted,18 happened to be present and proceeded to add,

"The race of Rome,
Would seem to You, O Gods, to be too great,
Were such gifts to endure. "
3 Thereupon the Emperor remarked, it is said, "The life of Verus will not admit of these lines," and added,

p91 "Bring lilies with a bounteous hand;
And I the while will scatter rosy blooms,
Thus doing honour to our kinsman's soul
With these poor gifts — though useless be the task. "
4 At the same time, too, Hadrian, it is reported, remarked with a laugh: "I seem to have adopted, not a son, but a god". 19 5 Yet when one of these same literary men who was present tried to console him, saying: "What if a mistake has been made in casting the horoscope of this man who, as we believe, is destined to live"? Hadrian is said to have answered: "It is easy for you to say that, when you are looking for an heir to your property, not to the Empire". 6 This makes it clear that he intended to choose another heir, and at the end of his life to remove Verus from the government of the state. However, fortune aided his purpose. 7 For after Verus had returned from his province, and had finished composing, either by his own efforts or with the help of imperial secretaries or the rhetoricians, a very pretty speech, still read nowadays, wherein he intended to convey his thanks to his father Hadrian on the Kalends of January, he swallowed a potion which he believed would benefit him and died on that very day of January. 20 8 All public lamentation for him was forbidden by Hadrian because it was the time for assuming the vows for the state.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 5 1 Verus was a man of joyous life and well versed in letters, and he was endeared to Hadrian, as the malicious say, rather by his beauty21 than by his character. 2 In the palace his stay was but a short one; in his private life, though there was little to be commended, yet there was little to be blamed. p93 Furthermore, he was considerate of his family, well-dressed, elegant in appearance, a man of regal beauty, with a countenance that commanded respect, a speaker of unusual eloquence, deft at writing verse, and, moreover, not altogether a failure in public life. 3 His pleasures, many of which are recorded by his biographers, were not indeed discreditable but somewhat luxurious. 4 For it is Verus who is said to have been the inventor of the tetrapharmacum, or rather pentapharmacum, of which Hadrian was thereafter always fond, namely, a mixture of sows' udders, pheasant, peacock, ham in pastry and wild boar. 5 Of this article of food Marius Maximus gives a different account, for he calls it, not pentapharmacum, but tetrapharmacum, as we have ourselves described it in our biography of Hadrian. 22 6 There was also another kind of pleasure, it is said, of which Verus was the inventor. 7 He constructed, namely, a bed provided with four high cushions and all inclosed with a fine net; this he filled with rose-leaves, from which the white parts had been removed, and then reclined on it with his mistresses, burying himself under a coverlet made of lilies, himself anointed with perfumes from Persia. 8 Some even relate that he made couches and tables of roses and lilies, these flowers all carefully cleansed, a practice, which, if not creditable, at least did not make for the destruction of the state. 9 Furthermore, he always kept the Recipes of Caelius Apicius23 and also Ovid's Amores at his bedside, and declared that Martial,24 the writer of Epigrams, was his Vergil. 10 Still more trivial was his custom of fastening wings on many of his messengers after the p95 fashion of Cupids, and often giving them the names of the winds, calling one Boreas, another Notus, others Aquilo, or Circius, or some other like name, and forcing them to bear messages without respite or mercy. 11 And when his wife complained about his amours with others, he said to her, it is reported: "Let me indulge my desires with others; for wife is a term of honour, not of pleasure. "

12 His son was Antoninus Verus, who was adopted by Marcus,25 or rather, with Marcus,26 and received an equal share with him in the imperial power. 13 For these are the men who first received the name of Augustus conjointly, and whose names are inscribed in the lists of the consuls, not as two Antonini but as two Augusti. 14 And such was the impression created by the novelty and the dignity of this fact that in some of the lists the order of the consuls begins with the names of these emperors.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 6 1 On the occasion of the adoption of Verus, Hadrian bestowed a vast sum of money on the populace and the soldiery. 27 2 But being a rather sagacious man, when he saw that Verus was in such utterly wretched health that he could not brandish a shield of any considerable weight, he remarked, it is said:28 3 "We have lost the three hundred million sesterces which we paid out to the army and to the people, for we have indeed leaned against a tottering wall, and one which can hardly bear even our weight, much less that of the Empire". 4 This remark, indeed, Hadrian made to his prefect, 5 but the man repeated it, and as a result Aelius Caesar grew worse every day from anxiety, as a man does who had p97 lost hope. Thereupon Hadrian appointed a successor29 for the prefect who had divulged the remark, wishing to give the impression that he had qualified his harsh words. 6 But it profited him nothing, for Lucius Ceionius Commodus Verus Aelius Caesar (for he was called by all these names)30 died and was accorded an emperor's funeral, nor did he derive any benefit from his imperial position save honour at his death. 7 Hadrian, then, mourned his death as might a good father, not a good emperor. For when his friends anxiously asked who could now be adopted, Hadrian is said to have replied to them: "I decided that even when Verus was still alive," 8 thereby showing either his good judgment or his knowledge of the future. 9 After Verus' death Hadrian was in doubt for a time as to what he should do, but finally he adopted Antoninus, who had received the surname Pius. And he imposed on Antoninus the condition that he in turn should adopt Marcus and Verus, and should give his daughter31 in marriage to Verus, rather than to Marcus. 10 Nor did Hadrian live long thereafter, but succumbed to weakness and illnesses of various kinds, all the while declaring that a prince ought to die, not in an enfeebled condition, but in full vigour.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 7 1 Hadrian gave orders that colossal statues of Verus should be set up all over the world, and in some cities he even had temples built. 2 Finally, out of regard for him, Hadrian gave his son Verus (who had remained in the imperial household after his father's death) to Antoninus Pius, as I have already said,32 to be adopted as his son along with Marcus, treating the boy as if he were his own grandson; and he often remarked: "Let the Empire retain something of p99 Verus". 3 This indeed contradicts all that very many authors have written with regard to Hadrian's regret for his adoption of Verus, since, save for a kindly character, there was nothing in character of the younger Verus capable of shedding lustre on the imperial family.

4 These are the facts about Verus Caesar which have seemed worthy of being consigned to letters. 5 I was unwilling to leave him unmentioned for this reason that it is my purpose to set forth in single books the lives of all the successors of Caesar the Dictator, that is, the Deified Julius, whether they were called Caesars or Augusti or princes, and of all those who came into the family by adoption, whether it was as sons or as relatives of emperors that they were immortalized by the name of Caesar, and thereby to satisfy my own sense of justice, even if there be many who will feel no compelling need of seeking such information.

The Life of Antoninus Pius

1 1 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] Titus Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Antoninus Pius1 was descended, on his father's side, from a family which came from the country of Transalpine Gaul, more specifically, from the town of Nîmes. 2 His grandfather was Titus Aurelius Fulvus, who after various offices of honour attained to a second consulship2 and the prefecture of the city; 3 his father was Aurelius Fulvus, also consul, and a stern and upright man. 4 His mother was Arria Fadilla; her mother was Boionia Procilla and her father Arrius Antoninus, twice consul3 and a righteous man, who pitied Nerva that he assumed the imperial power. 5 Julia Fadilla was his mother's daughter, 6 his stepfather being Julius Lupus, a man of consular rank. 7 His father-in‑law was Annius Verus4 and his wife Annia Faustina,5 who bore him two sons6 and two daughters, of whom the elder7 was married to Lamia Silanus and the younger8 to Marcus Antoninus.

