Penning his seminal work on the Roman Empireās
decline Edward Gibbon wrote that āIf a man were called to fix the period in the history
of the world, during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous,
he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the
accession of Commodus.ā During this century of Pax Romana, some of
the greatest emperors ever to rule the eternal cityās vast dominions came to power, but
it was nevertheless a universal fact that imperial ages of gold will inevitably fade. In the twilight of this era, a thoughtful
young man rose to inherit the purple, serving as the eraās glorious swan song before everything
began falling to pieces, partly due to his own actions. Welcome to our video on Romeās philosopher
emperor - Marcus Aurelius. We often say that the wars are fought on the
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to enjoy a 7 days free trial and get 20% OFF for the premium yearly subscription! Born in April of 121 in Romeās affluent
Caelian Hill district of villas and mansions, Marcus Aurelius was given the name of his
father and grandfather - Marcus Annius Verus. Having grown wealthy from the olive oil trade
in their native Baetica, Italo-Hispanic Marcusā Annii clan first rose to political prominence
during the Flavian era, when his grandfather was first elevated to patrician status and
then occupied multiple magistracies, including that of city prefect of Rome and the consulship. By Hadrianās time, the Annii were exceptionally
influential, and occupied a place within the emperorās inner circle - it was in this
environment that young Marcus grew up. In fact, Hadrian seems to have taken notice
of the young man almost immediately, showering him with honours and favours in aid of, in
the future, making him his protege. At the age of just six, for example, Marcus
was enrolled in the equites at Hadrianās personal nomination. Just a year later, he started his education
in a manner that we might call āhome schoolingā. Marcus was educated in many things by private
tutors and slaves hired by his grandfather, including drama, music, geometry, and literature,
but it was the first drips of stoic teachings which truly captured his mind, tutored by
a Greek slave-teacher - who were all the rage in Roman high society at the time. Once, during his early teenage years, his
frequently absent mother Domitia Lucilla caught her son sleeping on hard, bare ground wearing
only a philosopherās cloak - like a true stoic should. By the time he was permitted to don the toga
virilis of manhood at the age of fifteen, Hadrian had decided on the succession. In 138, as the paranoid and increasingly violent
emperor lay on his deathbed, he chose to adopt an unambitious long-time senator as his son
and heir - the future Antoninus Pius. This came with the condition that Antoninus
would then adopt seventeen-year-old Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus as his own successors. The aged magistrate was clearly a stopgap
measure, designed to last only until young Marcus was experienced enough to ascend the
throne, with Verus as a contingency measure. His settlement resolved, Hadrian died in July
138. It is said that Marcus was absolutely mortified
by his new status. During the famously peaceful reign of Antoninus
Pius, Marcus completed his formal education under the supervision of men such as Cornelius
Fronto - the greatest rhetorician of his age - and Junius Rusticus, who nurtured the young
princeās love of stoicism. Marcus also continued to prove himself a dutiful
and worthy, although physically frail, heir to the empire. He was appointed to the quaestor position,
followed by a two-time stint as consul, as well as receiving both the tribunician and
proconsular powers - all signals as to who would be the successor. Soon enough, coins were minted promoting Marcus
as Caesar of Rome. To link him even more closely with Antoninus,
he even married the princepsā daughter Faustina in 145, who bore the first of Marcusā thirteen
children just two years later. Far from being a temporary stand-in, however,
Antoninus survived for over two decades. It is a credit to Marcusā character that,
in the Roman imperial world of assassination and power politics, he didnāt just depose
his adopted father, as many others would have. This loyalty can be explained by the closeness
shared by the two men. When one of Marcusā beloved tutors died,
he expressed excessive grief which was regarded as un-Roman by some of the courtiers, who
complained about it to the emperor. However, Antoninus immediately had Marcusā
back, telling his entourage to āLet him be a human being for once.ā It was a conscious recognition of just how
