A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

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AURELIUS.

rious other honours and privileges befitting his
station. From this time forward he was the constant companion and adviser of the monarch, and
the most perfect confidence subsisted between the
son and his adopted father until the death of the
latter, which happened on the 7th of March, 161.
The first act of the new ruler was the admission
of Ceionius Commodus to a full participation in the
sovereign power, and these emperors henceforward
bore respectively the names of M. Aurelius Antoninus and L. Aurelius Verus. When the double
adoption by Antoninus Pius took place, it was
settled that the son of Aelius Caesar should be
considered as the younger brother. Thus, on the
coins struck before the death of Pius, M. Aurelius
alone bears the appellation of Caesar, to him alone
Pius committed the empire with his dying breath,
and to him alone did the senate formally offer the
vacant throne. Hence his conduct towards L. Verus
was purely an act of grace. But the alliance promised to prove advantageous both to the parties
themselves, and also to the general interests of the
state. Marcus was weak in constitution, and took
more delight in philosophy and literary pursuits
than in politics and war, while Lucius, young,
active, and skilled in all manly exercises, was
likely to be better fitted for the toils of a military
life. His aptitude for such a career was soon put
to the proof. The war, which had been long
threatening the east, at length burst forth. Verus,
after being betrothed to Lucilla, the daughter of
his colleague, was despatched in all haste to the
Parthian frontier towards the end of 161, while
M. Aurelius remained in the city to watch an
irruption of the Catti into the Rhenish provinces
and a threatened insurrection in Britain.
Vologeses III., who had been induced to abandon a meditated attack upon Armenia by the remonstrances of Antoninus Pius, thinking that a
fitting season had now arrived for the execution of
his long-cherished schemes, had destroyed a whole
Roman legion quartered at Elegeia, and advancing
at the head of a great army, had spread devastation throughout Syria. Lucius having collected
his troops, proceeded to Antioch, where he determined to remain, and entrusted the command of
his army to Cassius and others of his generals.
Cassius compelled the Parthians to retreat, invaded
Mesopotamia, plundered and burnt Seleuceia, razed
to the ground the royal palace at Ctesiphon, and
penetrated as far as Babylon; while Statius Priscus,
who was sent into Armenia, stormed Artaxata,
and, rescuing the country from the usurper, reinstated the lawful but dethroned monarch Soaemus.
Vologeses was thus constrained to conclude an ignominious peace, in virtue of which Mesopotamia was
ceded to the Romans. These events took place in
162 and the three following years. In 166, Lucius
returned home, and the two emperors celebrated
jointly a magnificent triumph, assuming the titles
of Armeniacus, Parthicus 1Maximus, and Medicus.
But although this campaign had terminated so
gloriously, little praise was due to the commanderin-chief. Twice he was unwillingly prevailed upon
to advance as far as the Euphrates, and he made a
journey to Ephesus (in 164) to meet his bride on
her arrival from Italy; but with these exceptions
he passed his winters at Laodiceia, and the rest
of his time at Daphne or at Antioch, abandoning himself to gaming, drunkenness, and dissolute
pleasures of every kind, All the achievements of

AURELIUS.
the war were performed by his legates, and all the
general arrangements conducted by M. Aurelius at
Rome.
A still heavier danger was now impending, which
threatened to crush Italy itself. A combination
had been formed among the numerous tribes,
dwelling along the whole extent of the northern
limits of the empire, from the sources of the Danube
to the Illyrian border, including the Marcomanni,
the Alani, the Jazyges, the Quadi, the Sarmatae,
and many others. In addition to the danger from
without, the city was hard pressed by numerous
calamities from within. Inundations had destroyed many buildings and much property, among
which were vast granaries with their contents, the
poor were starving in consequence of the deficiency
thus caused in the supplies of corn, and numbers
were perishing by a fearful pestilence, said to have
been brought from the east by the troops of Verus.
So great was the panic, that it was resolved that
both emperors should go forth to encounter the foe.
Previous to their departure, in order to restore
confidence to the populace, priests were summoned
from all quarters, a multitude of expiatory sacrifices were performed, many of them according to
strange and foreign rites, and victims were offered
to the gods with the most unsparing profusion.
The contest which had now commenced with
the northern nations was continued with varying
success during the whole life of M. Aurelius, whose
head-quarters were generally fixed in Pannonia;
but the details preserved by the historians who
treat of this period are so confused and so utterly
destitute of all chronological arrangement, that it
becomes impossible to draw up anything like a
regular and well-connected narrative of the progress
of the struggle. Medals are our only sure guide,
and the information afforded by these is necessarily meagre and imperfect. It would appear that
the barbarians, overawed by the extensive preparations of the Romans and by the presence of the
two Augusti, submitted for a time and sued for
peace, and that the brothers returned to Rome in
the course of 168. They set out again, however, in
169, but before they reached the army, L. Verus
was seized with apoplexy, and expired at Aetinum,
in the territory of Veneti. Marcus hastened back
to Rome, paid the last honours to the memory of
his colleague, and returned to Germany towards
the close of the year. He now prosecuted the war
against the Marcomanni with great vigour, although
from the ravages caused by the plague among the
troops, he was forced to enrol gladiators, slaves,
and exiles, and, from the exhausted state of the
public treasury, was compelled to raise money by
selling the precious jewels and furniture of the
imperial palace. In consequence of the success
which attended these extraordinary efforts, the
legends Germanicus and Germania Subacta now
appear upon the coins, while Parthicus, Armeniacus,
and Medicus are dropped, as having more especially appertained to L. Verus. Among the numerous engagements which took place at this epoch,
a battle fought on the frozen Danube has been
very graphically described by Dion Cassius (lxxii.
7); but by far the most celebrated and important
was the victory gained over the Quadi in 174,
which having been attended by certain circumstances believed to be supernatural, gave rise to the
famous controversy among the historians of Christianity upon what is commonly termed the Miracle