p103 8 Antoninus himself was born at an estate at Lanuvium on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of October in the twelfth consulship of Domitian and first of Cornelius Dolabella. He was reared at Lorium9 on the Aurelian Way, where he afterwards built the palace whose ruins stand there to‑day. 9 He passed his childhood first with his paternal grandfather, then later with his maternal; and he showed such a dutiful affection toward all his family, that he was enriched by legacies from even his cousins, his stepfather, and many still more distant kin.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 2 1 In personal appearance he was strikingly handsome, in natural talent brilliant, in temperament kindly; he was aristocratic in countenance and calm in nature, a singularly gifted speaker and an elegant scholar, conspicuously thrifty, a conscientious land-holder, gentle, generous, and mindful of others' rights. He possessed all these qualities, moreover, in the proper mean and without ostentation, 2 and, in fine, was praiseworthy in every way and, in the minds of all good men, well deserving of comparison with Numa Pompilius. 3 He was given the name of Pius by the senate,10 either because, when his father-in‑law was old and weak, he lent him a supporting hand in his attendance at the senate (which act, indeed, is not sufficient as a token of great dutifulness, since a man were rather undutiful who did not perform this service than dutiful if he did), 4 or because he spared those men whom Hadrian in his ill-health had condemned p105 to death, 5 or because after Hadrian's death he had unbounded and extraordinary honours decreed for him in spite of opposition from all, 6 or because, when Hadrian wished to make away with himself, by great care and watchfulness he prevented him from so doing,11 7 or because he was in fact very kindly by nature and did no harsh deed in his own time. 8 He also loaned money at four per cent, the lowest rate ever exacted,12 in order that he might use his fortune to aid many.

9 As quaestor13 he was generous, as praetor illustrious, and in the consulship he had as colleague Catilius Severus. 10 His life as a private citizen he passed mostly on his estates but he was well-known everywhere. 11 He was chosen by Hadrian from among the four men of consular rank under whose jurisdiction Italy was placed,14 to administer that particular part of Italy in which the greater part of his own holdings lay; from this it was evident that Hadrian had regard for both the fame and the tranquillity of such a man.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 3 1 An omen of his future rule occurred while he was administering Italy; for when he mounted the tribunal, among other greetings some one cried, "God save thee, Augustus". 2 His proconsulship in Asia15 he conducted in such a fashion that he alone excelled his grandfather; 3 and in this proconsulship, too, he received another omen foretelling his rule; for at Tralles a priestess, being about to greet him after the custom of the place (for it was their custom p107 to greet the proconsuls by their title), instead of saying "Hail, proconsul," said "Hail, imperator"; 4 at Cyzicus, moreover, a crown was transferred from an image of a god to a statue of him. 5 After his consulship, again, a marble bull was found hanging in his garden with its horns attached to the boughs of a tree, and lightning from a clear sky struck his home without inflicting damage, and in Etruria certain large jars that had been buried were found above the ground again, and swarms of bees settled on his statues throughout all Etruria, and frequently he was warned in dreams to include an image of Hadrian among his household gods.

6 While setting out to assume his proconsular office he lost his elder daughter. 16 7 About the licence and loose living of his wife a number of things were said, which he heard with great sorrow and suppressed. 8 On returning from his proconsulship he lived for the most part at Rome, being a member of the councils of Hadrian,17 and in all matters concerning which Hadrian sought his advice, ever urging the more merciful course.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 4 1 The manner of his adoption, they say, was somewhat thus: After the death of Aelius Verus, whom Hadrian had adopted and named Caesar, a day was set for the meeting of the senate, 2 and to this Arrius Antoninus came, supporting the steps of his father-in‑law. 3 For this act, it is said, Hadrian adopted him. 18 But this could not have been the only reason for the adoption, nor ought it to have been, especially since Antoninus had always done well in his administration of public office, and in his proconsulship p109 had shown himself a man of worth and dignity. 4 At any rate, when Hadrian announced a desire to adopt him, he was given time for deciding whether he wished to be adopted. 5 This condition was attached to his adoption,19 that as Hadrian took Antoninus as his son, so he in turn should take Marcus Antoninus, his wife's nephew, and Lucius Verus, thenceforth called Verus Antoninus, the son of that Aelius Verus whom Hadrian had previously adopted. 6 He was adopted on the fifth day before the Kalends of March,20 while returning thanks in the senate for Hadrian's opinion concerning him, 7 and he was made colleague to his father in both the proconsular and the tribunician power. 21 8 It is related as his first remark, that when he was reproved by his wife because he was not sufficiently generous to his household in some trifling matter, he said: "Foolish woman, now that we have gained an empire, we have lost even what we had before". 9 To the people he gave largess on his own account22 10 and also paid the moneys that his father had promised. He contributed a large amount of money, too, to Hadrian's public works,23 and of the crown-gold24 which had been presented to him on the occasion of his adoption, he returned all of Italy's share, and half of their share to the provinces.

p111 5 1 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] His father, as long as he lived, he obeyed most scrupulously, and when Hadrian passed away at Baiae25 he bore his remains to Rome with all piety and reverence, and buried him in the gardens of Domitia; moreover, though all opposed the measure, he had him placed among the deified. 26 2 On his wife Faustina he permitted the senate to bestow the name of Augusta,27 and for himself accepted the surname Pius. 28 The statues decreed for his father, mother, grandparents and brothers, then dead, he accepted readily; nor did he refuse the circus-games ordered for his birthday,29 though he did refuse other honours. In honour of Hadrian he set up a superb shield30 and established a college of priests. 31

3 After his accession to the throne he removed none of the men whom Hadrian had appointed to office, and, indeed, was so steadfast and loyal that he retained good men in the government of provinces for terms of seven and even nine years. 4 He waged a number of wars, but all of them through his legates. For Lollius Urbicus,32 his legate, overcame the Britons33 and built a second wall, one of turf,34 after driving back the barbarians. Through other legates or governors, he forced the Moors to sue for peace,35 and p113 crushed the Germans36 and the Dacians37 and many other tribes, and also the Jews, who were in revolt. 5 In Achaea also and in Egypt38 he put down rebellions and many a time sharply checked the Alani39 in their raiding. [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 6 1 His procurators were ordered to levy only a reasonable tribute, and those who exceeded a proper limit were commanded to render an account of their acts, nor was he ever pleased with any revenues that were onerous to the provinces. 2 Moreover, he was always willing to hear complaints against his procurators.

3 He besought the senate to pardon those men whom Hadrian had condemned,40 saying that Hadrian himself had been about to do so. 4 The imperial pomp he reduced to the utmost simplicity and thereby gained the greater esteem, though the palace-attendants opposed this course, for they found that since he made no use of go-betweens, they could in no wise terrorize men or take money for decisions about which there was no concealment. 41 5 In his dealings with the senate, he rendered it, as emperor, the same respect that he had wished another emperor to render him when he was a private man. 6 When the senate offered him the title of Father of his Country, he p115 at first refused it,42 but later accepted it with an elaborate expression of thanks. 7 On the death of his wife Faustina, in the third year of his reign, the senate deified her,43 and voted her games and a temple44 and priestesses and statues of silver and of gold. These the Emperor accepted, and furthermore granted permission that her statue be erected in all the circuses; 8 and when the senate voted her a golden statue, he undertook to erect it himself. 9 At the instance of the senate, Marcus Antoninus, now quaestor, was made consul; 10 also Annius Verus,45 he who was afterwards entitled Antoninus, was appointed quaestor before the legal age. 46 11 Never did he resolve on measures about the provinces or render a decision on any question without previously consulting his friends,47 and in accordance with their opinions he drew up his final statement. 12 And indeed he often received his friends without the robes of state and even in the performance of domestic duties.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 7 1 With such care did he govern all peoples under him that he looked after all things and all men as if they were his own. As a result, the provinces all prospered in his reign, 2 informers were abolished, 3 the confiscation of goods was less frequent than ever before, and only one man was condemned as guilty of aspiring to the throne. 4 This was Atilius p117 Titianus,48 and it was the senate itself that conducted his prosecution,49 while the Emperor forbade any investigation about the fellow-conspirators of Atilius and always aided his son to attain all his desires. Priscianus did indeed die for aspiring to the throne, but by his own hand, and about his conspiracy also the Emperor forbade any investigation.