different Marcus was expected to be as emperor, and the stress it must have brought him. On March 7th 161, when a 74-year-old Antoninus
was on his deathbed, he expressed a wish that his adopted son and heir would treat the Roman
Empire as well as he had Faustina. After inheriting the supreme authority, Marcus
Aureliusā first act was to delegate a part of that power away, by insisting to the senate
that Lucius Verus - his adopted brother, become his junior co-emperor. Immediately following their meeting with the
senate, Marcus Aurelius and his younger colleague customarily granted each praetorian guardsman
a donative of 20,000 sesterces to ensure their loyalty, after which they oversaw Antoninusā
funeral and unopposed deification by the senate. Romeās ship of state sailed smoothly for
the first half year of this dual-reign, but then everything began falling apart. The Autumn of 161 saw torrential downpours
which flooded the Tiber and particularly affected Rome, killing many and leaving many homeless. Marcus did his best to alleviate the cityās
suffering. As if it wasnāt enough, even worse and more
shocking news arrived from the eastern provinces at about the same time. Emboldened by Antoninus Piusā tepid military
stature, an aggressive Parthian king - Vologases IV - invaded the traditional Roman ally kingdom
of Armenia. Initially, Vologasesā forces managed to
destroy a few Roman armies sent to stop them. By the time reports reached Rome, Syria was
in danger and the situation was critical. As neither augustus had any military experience,
Marcus sent Lucius Verus as figurehead to represent the imperial house at war, accompanied
by a formidable general staff who would fight the war for him. While Verus travelled to the east at a leisurely
pace and āhisā generals began planning, Marcus Aurelius remained in Rome, personally
administering Romeās financial, organisational and legal matters, performing the day to day
tasks which are often eclipsed in our historical narrative by accomplishments of military and
diplomatic nature. As Roman armies were battling their Parthian
counterparts in the east, Marcus Aurelius reintroduced Hadrianās unpopular but effective
system of administering Italy with four special magistrates, with a limited authority to ease
the senateās worries. Good governance was balanced with the need
to keep Romeās age-old aristocracy content. However, the emperor refused to place the
senateās privileges above his empireās wellbeing. To ensure a constant inflow of competent magistrates
and officials, Marcus increased the scope of positions available to equites, and increased
their salaries. The emperorās accountant - the rationibus
- for example, was appointed from among the equites in Marcusā reign. An emulation of the senateās ancient ladder
of magistracies - the cursus honorum - was also developed for equites to rise through
the ranks and show their prowess, thereby increasing the pool of talented candidates. Through this system would come many of the
next generationās great figures, such as Pertinax and Septimius Severus. At the same time, Romeās emperor also deftly
increased senatorial prospects as well, compensating its members when he was forced to expropriate
their provinces for imperial purposes, appointing them to additional posts, deferring to their
judgment on many matters, and patronising new senatorial families from across the empire. Marcus Aureliusā most impressive talent
as emperor was in judicial affairs. He was good with legal matters and seemed
to enjoy dealing dutifully with the grinding petition-filled life of a supreme administrator. When appropriate, such as when dealing with
cases of tax evasion, Marcus was a strict legalist who enforced the full letter of the
law. However, the emperor was also capable of exercising
compassion in the spirit of the law. In one of the cases - a Roman woman who had
unknowingly married her uncle appealed to him on the grounds that they both had no idea
this was the case. Marcus sympathised with her predicament, and
although such a relation was technically illegal, he confirmed the legitimate status of their
children. At the same time, he was active in building
the military, and kept one eye on the Danube frontier, raising legios II and III Italica
to bolster the area. By late 165, Marcusā generals in the east
had turned back the Parthians, and even pushed deep into Mesopotamia, re-establishing control
over local client kingdoms such as Osrhoene. The hero of the war - Avidius Cassius - even
sacked the twin Parthian capitals of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, before making a bold foray
into Media. For his extraordinary service, Cassius was
