Print Friendly, PDF & Email
The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, riding on a horse

The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, riding on a horse

Who was Marcus Aurelius?

Marcus Aurelius was the last of the five good emperors. He came to the throne when Antoninus Pius died in 161 AD. Like Seneca and many other Romans, Marcus Aurelius believed in the Stoic philosophy. One of the first things he did as emperor was to insist on sharing power with his younger adopted brother, Lucius Verus.

What is Stoicism?
Roman philosophy
Earlier Roman emperors
All our ancient Rome articles

Why share power with Lucius Verus?

Lucius Verus seems to have been really not that interested in ruling, but it is always dangerous to have people around who want power and don’t have it, because they might try to get it by killing you. So Marcus Aurelius gave his brother enough power to keep him quiet. And very likely Lucius Verus was smart enough to make it clear that he was happy to be second-best if he could stay alive that way.

Lucius Verus

Lucius Verus

War with Parthians

Unlike the reigns of the emperors before him, Marcus Aurelius’s reign was not peaceful. As soon as Antoninus Pius died, the Parthians attacked the Eastern part of the Roman Empire. They were hoping the Romans would be disorganized by the death of the emperor. Marcus Aurelius sent Lucius Verus, with some of the Western army troops, to the East to fight the Parthians, and eventually the Roman army won. (Click here for more on why the Parthians and the Romans are always fighting)

The Parthians at this time
The Roman army
Land and sea empires

A serious epidemic

After the war, the Romans found that they had caught a serious disease from the Parthians. We aren’t sure what this plague was, but many people think it was smallpox. The Roman soldiers spread it all over the Empire as they came home, and many people died.

What was smallpox?

A war with Germanic people

But to the north, the Germanic people living in what is now Germany and Austria and Switzerland noticed that some of the Roman troops were gone, and there was a plague, and now THEY thought this would be a good time to attack.

Who were the Germanic people?

Marcus Aurelius spent most of the rest of his life fighting them or trying to make treaties with them. But just as he was finally winning, he died. He was 59 years old, and it was March of 180 AD. The Empire was much poorer than before, from the plague, and from having to pay so many soldiers.

Column of Marcus Aurelius
More about Commodus
And about the Parthians
More about smallpox

Bibliography and further reading about the five good emperors:

Classical Rome, by John Clare (1993). For kids, the whole political history from beginning to end.

The Romans: From Village to Empire, by Mary Boatwright, Daniel Gargola, and Richard Talbert (2004). Okay, it’s a little dry, but it is up to date and has all the facts you could want.

The Roman Empire, by Colin Wells (1984). More readable. Alternates chapters on political and social history. Unfortunately, he stops at the third century crisis.

The Roman Succession Crisis of AD 96-99 and the Reign of Nerva, by John Grainger (2002).

Trajan: Optimus Princeps, by Julian Bennett (2001).

Memoirs of Hadrian, by Marguerite Yourcenar (1963). A famous historical novel, written through the eyes of Hadrian.

The Severans
Roman History
Ancient Rome
Quatr.us home