5 The board of Antoninus Pius was rich yet never open to criticism, frugal yet not stingy; his table was furnished by his own slaves, his own fowlers and fishers and hunters. 6 A bath, which he had previously used himself, he opened to the people without charge, nor did he himself depart in any way from the manner of life to which he had been accustomed when a private man. 7 He took away salaries from a number of men who held obvious sinecures, saying there was nothing meaner, nay more unfeeling, than the man who nibbled at the revenues of the state without giving any service in return; 8 for the same reason, also, he reduced the salary of Mesomedes, the lyric poet. The budgets of all the provinces and the sources of revenue he knew exceedingly well. 9 He settled his private fortune on his daughter, but presented the income of it to the state. 10 Indeed, the superfluous trappings of royal state and even the crown-lands he sold, living on his own private estates and varying his residence according to the season. 11 Nor did he undertake any expedition50 other than the visiting of his lands in Campania, averring that the equipage of an emperor, even of one over frugal, was a burdensome thing to the provinces. 12 And yet he was regarded with immense respect by all nations, for, making his residence in the city, as he did, for the purpose of being in a central location, he was able to receive messages from every quarter with equal speed.

p119 8 1 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] He gave largess to the people,51 and, in addition, a donation to the soldiers,52 and founded an order of destitute girls, called Faustinianae53 in honour of Faustina. 2 Of the public works that were constructed by him the following remain to‑day: the temple of Hadrian54 at Rome, so called in honour of his father, the Graecostadium,55 restored by him after its burning,56 the Amphitheatre,57 repaired by him, the tomb of Hadrian,58 the temple of Agrippa,59 and the Pons Sublicius,60 3 also the Pharus, the port at Caieta, and the port at Tarracina, all of which he restored, the bath at Ostia,61 the aqueduct at Antium, and the temples at Lanuvium. 4 Besides all this, he helped many communities62 to erect new buildings and to restore the old; and he even gave pecuniary aid to Roman magistrates and senators to assist them in the performance of their duties.

5 He declined legacies from those who had children of their own and was the first to establish the rule that bequests made under fear of penalty63 should not be valid. 6 Never did he appoint a successor to a worthy magistrate while yet alive, except in the case p121 of Orfitus, the prefect of the city, and then only at his own request. 7 For under him Gavius Maximus,64 a very stern man, reached his twentieth year of service as prefect of the guard; he was succeeded by Tattius Maximus,65 8 and at his death Antoninus appointed two men66 in his place, Fabius Cornelius Repentinus and Furius Victorinus,67 9 the former of whom, however, was ruined by the scandalous tale that he had gained his office by the favour of the Emperor's mistress. 10 So rigidly did he adhere to his resolve that no senator should be executed in his reign,68 that a confessed parricide was merely marooned on a desert island, and that only because it was against the laws of nature to let such a one live. 11 He relieved a scarcity of wine and oil and wheat with loss to his own private treasury, by buying these and distributing them to the people free.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 9 1 The following misfortunes and prodigies occurred in his reign: the famine, which we have just mentioned, the collapse of the Circus,69 an earthquake70 whereby towns of Rhodes and of Asia were destroyed — all of which, however, the Emperor restored in splendid fashion, — and a fire at Rome which consumed three hundred and forty tenements and dwellings. 71 2 The town of Narbonne,72 the city of p123 Antioch, and the forum of Carthage73 also burned. 3 Besides, the Tiber flooded its banks, a comet was seen, a two-headed child was born, and a woman gave birth to quintuplets. 4 There was seen, moreover, in Arabia, a crested serpent larger than the usual size, which ate itself from the tail to the middle; and also in Arabia there was a pestilence, while in Moesia barley sprouted from the tops of trees. 5 And besides all this, in Arabia four lions grew tame and of their own accord yielded themselves to capture.

6 Pharasmenes,74 the king, visited him at Rome and showed him more respect than he had shown Hadrian. He appointed Pacorus king of the Lazi,75 induced the king of the Parthians76 to forego a campaign against the Armenians merely by writing him a letter, and solely by his personal influence brought Abgarus the king77 back from the regions of the East. 7 He settled the pleas of several kings. 78 The royal throne of the Parthians, which Trajan had captured, he refused to return when their king asked for it,79 8 and after hearing the dispute between Rhoemetalces80 and the imperial commissioner, sent the former back his kingdom of the Bosphorus. 9 He sent troops to the Black Sea to bring aid to Olbiopolis81 against the Tauroscythians and forced the latter to give hostages to Olbiopolis. p125 10 No one has ever had such prestige among foreign nations as he,82 for he was ever a lover of peace, even to such a degree that he was continually quoting the saying of Scipio in which he declared that he would rather save a single citizen than slay a thousand foes.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 10 1 When the senate declared that the months of September and October should be called respectively Antoninus and Faustinus, Antoninus refused. 2 The wedding of his daughter Faustina, whom he espoused to Marcus Antoninus,83 he made most noteworthy, even to the extent of giving a donative to the soldiers. 3 He made Verus Antoninus consul after his quaestorship. 4 On one occasion, he sent word to Apollonius,84 whom he had summoned from Chalcis, to come to the House of Tiberius85 (where at the time he was staying) in order that he might put Marcus Antoninus in his charge, but Apollonius replied "The master ought not come to the pupil, but the pupil to the master". Whereupon the Emperor ridiculed him, saying "It was easier, then, for Apollonius to come to Rome from Chalcis than from his house to my palace". The greed of this man he had noticed even in the matter of his salary. 5 It is related of him, too, as an instance of his regard for his family, that when Marcus was mourning the death of his tutor and was restrained by the palace servants from this display of affection, the Emperor said: "Let him be only a man for once; for neither philosophy nor empire takes away natural feeling".

p127 6 On his prefects he bestowed both riches and consular honours. 86 7 If he convicted any of extortion he nevertheless delivered up the estates to their children, providing only that the children should restore to the provinces what their fathers had taken. 8 He was very prone to acts of forgiveness. 9 He held games87 at which he displayed elephants and the animals called corocottae and tigers and rhinoceroses, even crocodiles and hippopotami, in short, all the animals of the whole earth; and he presented at a single performance as many as a hundred lions together with tigers.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 11 1 His friends he always treated, while on the throne, just as though he were a private citizen, for they never combined with his freedmen to sell false hopes of favours,88 and indeed he treated his freedmen with the greatest strictness. 2 He was very fond of the stage, found great delight in fishing and hunting and in walks and conversation with his friends, and was wont to pass vintage-time in company with his friends in the manner of an ordinary citizen. 3 Rhetoricians and philosophers throughout all the provinces he rewarded with honours and money. The orations which have come down in his name, some say, are really the work of others, according to Mariusº Maximus, however, they were his own. 4 He always shared his banquets, both public and private, with his friends; 5 and never did he perform sacrifices by proxy except when he was ill. 6 When he sought offices89 for himself or for his sons all was done as by a private individual. 7 He himself was often present at the banquets of his intimates, 8 and among other p129 things it is a particular evidence of his graciousness that when, on a visit at the house of Homullus,90 he admired certain porphyry columns and asked where they came from, Homullus replied "When you come to another's house, be deaf and dumb," and he took it in good part. In fact, the jibes of this same Homullus, which were many, he always took in good part.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 12 1 A number of legal principles91 were established by Antoninus with the aid of certain men, experts in jurisprudence, namely, Vindius Verus,92 Salvius Valens, Volusius Maecianus, Ulpius Marcellus, and Diavolenus. 93 2 Rebellions, wherever they occurred, he suppressed94 not by means of cruelty, but with moderation and dignity. 3 He forbade the burial of bodies within the limits of any city; he established a maximum cost for gladiatorial games; and he very carefully maintained the imperial post. 95 Of everything that he did he rendered an account, both in the senate and by proclamation.