appointed as Marcusā prefect of Egypt and de facto viceroy of the east. As the legionary officer corps was doing most
of the hard work, Lucius Verus was indulging in luxuries and vice offered by the cities
of Laodicea and Antioch - he took the undeserved title of Parthicus Maximus anyway. When he and the legions returned home in 166,
however, they brought much more than mere victory with them. Contracted during wartime and spread throughout
the Roman Empire by soldiers returning to their frontier garrisons, a smallpox epidemic
known to us as the āAntonineā Plague wiped out swathes of the population, critically
decreasing the imperial tax base and manpower. In densely packed Rome, the great physician
Galen and senator Cassius Dio apocalyptically describe thousands of deaths per day, and
the Historia Augusta states that āThe dead were carried away on carts and wagons - thousands
died, including many prominent personsā. Marcus alleviated the suffering of Romeās
population as effectively as he could. Burial procedures were regulated, public funerals
paid for by the state, and religious festivals held to please the angry gods - and to calm
the demoralised population. Yet, the plagueās extraordinarily devastating
impact was made worse when a storm broke in the north. In late 166, a small probing force of Germanic
warriors attacked Pannonia, but were repelled and diplomatically handled by a local governor. The next year, a massive confederation of
trans-Danubian tribes stretching from the Gallic to the Dacian border began attacking
Roman territory, seeking more favourable conditions and entrance into the empire. The Germanic horde punched through all defences
in its path, plundering the provinces until it breached Italy and arrived outside the
wealthy city of Aquileia. No barbarian force had entered Italy since
the Cimbrian War 300 years before, but this horde could not siege the city and retreated
north, leaving an atmosphere of terror and a path of destruction behind them. With the empire being sapped to death by plague,
Marcus Aurelius started pragmatically mustering the necessary reinforcements from whatever
sources he could, however disreputable: Criminals and bandits were offered amnesty and pay if
they served, while slaves and gladiators were given their freedom. To raise funds, the emperor also sold off
the imperial silverware and even some of his wife Faustinaās ornate clothing, possibly
as a symbolic gesture to show that he too was willing to make sacrifices. Though delayed due to the disease, Marcus
Aurelius departed Italy for the very first time in spring 168, dragging a reluctant Verus
with him. However, when the imperial procession reached
Altinum, the junior augustus suffered a stroke and died unexpectedly, leaving Marcus as sole
ruler of the Roman world. Despite his contempt for war and lack of experience,
the emperor reached his tumultuous Danube frontier and made a Pannonian city called
Sirmium his headquarters. The war, which began with a colossal Roman
offensive across the Danube in 170, was a grinding, brutal, back and forth slog between
Rome and its surprisingly powerful Germanic neighbors. While the greenhorn princeps and his chosen
council of veteran officers directed a campaign against the barbarian coalitionās leaders
- the Marcomanni and Quadi - other fronts burst into life. On the Rhine, smaller tribes assisted with
raids into imperial territory, while in the south, Sarmatian Iazyges [see wiki] and Costoboci
made full scale attacks, with the latter even managing to penetrate Greece and destroy the
ancient Eleusinian Mysteriesā shrine. This nasty kind of warfare, which involved
wholesale slaughter and pillage on both sides, and near genocide on the part of the Romans,
was entirely unfamiliar to Marcus, who moved his base to Carnutum in 171. As author Frank McLynn puts it: The essential
tragedy of Marcus Aurelius was that he, a reclusive and bookish would-be philosopher-king,
had to spend his reign in continual warfare. Whether he wanted to be or not, the emperor
proved an effective supreme commander, due in large part to his ability to choose effective
officers and defer to their expertise when it was prudent. While conducting the war, the princeps also
continued responding to petitions and judging legal cases, putting himself under immense
pressure. Marcus Aurelius dealt with the mental strain
of his circumstances by writing what would ironically become one of the most well-known
pieces of stoic philosophy and life advice in history - the Meditations. Such a deliberate title gives the illusion
that Marcusā words were intentionally published, but in fact his writings were almost definitely
for his eyes only. Similarly to J.R.R Tolkien however, who used
