M. Cornelii Frontonis Opera Inedita Cum Epistulis Item Ineditis Antonini Pii .m. Aurelii .l. Veri Et Appiani Nec Non Aliorum Veterum Fragmentis, Volume 2... (Latin Edition)
The Correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto with Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Lucius Verus, Antoninus Pius, and Various Friends. Edited and for the ... Into English by C.R. Haines; Volume 1
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Chosen by Hadrian as his heir, Antoninus Pius became emperor in 138 AD, the first of the Antonine dynasty. His lengthy rule was a time of peace and prosperity troubled only by sporadic unrest in the provinces.
Background
Antoninus was born on 19th of September 86 near Lanuvium (an ancient city of Latium, situated some 32 kilometres southeast of Rome, Italy); the only child of Titus Aurelius Fulvus, consul, and Arria Fadilla. Antoninus’ father died shortly after his 89 ordinary consulship, his son being raised by his maternal grandfather Gnaeus Arrius Antoninus. Arria Fadilla, Antoninus' mother, married afterwards Publius Julius Lupus, a man of consular rank, suffect consul in 98, and two daughters, Arria Lupula and Julia Fadilla, were born from that union.
Career
Having filled with more than usual success the offices of quaestor and praetor, he obtained the consulship in 120; he was next chosen one of the four consulars for Italy, and greatly increased his reputation by his conduct as proconsul of Asia in 134-135.
He acquired much influence with the emperor Hadrian, who adopted him as his son and successor on the 25th of February 138, after the death of his first adopted son Aelius Verus, on condition that he himself adopted Marcus Annius Verus, his wife's brother's son, and Lucius, son of Aelius Verus, afterwards the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Aelius Verus (colleague of Marcus Aurelius).
A few months afterwards, on Hadrian's death, he was enthusiastically welcomed to the throne by the Roman people, who, for once, were not disappointed in their anticipation of a happy reign.
One of his first acts was to persuade the senate to grant divine honours to Hadrian, which they had at first refused; this gained him the title of Pius (dutiful in affection).
During his reign there were few striking events. A rebellion in Roman Britain was suppressed, and in 142 a 36-mile (58-kilometre) garrisoned barrier—called the Antonine Wall—was built to extend the Roman frontier some 100 miles north of Hadrian’s Wall (q.v.). Antoninus’ armies contained revolts in Mauretania, Germany, Dacia, and Egypt.
Antoninus was regarded as a skilled administrator and as a builder. He built temples, theaters, and mausoleums, as well as bridges and roads. He built monuments which included the Temple of the Deified Hadrian and, in memory of his wife, the Temple of the Deified Faustina. He also repaired many public buildings, including the decaying Colosseum.
Antoninus also promoted the arts and sciences, and bestowed honours and financial rewards upon the teachers of rhetoric and philosophy.
Antoninus died of fever at Lorium in Etruria, about 12 m. from Rome, on the 7th of March 161, giving the keynote to his life in the last word that he uttered when the tribune of the night-watch came to ask the password- aequanimitas.
Antoninus was known as an avid observer of rites of religion and of formal celebrations – both Roman and foreign. He is known for having increasingly formalized the official cult offered to the Great Mother, which from his reign onwards included a bull sacrifice, a taurobolium, formerly only a private ritual, now being also performed for the sake of the Emperor's welfare.
Antoninus also offered patronage to the worship of Mithras, to whom he erected a temple in Ostia.
Politics
Antoninus made few initial changes when he became emperor, leaving intact as far as possible the arrangements instituted by Hadrian. Even in his dealings with Greek-speaking cities, Antoninus followed the policy adopted by Hadrian of ingratiating himself with local elites, especially with local intellectuals: philosophers, teachers of literature, rhetoricians and physicians were explicitly exempted from any duties involving private spending for civic purposes.
However, Antoninus still left his imprint on the city and empire. He insisted that the administration of the law be fair and impartial, even freeing many of the men the former emperor had imprisoned (he convinced the Senate that this had been Hadrian’s wish). Trade and commerce flourished and his strict control of finances allowed for a state surplus by the time of his death. The Emperor also suspended the collection of taxes from cities affected by natural disasters and offered hefty financial grants for rebuilding and recovery.
Personality
Antoninus was very frugal, and people called him a ''cumin splitter'' because he checked his officials to make sure they wasted nothing. He stayed near Rome and read reports about how they governed the provinces, and heard complaints citizens brought against his officers. While he told his governors to go easy on tax rates, they did prove efficient, and under his rule, Rome's treasury filled with gold.
Antoninus preferred diplomacy to fighting, and peacefully settled conflicts with Persia, although that gave Persia time to rearm for a later war. He met ambassadors from India; and a Roman trade mission even got to China.
Quotes from others about the person
Julius Capitolinus: "In personal appearance he was strikingly handsome, in natural talents brilliant, in temperament kindly; he was aristocratic in countenance and calm in nature, a singularly gifted speaker and an elegant scholar, conspicuously thrifty, a conscientious landholder, gentle, generous, and mindful of other’s rights. He possessed all these qualities, moreover, in the proper mean and without ostentation, and, in fine, was praiseworthy in every way and, in the minds of all good men."
Edward Gibbon: "The reign of Antoninus is marked by the rare advantage of furnishing very few materials for history, which is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind."
Albert Jay Nock: "I could see how "democracy" might do very well in a society of saints and sages led by an Alfred or an Antoninus Pius. Short of that, I was unable to see how it could come to anything but an ochlocracy of mass-men led by a sagacious knave."
Connections
Between 110 and 115, Antoninus married Annia Galeria Faustina the Elder; the daughter of consul Marcus Annius Verus and Rupilia Faustina. The marriage was a happy one. Faustina bore Antoninus four children, two sons and two daughters.
When Faustina died in 141, Antoninus was greatly distressed. In honour of her memory, he asked the Senate to deify her as a goddess, and authorised the construction of a temple to be built in the Roman Forum in her name, with priestesses serving in her temple. He had various coins with her portrait struck in her honor. He further created a charity which he founded and called it Puellae Faustinianae or Girls of Faustina, which assisted destitute girls of good family. Finally, Antoninus created a new alimenta.
The emperor never remarried. Instead, he lived with Galena Lysistrata, one of Faustina's freed women.