4 He died in the seventieth96 year of his age, but his loss was felt as though he had been but a youth. They say his death was somewhat as follows: after he had eaten too freely some Alpine cheese at dinner he vomited during the night, and was taken with a fever the next day. 5 On the second day, as he saw that his condition was becoming worse, in the presence of his prefects he committed the state and his daughter to Marcus Antoninus, and gave orders that the golden statue of Fortune, which was wont to stand p131 in the bed-chamber of the emperor,97 be given to him. 6 Then he gave the watchword to the officer of the day as "Equanimity," and so, turning as if to sleep, gave up the ghost at Lorium. 7 While he was delirious with fever, he spoke of nothing save the state and certain kings with whom he was angry. 8 To his daughter he left his private fortune,98 and in his will he remembered all his household with suitable legacies.

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 13 1 He was a handsome man, and tall in stature; but being a tall man, when he was bent by old age he had himself swathed with splints of linden-wood bound on his chest in order that he might walk erect. 2 Moreover, when he was old, he ate dry bread before the courtiers came to greet him, in order that he might sustain his strength. His voice was hoarse and resonant, yet agreeable.

3 He was deified by the senate, while all men vied with one another to give him honour, and all extolled his devoutness, his mercy, his intelligence, and his righteousness. All honours were decreed for him which were ever before bestowed on the very best of emperors. 4 He well deserved the flamen and games and temple99 and the Antonineº priesthood. 100 Almost alone of all emperors he lived entirely unstained by the blood of either citizen or foe so far as was in his power, and he was justly compared to Numa, whose good fortune and piety and tranquillity and religious rites he ever maintained.

The Life of Marcus Aurelius
Part 1

[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 1 1 Marcus Antoninus, devoted to philosophy as long as he lived and pre-eminent among emperors in purity of life, 2 was the son of Annius Verus, who died while praetor. His grandfather, named Annius Verus also, attained to a second consulship,1 was prefect of the city, and was enrolled among the patricians by Vespasian and Titus while they were censors. 3 Annius Libo, a consul, was his uncle, Galeria Faustina Augusta,2 his aunt. His mother was Domitia Lucilla, the daughter of Calvisius Tullus, who served as consul twice. 3 4 Annius Verus, from the town of Succuba in Spain, who was made a senator and attained to the dignity of praetor, was his father's grandfather; his great-grandfather on his mother's side was Catilius Severus,4 who twice held the consulship and was prefect of the city. His father's mother was Rupilia Faustina, the daughter of Rupilius Bonus, a man of consular rank.

p135 5 Marcus himself was born at Rome on the sixth day before the Kalends of May in the second consulship of his grandfather and the first of Augur, in a villa on the Caelian Hill. 6 His family, in tracing its origin back to the beginning, established its descent from Numa, or so Marius Maximus tells, and likewise from the Sallentine king Malemnius, the son of Dasummus, who founded Lupiae. 5 7 He was reared in the villa where he was born, and also in the home of his grandfather Verus close to the dwelling of Lateranus. 8 He had a sister younger than himself, named Annia Cornificia;6 his wife, who was also his cousin, was Annia Faustina. 7 9 At the beginning of his life Marcus Antoninus was named Catilius Severus8 after his mother's grandfather. 10 After the death of his real father, however, Hadrian called him Annius Verissimus,9 and, after he assumed the toga virilis, Annius Verus. When his father died he was adopted and reared by his father's father.

Legamen ad paginam Latinam 2 1 He was a solemn child from the very beginning; and as soon as he passed beyond the age when children are brought up under the care of nurses, he was handed over to advanced instructors and attained to a knowledge of philosophy. 2 In his more elementary education, he received instruction from Euphorion in literature and from Geminus in drama, in music and likewise in geometry from Andron; on all of whom, as being spokesmen of the sciences, he afterwards conferred great honours. 3 Besides these, his teachers in grammar were the Greek Alexander of Cotiaeum,10 and p137 the Latins Trosius Aper, Pollio, and Eutychius Proculus of Sicca; 4 his masters in oratory were the Greeks Aninius Macer, Caninius Celer and Herodes Atticus,11 and the Latin Cornelius Fronto. 12 5 Of these he conferred high honours on Fronto, even asking the senate to vote him a statue; but indeed he advanced Proculus also — even to a proconsulship, and assumed the burdens13 of the office himself.

6 He studied philosophy with ardour, even as a youth. For when he was twelve years old he adopted the dress and, a little later, the hardiness of a philosopher, pursuing his studies clad in a rough Greek cloak and sleeping on the ground;14 at his mother's solicitation, however, he reluctantly consented to sleep on a couch strewn with skins. 7 He received instruction, furthermore, from the teacher of that Commodus15 who was destined later to be a kinsman of his, namely Apollonius of Chalcedon,16 the Stoic; Legamen ad paginam Latinam 3 1 and such was his ardour for this school of philosophy, that even after he became a member of the imperial family, he still went to Apollonius' residence for instruction. 2 In addition, he attended the lectures of Sextus of Chaeronea,17 the nephew of Plutarch, and of Junius Rusticus,18 Claudius Maximus,19 and Cinna Catulus,20 all Stoics. 3 He also attended p139 the lectures of Claudius Severus,21 an adherent of the Peripatetic school, but he received most instruction from Junius Rusticus, whom he ever revered and whose disciple he became, a man esteemed in both private and public life, and exceedingly well acquainted with the Stoic system, 4 with whom Marcus shared all his counsels both public and private, whom he greeted with a kiss prior to the prefects of the guard,22 5 whom he even appointed consul for a second term,23 and whom after his death he asked the senate to honour with statues. On his teachers in general, moreover, he conferred great honours, for he even kept golden statues of them in his chapel,24 and made it a custom to show respect for their tombs by personal visits and by offerings of sacrifices and flowers. 6 He studied jurisprudence as well, in which he heard Lucius Volusius Maecianus, 7 and so much work and labour did he devote to his studies that he impaired his health — the only fault to be found with his entire childhood. 8 He attended also the public schools of rhetoricians. Of his fellow-pupils he was particularly fond of Seius Fuscianus25 and Aufidius Victorinus,26 of the senatorial order, and Baebius Longus and Calenus, of the equestrian.
9 He was very generous to these men, so generous, in fact, that on those whom he could not advance to public office on account of their station in life, he bestowed riches.

p141 4 1 Legamen ad paginam Latinam He was reared under the eye of Hadrian, who called him Verissimus, as we have already related,27 and did him the honour of enrolling him in the equestrian order when he was six years old 2 and appointing him in his eighth year to the college of the Salii. 3 While in this college, moreover, he received an omen of his future rule; for when they were all casting their crowns on the banqueting-couch28 of the god, according to the usual custom, his crown, as if placed there by his hand, fell on the brow of Mars. 4 In this priesthood he was leader of the dance, seer, and master, and consequently both initiated and dismissed a great number of people; and in these ceremonies no one dictated the formulas to him, for all of them he had learned by himself.

