Marcus Aurelius’ very interesting and fun facts will give an overview of this Roman emperor. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was a Stoic philosopher and Roman Emperor from 161 to 180. He was the last of the Five Good Emperors (a phrase invented by Niccole Machiavelli 13 centuries later) and the last emperor of the Pax Romana (27 BC to 180 AD), a period of relative peace and stability for the Roman Empire. In the years 140, 145, and 161, he served as Roman consul. This article will give a glimpse of interesting fun facts about Marcus Aurelius.
Marcus was the son of the emperor’s nephew, the praetor Marcus Annius Verus, and the heiress Domitia Calvilla, and was born during the reign of Hadrian. Marcus was raised by his mother and grandpa after his father died when he was three years old, Marcus Aurelius interesting facts. Hadrian chose Marcus’ uncle Antoninus Pius as his new heir after his adoptive son Aelius Caesar died in 138.
Antoninus, in turn, adopted Marcus and Lucius, Aelius’ son. That year, Hadrian died, and Antoninus became Emperor, Marcus Aurelius facts. Marcus, now heir to the throne, studied Greek and Latin under Herodes Atticus and Marcus Cornelius Fronto, among others. In 145, he married Antoninus’ daughter Faustina.
The Antonine Plague erupted around 165 or 166, wreaking havoc on the Roman Empire’s population, killing five to ten million people. In 169, Lucius Verus may have died of the plague, facts about Marcus Aurelius. Meditations, or “the philosopher’s” works, as contemporaneous biographers dubbed Marcus, are a major source of current knowledge of ancient Stoic philosophy. Fellow authors, philosophers, emperors, and politicians have lauded them for decades after his death.
Marcus, unlike several of his forefathers, did not choose to adopt an heir. Lucilla, who married Lucius, and Commodus, whose succession after Marcus has been a source of contention among both contemporaneous and modern historians, were among his offspring in the Marcus Aurelius facts. Marcus Aurelius’ Column and Equestrian Statue still exist in Rome, where they were constructed to commemorate his military successes.
Marcus Aurelius fun and Interesting Facts
1. During Marcus Aurelius’ reign, Christians were increasingly persecuted.
2. His death in 180 is seen as the end of the Pax Romana, and the subsequent increase in instability in the west has long been regarded as the beginning of the Western Roman Empire’s eventual demise.
3. Within his lifetime, Marcus Aurelius earned the title of philosopher-king, which he retained after his death.
4. He began munching on dry bread to give him the energy he needed to get through his morning meetings.
5. Marcus ascended to the emperor alongside his adopted brother, Lucius Verus, after Antoninus died in 161.
6. According to Gibbon, Aurelius’ treatment of Christians deteriorated with the outbreak of the Germanic war, with increasing persecutions uncharacteristic of his reign and that of his predecessors.
7. He was a Stoic, and his unnamed writing often referred to as Meditations, is a key source for current knowledge of ancient Stoic philosophy.
8. Marcus was given the title Caesar by Antoninus Pius in 139, barely a year after he became Emperor. Faustina, his daughter, most likely married Marcus around the year 140. Marcus worked closely with Antoninus during his reign.
9. Marcus’ grandparents had their own palace near the Lateran, where he spent a lot of his boyhood.
10. In the late first century AD, Aurelius’ family came to prominence. Marcus Annius Verus, his great-grandfather, was a senator and ex-praetor.
11. Diognetus, a painter, was a particularly prominent instructor; he appears to have introduced Marcus to the philosophic way of life.
12. Marcus ruled over a Roman Empire that was rife with armed warfare. In the east, the Romans defeated a resurgent Parthian Empire and the rebellious Kingdom of Armenia.
13. In the Marcomannic Wars, Marcus conquered the Marcomanni, Quadi, and Sarmatian Iazyges; nonetheless, these and other Germanic peoples became a worrisome reality for the Empire.
14. He changed the silver purity of the denarius, the Roman coinage.
15. Marcus’ tenure appears to have seen an upsurge in Christian persecution in the Roman Empire, but his role in this is uncertain.
16. Historians have chastised Marcus for appointing Commodus as his successor, citing Commodus’ unpredictable conduct and lack of political and military skill.
17. When Antoninus died and Marcus ascended to the throne, he demanded that Verus be granted complete authority as well. As a result, Rome had two equal rulers for the first time.
18. Marcus expresses gratitude to his grandfather for instilling in him “excellent character and the avoidance of bad temper.” He disliked the mistress his grandfather married and lived with after his wife, Rupilia Faustina, died.
19. Marcus was deified shortly after his death, and his ashes were brought to Rome, where they were interred in Hadrian’s mausoleum until the Visigoth destruction of the city in 410.
20. Marcus Aurelius’ legacy is sad, according to Iain King, since the emperor’s “Stoic philosophy – which is about self-control, responsibility, and regard for others – was so abjectly abandoned by the imperial line he anointed on his death.”
21. Marcus was replaced by his son Commodus, whom he had christened Caesar in 166 and governed alongside since 177. It was just the second occasion in the throne’s history that a “non-adoptive” son was selected.
22. Because of Verus’s kind nature and recognition of Marcus’s seniority in years and judgment, two emperors worked in Rome throughout the reign of Aurelius.
23. In keeping with current aristocratic practices, he was educated at home; he praises Catilius Severus for urging him to shun public schools.
24. Marcus adopted the clothes and habits of a philosopher in April 132, according to Diognetus’ advice: he studied while wearing a ragged Greek cloak and slept on the ground until his mother persuaded him to sleep on a bed.
25. After his father died, Aurelius was reared by his paternal grandpa, who had always held the “patria potestas” over his son and grandson, according to Roman law.
26. Marcus grew up at his parents’ house on Caelian Hill, a neighborhood he lovingly referred to as “my Caelian.”
27. Marcus Aurelius was elected consul, or senate leader, in 140, a position he would occupy twice more throughout his career.
28. His ancestors were from Ucubi, a tiny hamlet in Iberian Baetica southeast of Cordoba.
29. The Roman Empire destroyed a resurgent Parthian Empire in the East during his reign.
30. During the Marcomannic Wars in central Europe, Aurelius defeated the Marcomanni, Quadi, and Sarmatians, but the danger of Germanic peoples became a worrying reality for the Empire.
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