Antoninus Pius - The Good Emperor #15 Roman History Documentary Series

antininus one of rome's best emperors but his reign is almost forgotten and he has been written off as a stop-gap emperor but nowhere the emperor is so highly praised for his moral character for which he earned the additive pious happy the nation that has no history and prosperous the years whose records are vague the historians who treat of antoninus's reign make practically no attempt to arrange their work in chronological order but we've done our best to present the events in the order that seems likely based on coins and inscriptions that can corroborate the written record antoninus was born in lenuvium just south of rome on september 19 86 a.d but his family originated from nemours in southern gaul a family witch in its various branches had held some of the most dignified and important offices of the roman state antoninus's grandfather was the first in the family to hold office in rome he was consoled twice he supported vespasian's bid for the imperial throne in 69 and was rewarded with a suffix consulship plus an ordinary one under domitian in 85. antoninus grew up in a small village outside rome laurium and it seems like he regarded this as his home he would later build a palace here during his reign his father died relatively young he passed away shortly after his consulship in 89. antoninus's education was entrusted to his two grandfathers and it seems they educated him on the most orthodox lines with the purpose of instilling his mind with a devout and simple spirit antoninus would have come of age in 101 a.d and would go on through the regular senatorial cursus on aurum but we don't have any written record of his career before 120 a.d when he was consul he married anya galeria faustina called faustina the elder faustina came from a good family whose origin like that of his own was provincial but like his own his wife's family had for several generations been resident in italy and its members had attained high official positions they had four children together two daughters and two sons but three of them would die before antoninus became emperor faustina the younger survived and later married marcus aurelius after his consulship antoninus retired to his villa to lead a quiet life but his retirement didn't last long when adrian divided italy into four divisions antoninus was one of the ex-consuls entrusted to one of these provinces he was granted the district of eturia and umbria it's unknown how long he held this office but perhaps for several years in 133 to 136 a.d antoninus was pro-consul of asia this pro-consul ship was one of the most honorable of all the provincial offices as governor he showed a steady hand and firm guidance matters were granted serious consideration he turned his attention primarily to the material well-being of his province upon his return in 136 he was admitted to emperor hadrian's private council by whose agency the practical business of the empire was mainly conducted in this body antonina soon gained the reputation of always advocating mild measures marcus aurelius would later allude to the simplicity of antoninus's tastes both before and after he had become emperor and notes in him the sobriety truthfulness and reserve which had been the best characteristics of the romans of the early republic antoninus had climbed the cursus honorum and due to the intrinsic worth of his character and to the excellent manner in which he discharged all the duties of government which were entrusted to him he was now one of the leading men of rome adrian didn't have any clear successor in his close family so he adopted ceonius commodus and named him heir to the throne but ceoni has died before hadrian in 138 a.d so hadrian had to look for a man qualified by personal popularity and by experience in public affairs to take on the imperial purple at short notice adrian's thoughts naturally turned to antoninus who qualified himself in both of these respects when hadrian offered antininus the chance to be adopted and become the next emperor of rome he deliberated for some time because of the great importance of the request after due deliberation antoninus accepted the honor and was adopted on the 25th of february 138 a.d but hadrian's adoption had one precondition that antoninus in turn adopted marcus anius varys his nephew and lucius son of ceonius commodus who had become the emperor's marcus aurelius and lucius varus it seems that hadrian hoped that antoninus would be a stopgap emperor just long enough for marcus and lucius to be old enough to rule on their own parts of the speech hadrian gave to the senate when he introduced antoninus was recorded fate has taken ceonus from us but i have found you an emperor noble mild obedient sensible neither headstrong and rash through youth nor careless through old age antoninus or alias when antoninus was adopted he was also granted the powers that came with imperial power that of pro-consulare imperium and tripanishia protesters and he did in fact but not in name co-rule the empire as hadrian was suffering from some sort of illness that made him irrational and suicidal there is the english proverb that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely this notion did not hold true when it came to antoninus who only seems to have increased his sense of honor and duty with increased power and responsibility marcus aurelius would later praise his adoptive father that he set an example of how to preserve his character when emperor be firm like him of an equal temperament pious cheerful kind a despiser of empty glory careful accurate diligent and thorough bad lame and sensual from others as he did neither hurry nor delay and let your tastes be simple four months after the adoption hadrian died on the 10th of july 138 a.d and tininess was officially proclaimed emperor of rome adrian had gained a lot of ill will in the senate partly due to constant travelling and focusing on the provinces rather than the imperial city and partly because of the division of italy which effectively had decreased the power of the senate his irrational behavior in the last few months didn't win him any friends either but antoninus made it his duty to restore the memory of his adoptive father he compromised with the senate many of hadrian's acts were reversed and senators condemned by hadrian were pardoned the division of italy was abolished and it would go back to how it had been ever since augustus it proved hard to procure the deification of adrian antoninus entreated the senate and threatened to refuse to rule unless they complied finally the senate relented partly because of the respect they had for antoninus and partly the fear they had for the soldiers with whom hadrian had been very popular