5 In the fifteenth year of his life he assumed the toga virilis, and straightway, at the wish of Hadrian, was betrothed to the daughter of Lucius Ceionius Commodus. 29 6 Not long after this he was made prefect of the city during the Latin Festival,30 and in this position he conducted himself very brilliantly both in the presence of the magistrates and at the banquets of the Emperor Hadrian. 7 Later, when his mother asked him to give his sister31 part of the fortune left him by his father, he replied that he was content with the fortune of his grandfather and relinquished all of it, further declaring that if she wished, his mother might leave her own estate to his sister in its entirety, in order that she might not be poorer than her husband. 8 So complaisant was he, moreover, that p143 at times, when urged, he let himself be taken to hunts or the theatre or the spectacles. 9 Besides, he gave some attention to painting, under the teacher Diognetus. He was also fond of boxing and wrestling and running and fowling, played ball very skilfully, and hunted well. 10 But his ardour for philosophy distracted him from all these pursuits and made him serious and dignified, not ruining, however, a certain geniality in him, which he still manifested toward his household, his friends, and even to those less intimate, but making him, rather, austere, though not unreasonable, modest, though not inactive, and serious without gloom.

Legamen ad paginam Latinam 5 1 Such was his character, then, when, after the death of Lucius Caesar, Hadrian looked about for a successor to the throne. Marcus did not seem suitable, being at the time but eighteen years of age; and Hadrian chose for adoption Antoninus Pius, the uncle-in‑law of Marcus, with the provision that Pius should in turn adopt Marcus and that Marcus should adopt Lucius Commodus. 32 2 And it was on the day that Verus33 was adopted that he dreamed that he had shoulders of ivory, and when he asked if they were capable of bearing a burden, he found them much stronger than before. 3 When he discovered, moreover, that Hadrian had adopted him, he was appalled rather than overjoyed, and when told to move to the private home of Hadrian, reluctantly departed from his mother's villa. 4 And when the members of his household asked him why he was sorry to receive royal adoption, he enumerated to them the evil things that sovereignty involved.

p145 5 At this time he first began to be called Aurelius instead of Annius,34 since, according to the law of adoption, he had passed into the Aurelian family, that is, into the family of Antoninus. 6 And so he was adopted in his eighteenth year, and at the instance of Hadrian exception was made for his age35 and he was appointed quaestor for the year of the second consulship of Antoninus, now his father. 7 Even after his adoption into the imperial house, he still showed the same respect to his own relatives that he had borne them as a commoner, 8 was as frugal and careful of his means as he had been when he lived in a private home, and was willing to act, speak, and think according to his father's principles.

Legamen ad paginam Latinam 6 1 When Hadrian died at Baiae36 and Pius departed to bring back his remains, Marcus was left at Rome and discharged his grandfather's funeral rites, and, though quaestor, presented a gladiatorial spectacle as a private citizen. 2 Immediately after Hadrian's death Pius, through his wife, approached Marcus, and, breaking his betrothal with the daughter of Lucius Ceionius Commodus,37 . . . he was willing to espouse one so much his junior in years, he replied, after deliberating the question, that he was. 3 And when this was done, Pius designated him as his colleague in the consulship, though he was still only quaestor, gave him the title of Caesar,38 appointed him while consul-elect one of the six commanders of the p147 equestrian order39 and sat by him when he and his five colleagues were producing their official games, bade him take up his abode in the House of Tiberius40 and there provided him with all the pomp of a court, though Marcus objected to this, and finally took him into the priesthoods41 at the bidding of the senate. 4 Later, he appointed him consul for a second term at the same time that he began his fourth. 5 And all this time, when busied with so many public duties of his own, and while sharing his father's activities that he might be fitted for ruling the state, Marcus worked at his studies42 eagerly.

6 At this time he took Faustina to wife43 and, after begetting a daughter,44 received the tribunician power and the proconsular power outside the city,45 with the added right of making five proposals in the senate. 46 7 Such was his influence with Pius that the Emperor was never quick to promote anyone without his advice. 8 Moreover, he showed great deference to his father, though there were not lacking those who whispered things against him, 9 especially Valerius Homullus,47 p149 who, when he saw Marcus' mother Lucilla worshipping in her garden before a shrine of Apollo, whispered, "Yonder woman is now praying that you may come to your end, and her son rule. " All of which influenced Pius not in the least, 10 such was Marcus' sense of honour and such his modesty while heir to the throne. Legamen ad paginam Latinam 7 1 He had such regard for his reputation, moreover, that even as a youth he admonished his procurators to do nothing high-handed and often refused sundry legacies that were left him, returning them to the nearest kin of the deceased. 2 Finally, for three and twenty years he conducted himself in his father's home in such a manner that Pius felt more affection for him day by day, 3 and never in all these years, save for two nights on different occasions, remained away from him.

For these reasons, then, when Antoninus Pius saw that the end of his life was drawing near, having summoned his friends and prefects, he commended Marcus to them all and formally named him as his successor in the empire. He then straightway gave the watch-word to the officer of the day as "Equanimity," and ordered that the golden statue of Fortune, customarily kept in his own bed-chamber, be transferred to the bed-chamber of Marcus. 48 4 Part of his mother's fortune Marcus then gave to Ummidius Quadratus,49 the son of his sister, because the latter was now dead.

5 Being forced by the senate to assume the government of the state after the death of the Deified Pius, Marcus made his brother his colleague in the empire, giving him the name Lucius Aurelius Verus Commodus and bestowing on him the titles Caesar and Augustus. 6 Then they began to rule the state on p151 equal terms,50 and then it was that the Roman Empire first had two emperors, when Marcus shared with another the empire he had inherited. Next, he himself took the name Antoninus, 7 and just as though he were the father of Lucius Commodus, he gave him the name Verus, adding also the name Antoninus; he also betrothed him to his daughter Lucilla,51 though legally he was his brother. 8 In honour of this union they gave orders that girls and boys of newly-named orders52 should be assigned a share in the distribution of grain.

9 And so, when they had done those things which had to be done in the presence of the senate, they set out together for the praetorian camp, and in honour of their joint rule promised twenty thousand sesterces apiece to the common soldiers and to the others53 money in proportion. 10 The body of their father they laid in the Tomb of Hadrian54 with elaborate funeral rites, and on a holiday which came thereafter an official funeral train marched in parade. 11 Both emperors pronounced panegyrics for their father from the Rostra, and they appointed a flamen for him chosen from their own kinsmen and a college of Aurelian priests55 from their closest friends.

Legamen ad paginam Latinam 8 1 And now, after they had assumed the imperial power, the two emperors acted in so democratic a manner that no one missed the lenient ways of Pius; for though Marullus, a writer of farces of the time, irritated them by his jests, he yet went unpunished. 2 They gave funeral games for their father. 3 And p153 Marcus abandoned himself to philosophy, at the same time cultivating the good-will of the citizens. 4 But now to interrupt the emperor's happiness56 and repose, there came the first flood of the Tiber — the severest one of their time — which ruined many houses in the city, drowned a great number of animals, and caused a most severe famine; 5 all these disasters Marcus and Verus relieved by their own personal care and aid. 6 At this time, moreover, came the Parthian war, which Vologaesus planned under Pius57 and declared under Marcus and Verus, after the rout of Attidius Cornelianus, than governor of Syria. 58 7 And besides this, war was threatening in Britain, and the Chatti59 had burst into Germany and Raetia. 8 Against the Britons Calpurnius Agricola60 was sent; against the Chatti, Aufidius Victorinus. 61 9 But to the Parthian war, with the consent of the senate, Marcus despatched his brother Verus, while he himself remained at Rome, where conditions demanded the presence of an emperor. 10 Nevertheless, he accompanied Verus as far as Capua,62 honouring him with a retinue of friends from the senate and appointing also all his chiefs-of‑staff. 11 And when, after returning to Rome, he learned that Verus was ill at Canusium63 he hastened to see him, after assuming vows in the senate, which, on his return p155 to Rome after learning that Verus had set sail, he immediately fulfilled. 12 Verus, however, after he had come to Syria, lingered amid the debaucheries of Antioch and Daphne and busied himself with gladiatorial bouts and hunting. 64 And yet, for waging the Parthian war through his legates, he was acclaimed Imperator,65 13 while meantime Marcus was at all hours keeping watch over the workings of the state, and, though reluctantly and sorely against his will, but nevertheless with patience, was enduring the debauchery of his brother. 14 In a word, Marcus, though residing at Rome, planned and executed everything necessary to the prosecution of the war.