his horrifying experiences during World War I to create his extensive universe, Marcus
Aureliusā 12 books of reflections, which are packed with contemplation relating to
death, were certainly inspired by the terrible Marcomannic Wars. āA tranquil Marcus Aurelius, happy in Rome
or in the country with his family and his booksā says author and professor Anthony
R. Birley āwould probably never have put pen to paper.ā As the Roman legions shifted from place to
place during the fighting of the early 170s, Marcus continued to write whenever he found
the time, detailing matters far too extensively to discuss fully here, including his duties
as emperor, trouble sleeping, and even musing about withdrawing from life completely. To summarise the Meditations does not do Marcusā
writings justice, but one passage in particular shows his general attitude towards life - āIf
you do the work on hand following the rule of right with enthusiasm, manfully and with
kindheartedness, and allow no side issues to interrupt, but preserve the divinity within
you pure and upright, as if you might even now have to return it to its giver - if you
make this firm, expecting nothing and avoiding nothing, but are content with your present
activity in accordance with nature and with old-fashioned truthfulness in what you say
and speak, you will live a happy life.ā It is this kind of thought which likely led
to Marcusā writings survival after his death, and which engender keen attention in the 21st
century. Go and read the Meditations for yourself - you
will not regret it. Though never forget that their imperial author
likely would not have cared if you did, if his own words are to be believed - āShall
mere fame distract you? Look at the speed of total oblivion of all
and the void of endless time on either side of us and the hollowness of applause.ā By 175, Marcusā legions were already occupying
part of Marcomannia, and had forced many of their allies to conclude peace. He shifted south at this point, determined
to exterminate the Sarmatians root and stem, and annex their lands as Romanised provinces. However, with the campaign only weeks old,
news arrived from Cappadocia that changed everything. Prompted by false rumours that Marcus Aurelius
was dead, exacerbated by letters he had received from his old friend Faustina about his failing
health, the emperorās trusted eastern viceroy, Avidius Cassius, declared himself augustus
and seized the eastern provinces south of the Taurus for himself. The imperial governor in Asia Minor - Martius
Verus, another hero of the Parthian War - however, remained loyal, refusing to desert the emperor
and instead sending a messenger to alert him to the threat. Even though Cassius quickly realised that
the rumours had been false, he was in far too deep to simply repent, and so continued
his bid for the throne. In response, Marcus Aurelius summoned his
fifteen-year-old son Commodus to Germania, and made it clear that he was ready to claim
the purple if necessary. Before preparations were complete for the
march against the usurper, Cassius was assassinated by a loyalist centurion known only as Antonius,
after āa dream of empire lasting three months and six daysā. His head was sent to Marcus, who refused to
even see it. After strong-arming the defeated Iazyges into
a hasty peace, which saw 5,500 of their cavalry sent to Britannia as auxiliaries, Marcus toured
the east in order to assure its loyalty, before returning to Rome and making Commodus his
co-emperor in 177. The journey was too much for Faustina, who
died en route. Rumours persist that she was poisoned for
her part in Cassiusā revolt. August 178 saw both father and son depart
Rome for the expeditio Germanica secunda - the second phase of the Marcomannic Wars. After two more years of conflict, in which
Marcus came very close to provincialising the Marcomannic, Quadi, and Iazyges lands,
the emperor fell seriously ill with plague in March 180. When the troops found out, they were greatly
grieved, āfor they loved him as none other.ā One night, as the emperorās condition worsened,
a tribune asked him for the nightās watchword and was told to āGo to the rising sun, for
I am already settingā - he was giving Commodus to the protection of the soldiers, and with
that done, he passed away. With him, unknown to everyone, also died the
Pax Romana. We will talk about Roman history more in the
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we will catch you on the next one.
saw this video yesterday and i gotta say this is my new favorite youtube history channel.
Incredibly sad he died so early, he could have done so much good and picked a proper successor to the throne