OF

Marcus Aurelius antoninus.

M. Antoninus was born at Rome, A.D. 121, on the 26th of April.  His father, Annius Verus, died while he was praetor.  His mother was Domitia Calvilla, also named Lucilla.  The Emperor T. Antoninus Pius married Annia Galeria Faustina, the sister of Annius Verus, and was consequently the uncle of M. Antoninus.  When Hadrian adopted Antoninus Pius and declared him his successor in the empire, Antoninus Pius adopted both L. Ceionius Commodus, the son of Aelius Caesar, and M. Antoninus, whose original name was M. Annius Verus.  Antoninus then took the name of M. Aelius Aurelius Verus, to which was added the title of Caesar in A.D. 139:  the name Aelius belonged to Hadrian’s family, and Aurelius was the name of Antoninus Pius.  When M. Antoninus became Augustus, he dropped the name of Verus and took the name of Antoninus.  Accordingly he is generally named M. Aurelius Antoninus, or simply M. Antoninus.

The youth was most carefully brought up.  He thanks the gods (i. 17) that he had good grandfathers, good parents, a good sister, good teachers, good associates, good kinsmen and friends, nearly everything good.  He had the happy fortune to witness the example of his uncle and adoptive father Antoninus Pius, and he has recorded in his word (i. 16; vi. 30) the virtues of the excellent man and prudent ruler.  Like many young Romans he tried his hand at poetry and studied rhetoric.  Herodes Atticus and M. Cornelius Fronto were his teachers in eloquence.  There are extant letters between Fronto and Marcus,[A] which show the great affection of the pupil for the master, and the master’s great hopes of his industrious pupil.  M. Antoninus mentions Fronto (i. 11) among those to whom he was indebted for his education.

    [A] M. Cornelii Frontonis Reliquiae, Berlin, 1816.  There are a
    few letters between Fronto and Antoninus Pius.

When he was eleven years old, he assumed the dress of philosophers, something plain and coarse, became a hard student, and lived a most laborious, abstemious life, even so far as to injure his health.  Finally, he abandoned poetry and rhetoric for philosophy, and he attached himself to the sect of the Stoics.  But he did not neglect the study of law, which was a useful preparation for the high place which he was designed to fill.  His teacher was L. Volusianus Maecianus, a distinguished jurist.  We must suppose that he learned the Roman discipline of arms, which was a necessary part of the education of a man who afterwards led his troops to battle against a warlike race.