Legamen ad paginam Latinam 9 1 In Armenia the campaign was successfully prosecuted under Statius Priscus, Artaxata being taken, and the honorary name Armeniacus was given to each of the emperors. 66 This name Marcus refused at first, by reason of his modesty, but afterwards accepted. 2 When the Parthian war was finished,67 moreover, each emperor was called Parthicus; but this name also Marcus refused when first offered, though afterwards he accepted it. 3 And further, when the title "Father of his Country" was offered him in his brother's absence, he deferred action upon it until the latter should be present. 68 4 In the midst of this war he entrusted his daughter,69 who was about to be married and had already received her dowry, to the care of his sister, and, accompanying them himself as far as Brundisium, sent them to Verus together with p157 the latter's uncle, Civica. 70 5 Immediately thereafter he returned to Rome, recalled by the talk of those who said that he wished to appropriate to himself the glory of finishing the war and had therefore set out for Syria. 6 He wrote to the proconsul,71 furthermore, that no one should meet his daughter as she made her journey.

7 In the meantime, he put such safeguards about suits for personal freedom — and he was the first to do so — as to order that every citizen should bestow names upon his free-born children within thirty days after birth and declare them to the prefects of the treasury of Saturn. 72 8 In the provinces, too, he established the use of public records, in which entries concerning births were to be made in the same manner as at Rome in the office of the prefects of the treasury, the purpose being that if any one born in the provinces should plead a case to prove freedom, he might submit evidence from these records. 9 Indeed, he strengthened this entire law dealing with declarations of freedom,73 and he enacted other laws dealing with money-lenders and public sales.

Legamen ad paginam Latinam 10 1 He made the senate the judge in many inquiries and even in those which belonged to his own jurisdiction. With regard to the status of deceased persons, he ordered that any investigations must be made within five years. 74 2 Nor did any of the emperors show more respect to the senate than he. To do the senate honour, moreover, he entrusted the settling of p159 disputes to many men of praetorian and consular rank who then held no magistracy, in order that their prestige might be enhanced through their administration of law. 3 He enrolled in the senate many of his friends, giving them the rank of aedile or praetor; 4 and on a number of poor but honest senators he bestowed the rank of tribune or aedile. 5 Nor did he ever appoint anyone to senatorial rank whom he did not know well personally. 6 He granted senators the further privilege75 that whenever any of them was to be tried on a capital charge, he would examine the evidence behind closed doors and only after so doing would bring the case to public trial; nor would he allow members of the equestrian order to attend such investigations. 7 He always attended the meetings of the senate if he was in Rome, even though no measure was to be proposed, and if he wished to propose anything himself, he came in person even from Campania. 8 More than this, when elections were held he often remained even until night, never leaving the senate-chamber 9 until the consul announced, "We detain you no longer, Conscript Fathers". Further, he appointed the senate judge in appeals made from the consul.

10 To the administration of justice he gave singular care. He added court-days to the calendar until he had set 230 days for the pleading of cases and judging of suits, 11 and he was the first to appoint a special praetor in charge of the praetor of wards,76 in order that greater care might be exercised in dealing with trustees; for previously the appointment of trustees had been in the hands of the consuls. 12 As regards guardians, indeed, he decided that all youths might have them appointed without being obliged to show cause therefor, whereas previously they were appointed p161 under the Plaetorian Law,77 or in cases of prodigality or madness. 78

Legamen ad paginam Latinam 11 1 In the matter of public expenditures he was exceedingly careful, and he forbade all libels on the part of false informers, putting the mark of infamy on such as made false accusations. He scorned such accusations as would swell the privy-purse. 2 He devised many wise measures for the support of the state-poor,79 and, that he might give a wider range to the senatorial functions, he appointed supervisors for many communities80 from the senate. 3 In times of famine he furnished the Italian communities with food from the city; indeed, he made careful provision for the whole matter of the grain-supply. 4 He limited gladiatorial shows in every way, and lessened the cost of free theatrical performances also, decreeing that though an actor might receive five aurei, nevertheless no one who gave a performance should expend more than ten. 5 The streets of the city and the highways he maintained with the greatest care. As for the grain-supply, for that he provided laboriously. 6 He appointed judges for Italy and thereby provided for its welfare, after the plan of Hadrian,81 who had appointed men of consular rank to administer the law; 7 and he made scrupulous provision, furthermore, for the welfare of the provinces of Spain, which, in defiance of the policy of Trajan, had been exhausted by p163 levies from the Italian settlers. 82 8 Also he enacted laws about inheritance-taxes,83 about the property of freedmen held in trust, about property inherited from the mother,84 about the succession of the sons to the mother's share, and likewise that senators of foreign birth should invest a fourth part of their capital in Italy. 85 9 And besides this, he gave the commissioners of districts and streets power either themselves to punish those who fleeced anyone of money beyond his due assessment, or to bring them to the prefect of the city for punishment. 10 He engaged rather in the restoration of old laws than in the making of new, and ever kept near him prefects with whose authority and responsibility he framed his laws. 86 He made use of Scaevola also,87 a man particularly learned in jurisprudence.

Legamen ad paginam Latinam 12 1 Toward the people he acted just as one acts in a free state. 2 He was at all times exceedingly reasonable both in restraining men from evil and in urging them to good, generous in rewarding and quick to forgive, thus making bad men good, and good men very good, and he even bore with unruffled temper the insolence of not a few. 3 For example, when he advised a man of abominable reputation, who was running for office, a certain Vetrasinus, to stop the town-talk about himself, and Vetrasinus replied that many who had fought with him in the arena were now praetors, the Emperor took it with good grace. 4 Again, in order to avoid taking an easy revenge on any one, instead of ordering a p165 praetor who had acted very badly in certain matters to resign his office, he merely entrusted the administration of the law to the man's colleague. 5 The privy-purse never influenced his judgment in law-suits involving money. 6 Finally, if he was firm, he was also reasonable.

7 After his brother had returned victorious from Syria, the title "Father of his Country" was decreed to both,88 inasmuch as Marcus in the absence of Verus had conducted himself with great consideration toward both senators and commons. 8 Furthermore, the civic crown89 was offered to both; and Lucius demanded that Marcus triumph with him, and demanded also that the name Caesar should be given to Marcus' sons. 90 9 But Marcus was so free from love of display that though he triumphed with Lucius, nevertheless after Lucius' death he called himself only Germanicus,91 the title he had won in his own war. 10 In the triumphal procession, moreover, they carried with them Marcus' children of both sexes, even his unmarried daughters; 11 and they viewed the games held in honour of the triumph clad in the triumphal robe. 12 Among other illustrations of his unfailing consideration towards others this act of kindness is to be told: After one lad, a rope-dancer, had fallen, he ordered mattresses spread under all rope-dancers. This is the reason why a net is stretched them to‑day.