antoninus made it a policy of always consulting and deferring to the senate as much as possible and he governed the state in such a peaceful and holy way that he was called pius hence he was known as antoninus pius antoninus had begun his rule well percentage was happy with one of their own as emperor he had long been one of them and had lived among them once with no prospect of ever rising to any higher position he could therefore fully sympathize with all their hopes and claims and was willing to allow them not only a nominal but even a real power and the provinces were naturally friendly to a man chosen by adrian adrian was of course well liked by the provinces he had visited almost every part of the empire during his reign antoninus pious was consoled in 139 and 140 a.d in the latter year together with his adoptive son marcus aurelius who was now 19 years old around this time marcus was betrothed to antonina's daughter faustina the younger sometime in 140 some sort of disturbance occurred in britain yet our written sources are quiet on the matter porzanius however claims that the brigantes tribe in britain invaded roman territory and were consequently deprived of most of their land the brigantes was a tribe north of hadrian's wall and that the romans built a new wall of turf the antonine wall sometime during the years 140 to 145 some sort of war was carried out against some german tribes along the rhine the nature of this disturbance is unknown but it seems that the governor was able to deal with the germans with the forces stationed in the province in his third year as emperor antoninus pius lost his wife faustina antoninus was devastated at faustina's death and took several steps to honor her memory she was deified by the senate and an honorary column was constructed the base of which has survived on it we can see faustina being carried by a winged figure up into the sky symbolizing her apotheosis games were held in her honor and a temple constructed for her worship in 147 a.d marcus aurelius had his first child a daughter and for this he was honored by antoninus pius and granted triponitiere protestas and pro-consulare imperium outside the city effectively making him co-emperor but notably he did not gain the title of augustus until the year 161 a.d marcus's wife and the daughter of antoninus faustina however was granted the title of augusta at this time the year 147 a.d is also notable because it marked the 900th anniversary of the foundation of the city and antonina's pyre celebrated this occasion with all jew splendor and magnificence in the following year 148 antonina celebrated his 10th year on the imperial throne games celebrating this occasion would have been held in the capital coins minted in the following years show elephants and lions that would have been exhibited during these games these first 10 years had been marked by the quiet prosperity and relative peace throughout the empire by the trouble in britannia and germania in 152 a.d a massive earthquake devastated western anatolia smyrna ephesus and as far north as cyzakis and bithynia were reduced to ruins and that the whole configuration of the country was changed marcus aurelius was put in charge of the restoration effort and a few new buildings have been dated to this time which would have been part of this restoration another earthquake had devastated roads a few years earlier the province of mauritania had always been somewhat lawless territory owing to its sparse population a mountainous terrain in 152 the situation was unbearable the roads were no longer safe the atlas mountains afforded an almost impregnable refuge for the bandits an expedition was planned to deal with the bandits and warlike nomadic tribes of the region the romans succeeded in pushing the mori westward towards the atlantic ocean shortly thereafter perhaps in 153 a.d a revolt broke out in egypt and the prophet had been killed in the disturbance two of our main sources of this period are john milalas and eyeless astrides they both claim that antoninus went to egypt himself to deal with the situation a common misconception about antoninus pius is that he never left italy during his reign this misunderstanding is based on the writings of capital linus in the historia augusta the historia augusta is an unreliable source in the best cases and demonstrably wrong in the worst so we have to assume that he dealt with this disturbance in person it would make sense for antoninus to go to egypt in person roman emperors were hesitant to admit any roman of rank to that province antoninus was able to deal with the rebellion in egypt and from there he traveled to antioch in syria the parthian empire was once again causing trouble in the east the royal throne of parthia had been taken as plundered during trajan's campaign decades earlier they requested that the throne would be returned to them and heninus had refused whereupon the parthian king invaded armenia the armenian king had passed away early on in antodinus's reign so he had crowned a new king of armenia when antoninus ordered the parthians to retreat from armenian land they were forced to comply or be at war with rome they were not ready to contend with the roman legions a number of buildings in the eastern provinces date from this period construction likely began when antoninus visited the region he was back in rome in 157 a.d shortly thereafter a revolt took place in dacia though the rebellion was put down by status prisus the governor of the province due to this revolt dacia was to be reorganized into three new divisions of the remaining years of antonius pius's reign very little is known his military activity in all parts of the empire had secured to him peace for the closing scenes of his life his age rendered him unwilling to engage in anything more than the ordinary routine of business at home when antoninus pius was 74 years old he died on the 7th of march 161 a.d in his villa in lorium his reign was only surpassed in length by that of augustus before him if he was supposed to be a stopgap emperor to educate marcus aurelius and lucius varus he succeeded but probably lived longer than hadrian had expected but his adoptive sons were now ready for the responsibility of empire thanks for watching the video don't forget to like and subscribe to the channel we're making videos on all of the roman emperors next video in the series will be on lucius ferris you

Channel: The SPQR Historian

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Keywords: Antoninus Pius, Antoninus Emperor, Emperor Pius, Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, Antoninus Pius Emperor, Antoninus Rome, The Five good Emperors

Id: 2vYLdp3HLH8

Length: 15min 13sec (913 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 15 2021