Marcus Aurelius (121 AD to 180 AD)

The future emperor Marcus Aurelius was born in the year 121 AD in the city of Rome into a wealthy Spanish family. His father died while he was still very young, so Marcus Aurelius lived with both his mother and his grandfather, a three time consul. When he was very young, Marcus Aurelius took a deep interest in Stoicism (philosophy) and he would later be remembered by history as "the philosopher emperor."

Under Hadrian, the young Marcus was just a youth and he spent allot of time with the emperor and ,as a result, they grew very close. Though his career had yet to take hold during this time, Marcus did hold a few small offices like a priesthood at age eight and later a knighthood. Near the end of his reign, Hadrian appointed Antonius as his successor on the grounds that he adopt the young Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus as his successors. Upon Hadrian's death in 138 AD ,Antonius became emperor and the young Marcus moved into the palace with him.

It is during the reign of Antonius that the career of Marcus Aurelius really took off and he held numerous offices. Marcus was made Quaestor in 139 AD and the following year he became consul with Antonius. Marcus served a second term as consul in 145 AD and he eventually became tribune and received the power of proconsul. Marcus Aurelius was very close to Antonius and their relationship was like that of a father and son.

Both Hadrian and Antonius groomed Marcus Aurelius and his co-successor ,Lucius Verus, well for the time when they would be the emperors of Rome and ,upon Antonius's death in 161 AD, they became joint rulers of the empire. This was the first incident of joint imperial power in the history of the Roman empire and would set a precedent for future emperors.

Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus ruled jointly for eight years, from 161 AD to 169 AD. Lucius Verus was a renowned general and military hero and his part of the reign was noted for his military victories and he even taught Marcus a few things about the army. During this time, the king of Parthia defeated two Roman legions in Armenia, so Lucius Verus set out to control the situation and was victorious. It was during the joint reign of these two emperors that a devastating plague hit Rome and would last throughout the duration of Aurelius' reign. It was probably due to this plague that Lucius Verus died in 169 AD.

T he reign of Antonius is often considered by many to be the "calm before the storm" because of the relative peace that his empire had compared to the border troubles Aurelius and Verus dealt with. In the year 167 AD, Marcus and Lucius traveled to the frontier of the Danube and the Rhine to deal with the danger of a barbarian invasion. Lucius Verus died two years later ,in 169 AD, so Marcus was left with the task of quelling the invasions himself.

Upon the death of Verus, Marcus Aurelius ruled alone for a number of years. One of his most well known and remembered acts as emperor was his charity and leniency towards the poor. If a town was in the midst of hard financial times and could not afford to pay it's taxes, Marcus Aurelius lowered the taxes for that town long enough to become financially stable again.

Marcus Aurelius died in present day Vienna Austria on March 17 180 AD. Marcus Aurelius was often considered by many to be the last of "the five good emperors" and ,after his reign, the empire started on a rapid decline. Though he was a good emperor in his own right, the one fault historians can find against him is that he broke with the tradition of adopting an heir who was capable and chose his spoiled son ,Commodus to succeed him. The choice of Commodus would turn out to be a very grave mistake and is often considered the beginning of the end of the Western Roman empire.