13 While the Parthian war was still in progress, the Marcomannic war broke out, after having been postponed for a long time by the diplomacy of the men who were in charge there, in order that the Marcomannic p167 war92 might not be waged until Rome was done with the war in the East. 14 Even at the time of the famine the Emperor had hinted at this war to the people, and when his brother returned after five years' service, he brought the matter up in the senate, saying that both emperors were needed for the German war. Legamen ad paginam Latinam 13 1 So great was the dread of this Marcomannic war,93 that Antoninus summoned priests from all sides, performed foreign religious ceremonies, and purified the city in every way, and he was delayed thereby from setting out to the seat of war. 2 The Roman ceremony of the feast of the gods94 was celebrated for seven days. 3 And there was such a pestilence,95 besides, that the dead were removed in carts and waggons. 4 About this time, also, the two emperors ratified certain very stringent laws on burial and tombs, in which they even forbade any one to build a tomb at his country-place, a law still in force. 5 Thousands were carried off by the pestilence, including many nobles, for the most prominent of whom Antoninus erected statues. 6 Such, too, was his kindliness of heart that he had funeral ceremonies performed for the lower classes even at the public expense; and in the case of one foolish fellow, who, in a search with divers confederates for an opportunity to plunder the city, continually made speeches from the wild fig-tree on the Campus Martius, to the effect that fire would fall p169 down from heaven and the end of the world would come should he fall from the tree and be turned into a stork, and finally at the appointed time did fall down and free a stork from his robe, the Emperor, when the wretch was hailedº before him and confessed all, pardoned him.

Legamen ad paginam Latinam 14 1 Clad in the military cloak the two emperors finally set forth, for now not only were the Victuali and Marcomanni throwing everything into confusion, but other tribes, who had been driven on by the more distant barbarians and had retreated before them, were ready to attack Italy if not peaceably received. 2 And not a little good resulted from that expedition, even by the time they had advanced as far as Aquileia, for several kings retreated, together with their peoples, and put to death the authors of the trouble. 3 And the Quadi, after they had lost their king, said that they would not confirm the successor who had been elected until such a course was approved by our emperors. 4 Nevertheless, Lucius went on, though reluctantly, after a number of peoples had sent ambassadors to the legates of the emperors asking pardon for the rebellion. 5 Lucius, it is true, thought they should return, because Furius Victorinus, the prefect of the guard, had been lost, and part of his army had perished;96 Marcus, however, held that they should press on, thinking that the barbarians, in order that they might not be crushed by the size of so great a force, were feigning a retreat and using other ruses which afford safety in war, held that they should persist in order that they might not be overwhelmed by the mere burden of their vast preparations. 6 Finally, they crossed the Alps, and pressing further on, completed all measures necessary for the defence of Italy and Illyricum. 97 7º They then decided, at Lucius' insistence, that letters should first be sent p171 ahead to the senate and that Lucius should then return to Rome. 8 But on the way, after they had set out upon their journey, Lucius died from a stroke of apoplexy98 while riding in the carriage with his brother.

The Life of Lucius Verus

1 1 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] Most men, I well know, who have enshrined in literature and history the lives of Marcus and Verus, have made Verus known to their readers first, following the order, not of their reigns, but of their lives. 2 I, however, have thought, since Marcus began to rule first and Verus only afterwards1 and Verus died while Marcus still lived on, that Marcus' life should be related first, and then that of Verus.

3 ºNow, Lucius Ceionius Aelius Commodus Verus Antoninus2 — called Aelius by the wish of Hadrian,3 Verus and Antoninus because of his relationship to Antoninus4 — is not to be classed with either the good or the bad emperors. 4 For, in the first place, it is agreed that if he did not bristle with vices, no more did he abound in virtues; and, in the second place, he enjoyed, not unrestricted power, but a sovereignty on like terms and equal dignity with Marcus, from whom he differed, however, as far as morals went, both in the laxity of his principles and p209 the excessive licence of his life. 5 For in character he was utterly ingenuous and unable to conceal a thing. 5

6 His real father, Lucius Aelius Verus (who was adopted by Hadrian), was the first man to receive the name of Caesar6 and die without reaching a higher rank. 7 7 His grandfathers and great-grandfathers8 and likewise many other of his ancestors were men of consular rank. 8 Lucius himself was born at Rome while his father was praetor, on the eighteenth day before the Kalends of January,9 the birthday of Nero as well10 — who also held the throne. 9 His father's family came mostly from Etruria, his mother's from Faventia. 11

2 1 Such, then, was his real ancestry; but when his father was adopted by Hadrian he passed into the Aelian family,12 and when his father Caesar died, he still stayed in the family of Hadrian. 2 By Hadrian he was given in adoption to Aurelius,13 when Hadrian, making abundant provision for the succession, wished to make Pius his son and Marcus his grandson; 3 ºand he was given on the condition that he should espouse the daughter of Pius. 14 She was later given to Marcus, however, as we have related in his life,15 because Verus seemed too much her junior in years, 4 while Verus took to wife Marcus' daughter Lucilla. 16 He was reared in the House of Tiberius,17 5 and received instruction from the Latin grammarian Scaurinus (the son of the Scaurus18 who had been Hadrian's teacher in grammar), the Greeks Telephus, Hephaestio, Harpocratio, the rhetoricians Apollonius, Caninius p211 Celer,19 Herodes Atticus, and the Latin Cornelius Fronto, his teachers in philosophy being Apollonius20 and Sextus. 21 6 For all of these he cherished a deep affection, and in return he was beloved by them, and this despite his lack of natural gifts in literary studies. 7 In his youth he loved to compose verses, and later on in life, orations. And, in truth, he is said to have been a better orator than poet, or rather, to be strictly truthful, a worse poet than speaker. 8 Nor are there lacking those who say that he was aided by the wit of his friends, and that the things credited to him, such as they are, were written by others; and in fact it is said that he did keep in his employ a number of eloquent and learned men. 9 Nicomedes was his tutor. He was devoted to pleasure, too care-free, and very clever, within proper bounds, at every kind of frolic, sport, and raillery. 10 At the age of seven he passed into the Aurelian family,22 and was moulded by the manners and influence of Marcus. He loved hunting and wrestling, and indeed all the sports of youth. 11 And at the age of three and twenty he was still a private citizen23 in the imperial household.

3 1 On the day when Verus assumed the toga virilis Antoninus Pius, who on that same occasion dedicated a temple to his father, gave largess to the people;24 2 and Verus himself, when quaestor,25 gave the people a gladiatorial spectacle, at which he sat between Pius and Marcus. 3 Immediately after his quaestorship he p213 was made consul, with Sextius Lateranus as his colleague, and a number of years later he was created consul for a second term together with his brother Marcus. 4 For a long time, however, he was merely a private citizen and lacked the marks of honour with which Marcus was continually being decorated. 26 5 For he did not have a seat in the senate until he was quaestor, and while travelling, he rode, not with his father, but with the prefect of the guard, nor was any title added to his name as a mark of honour save only that he was called the son of Augustus. 27 6 He was fond of circus-games no less than of gladiatorial spectacles. And although he was weakened by such follies of debauchery and extravagance, nevertheless Pius retained him as a son, for the reason, it seems, that Hadrian, wishing to call the youth his grandson, had ordered Pius to adopt him. Towards Pius, so far as it appears, Verus showed loyalty rather than affection. 7 Pius, however, loved the frankness of his nature28 and his unspoiled way of living, and encouraged Marcus to imitate him in these. 8 When Pius died, Marcus bestowed all honours upon Verus, even granting him a share in the imperial power; he made him his colleague, moreover, when the senate had presented the sovereignty to him alone. 29

4 1 After investing him the sovereignty, then, and installing him in the tribunician power,30 and after rendering him the further honour of the consulship, Marcus gave instructions that he be named Verus, transferring his own name to him, whereas previously he had been called Commodus. 31 2 In return for this, p215 Verus obeyed Marcus, whenever he entered upon any undertaking, as a lieutenant obeys a proconsul or a governor obeys the emperor. 3 For, at the beginning, he addressed the soldiers32 in his brother's behalf as well as his own, and in consideration of the joint rule he conducted himself with dignity and observed the moral standard that Marcus had set up.

4 When he set out for Syria,33 however, his name was smirched not only by the licence of an unbridled life,34 but also by adulteries and by love-affairs with young men. 5 Besides, he is said to have been so depraved as to install a cook-shop in his home after he returned from Syria, and to repair thither after Marcus' banquets and have all manner of foul persons serve him. 6 It is said, moreover, that he used to dice the whole night through, after he had taken up that vice in Syria, and that he so rivalled Caligula, Nero, and Vitellius in their vices as to wander about at night through taverns and brothels with only a common travelling-cap for a head-covering, revel with various rowdies, and engage in brawls, concealing his identity the while;35 and often, they say, when he returned, his face was beaten black and blue, and once he was recognised in a tavern even though he had hidden himself. 7 It was his wont also to hurl large coins into the cook-shops and therewith smash the cups. 8 He was very fond also of charioteers, favouring the "Greens". 36 9 He held gladiatorial p217 bouts rather frequently at his banquets, and after continuing the meal far into the night he would fall asleep on the banqueting-couch, so that he had to be lifted up along with the covers and carried to his bedroom. 10 He never needed much sleep, however; and his digestion was excellent.

11 But Marcus, though he was not without knowledge of these happenings, with characteristic modesty pretended ignorance for fear of censuring his brother. 5 One such banquet, indeed, became very notorious. This was the first banquet, it is said, at which couches were placed for twelve, although there is a very well-known saying about the proper number of those present at a banquet that "seven make a dinner, nine make a din". 37 2 Furthermore, the comely lads who did the serving were given as presents, one to each guest; carvers and platters, too, were presented to each, and also live animals either tame or wild, winged or quadruped, of whatever kind were the meats that were served, 3 and even goblets of murra38 or of Alexandrine crystal were presented to each man for each drink, as often as they drank. Besides this, he gave golden and silver and even jeweled cups, and garlands, too, entwined with golden ribbons and flowers out of season, golden vases with ointments made in the shape of perfume-boxes, 4 and even carriages, together with mules and muleteers, and trappings of silver, wherewith they might return home from the banquet. 5 The estimated cost of the whole banquet, it is reported, was six million sesterces. 6 And when Marcus heard of this dinner, they say, he groaned and bewailed the fate of the empire. 7 After p219 the banquet, moreover, they diced until dawn. 8 And all this was done after the Parthian war, whither Marcus had sent him, it is said, either that he might commit his debaucheries away from the city and the eyes of all citizens, or that he might learn economy by his travels, or that he might return reformed through the fear inspired by war, or, finally, that he might come to realize that he was an emperor. 9 But how much good all this did is shown not only by the rest of his life, but also by this banquet of which we have just told.

6 1 Such interest did Verus take in the circus-games that frequently even in his province he despatched and received letters pertaining to them. 2 And finally, even at Rome, when he was present and seated with Marcus, he suffered many insults from the "Blues,"39 because he had outrageously, as they maintained, taken sides against them. 3 For he had a golden statue made of the "Green" horse Volucer,40 and this he always carried around with him; 4 indeed, he was wont to put raisins and nuts instead of barley in this horse's manger and to order him brought to him, in the House of Tiberius,41 covered with a blanket dyed with purple, and he built him a tomb, when he died, on the Vatican Hill. 5 It was because of this horse that gold pieces and prizes first began to be demanded for horses, 6 and in such honour was this horse held, that frequently a whole peck of gold pieces was demanded for him by the faction of the "Greens".

7 When Verus set out for the Parthian war, Marcus accompanied him as far as Capua;42 from there on he gorged himself in everyone's villa, and in consequence he was taken sick at Canusium, becoming very ill, so that his brother hastened thither to see him. 8 And p221 now in the course of this war there were revealed many features of Verus' life that were weak and base. 9 For while a legate was being slain,43 while legions were being slaughtered, while Syria meditated revolt, and the East was being devastated, Verus was hunting in Apulia, travelling about through Athens and Corinth accompanied by orchestras and singers, and dallying through all the cities of Asia that bordered on the sea, and those cities of Pamphylia and Cilicia that were particularly notorious for their pleasure-resorts. 7 And when he came to Antioch, there he gave himself wholly to riotous living. His generals, meanwhile, Statius Priscus, Avidius Cassius, and Martius Verus44 for four years conducted the war until they advanced to Babylon and Media, and recovered Armenia. 45 2 He, however, gained the names Armeniacus, Parthicus, and Medicus; and these were proffered to Marcus also, who was then living at Rome. 3 For four years, moreover, Verus passed his winters at Laodicea, his summers at Daphne, and the rest of the time at Antioch. 46 4 As far as the Syrians were concerned, he was an object for ridicule, and many of the jibes which they uttered against him on the stage are still preserved. 5 Always, during the Saturnalia and on holidays he admitted his more pampered slaves to his dining-room. 6 Finally, however, at the insistence of his staff he set out for the Euphrates, 7 but soon, in order to receive his wife Lucilla, who had been sent thither by her father Marcus,47 he returned to Ephesus, going there chiefly in order that Marcus might not come to Syria with p223 her and discover his evil deeds. For Marcus had told the senate that he himself would conduct his daughter to Syria. 8 Then, after the war was finished,48 he assigned kingdoms49 to certain kings, and provinces to certain members of his staff, to be ruled, 9 and returned to Rome for a triumph,50 reluctantly, however, since he was leaving in Syria what almost seemed his own kingdom. His triumph he shared with his brother, and from the senate he accepted the names which he had received in the army. 51 10 It is said, furthermore, that he shaved off his beard while in Syria to humour the whim of a low-born mistress;52 and because of this many things were said against him by the Syrians.

8 1 It was his fate to seem to bring a pestilence with him to whatever provinces he traversed on his return, and finally even to Rome. 53 2 It is believed that this pestilence originated in Babylonia, where a pestilential vapour arose in a temple of Apollo from a golden casket which a soldier had accidentally cut open, and that it spread thence over Parthia and the whole world. 3 Lucius Verus, however, is not to blame for this so much as Cassius, who stormed Seleucia in violation of an agreement, after it had received our soldiers as friends. 4 This act, indeed, many excuse, and among them Quadratus,54 the historian of the Parthian war, who blames the Seleucians as the first to break the agreement.

5 Such respect did Verus have for Marcus, that on p225 the day of the triumph, which they celebrated together, he shared with his brother the names which had been granted to himself. 55 6 After he had returned from the Parthian war, however, Verus exhibited less regard for his brother; for he pampered his freedmen56 shamefully, and settled many things without his brother's counsel. 7 Besides all this, he brought actors out of Syria57 as proudly as though he were leading kings to a triumph. The chief of these was Maximinus, on whom he bestowed the name Paris. 8 Furthermore, he built an exceedingly notorious villa on the Clodian Way,58 and here he not only reviled himself for many days at a time in boundless extravagance together with his freedmen and friends of inferior rank in whose presence he felt no shame, but he even invited Marcus. 9 Marcus came, in order to display to his brother the purity of his own moral code as worthy of respect and imitation, and for five days, staying in the same villa, he busied himself continuously with the examination of law-cases, while his brother, in the meantime, was either banqueting or preparing banquets. 10 Verus maintained also the actor Agrippus, surnamed Memphius, whom he had brought with him from Syria, almost as a trophy of the Parthian war, and named Apolaustius. 59 11 He had brought with him, too, players of the harp and the flute, actors and jesters from the mimes, jugglers, and all kinds of slaves in whose entertainment Syria and Alexandria find pleasure, and in such numbers, indeed, that he seemed to have concluded a war, not against Parthians, but against actors.

p227 9 This diversity in their manner of life, as well as many other causes, bred dissensions between Marcus and Verus — or so it was bruited about by obscure rumours although never established on the basis of manifest truth.