Antoninus Pius
Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius was Roman emperor from AD 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the Nerva–Antonine dynasty.
Born into a senatorial family, Antoninus held various offices during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. He married Hadrian's niece Faustina, and Hadrian adopted him as his son and successor shortly before his death. Antoninus acquired the cognomen Pius after his accession to the throne, either because he compelled the Senate to deify his adoptive father, or because he had saved senators sentenced to death by Hadrian in his later years. His reign is notable for the peaceful state of the Empire, with no major revolts or military incursions during this time. A successful military campaign in southern Scotland early in his reign resulted in the construction of the Antonine Wall.
Antoninus was an effective administrator, leaving his successors a large surplus in the treasury, expanding free access to drinking water throughout the Empire, encouraging legal conformity, and facilitating the enfranchisement of freed slaves. He died of illness in AD 161 and was succeeded by his adopted sons Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus as co-emperors.
Early life
Childhood and family
Antoninus Pius was born Titus Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Antoninus in 86, near Lanuvium in Italy to Titus Aurelius Fulvus, consul in 89, and wife Arria Fadilla. The Aurelii Fulvi were an Aurelian family settled in Nemausus. Titus Aurelius Fulvus was the son of a senator of the same name, who, as legate of Legio III Gallica, had supported Vespasian in his bid to the Imperial office and been rewarded with a suffect consulship, plus an ordinary one under Domitian in 85. The Aurelii Fulvi were therefore a relatively new senatorial family from Gallia Narbonensis whose rise to prominence was supported by the Flavians. The link between Antoninus's family and their home province explains the increasing importance of the post of proconsul of Gallia Narbonensis during the late second century.Antoninus's father had no other children and died shortly after his 89 ordinary consulship. Antoninus was raised by his maternal grandfather Gnaeus Arrius Antoninus, reputed by contemporaries to be a man of integrity and culture and a friend of Pliny the Younger. The Arrii Antonini were an older senatorial family from Italy, very influential during Nerva's reign. Arria Fadilla, Antoninus's mother, married afterwards Publius Julius Lupus, suffect consul in 98; from that marriage came two daughters, Arria Lupula and Julia Fadilla.
Marriage and children
Some time between 110 and 115, Antoninus married Annia Galeria Faustina the Elder. They are believed to have enjoyed a happy marriage. Faustina was the daughter of consul Marcus Annius Verus and Rupilia Faustina Faustina was a beautiful woman, and despite rumours about her character, it is clear that Antoninus cared for her deeply.Faustina bore Antoninus four children, two sons and two daughters. They were:
- Marcus Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus ; his sepulchral inscription has been found at the Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome.
- Marcus Galerius Aurelius Antoninus ; his sepulchral inscription has been found at the Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome. His name appears on a Greek Imperial coin.
- Aurelia Fadilla ; she married Lucius Plautius Lamia Silvanus, consul 145. She appeared to have no children with her husband; and her sepulchral inscription has been found in Italy.
- Annia Galeria Faustina Minor or Faustina the Younger, a future Roman Empress, married her maternal cousin Marcus Aurelius in 146.
The emperor never remarried. Instead, he lived with Galeria Lysistrate, Faustina's freedwoman. Concubinage was a form of female companionship sometimes chosen by powerful men in Ancient Rome, especially widowers like Vespasian, and Marcus Aurelius. Their union could not produce any legitimate offspring who could threaten any heirs, such as those of Antoninus. Also, as one could not have a wife and an official concubine at the same time, Antoninus avoided being pressed into a marriage with a noblewoman from another family.
Favour with Hadrian
Having filled the offices of quaestor and praetor with more than usual success, he obtained the consulship in 120 having as his colleague Lucius Catilius Severus. He was next appointed by the Emperor Hadrian as one of the four proconsuls to administer Italia, his district including Etruria, where he had estates. He then greatly increased his reputation by his conduct as proconsul of Asia, probably during 134–135.He acquired much favor with Hadrian, who adopted him as his son and successor on 25 February 138, after the death of his first adopted son Lucius Aelius, on the condition that Antoninus would in turn adopt Marcus Annius Verus, the son of his wife's brother, and Lucius, son of Lucius Aelius, who afterwards became the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. He also adopted the name Imperator Titus Aelius Caesar Antoninus, in preparation for his rule. There seems to have been some opposition to Antoninus's appointment on the part of other potential claimants, among them his former consular colleague Lucius Catilius Severus, then prefect of the city. Nevertheless, Antoninus assumed power without opposition.
Emperor
On his accession, Antoninus's name and style became Imperator Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus. One of his first acts as emperor was to persuade the Senate to grant divine honours to Hadrian, which they had at first refused; his efforts to persuade the Senate to grant these honours is the most likely reason given for his title of Pius. Two other reasons for this title are that he would support his aged father-in-law with his hand at Senate meetings and that he had saved those men that Hadrian, during his period of ill health, had condemned to death.Immediately after Hadrian's death, Antoninus approached Marcus and requested that his marriage arrangements be amended: Marcus's betrothal to Ceionia Fabia would be annulled, and he would be betrothed to Faustina, Antoninus's daughter instead. Faustina's betrothal to Ceionia's brother Lucius Commodus, Marcus's future co-emperor, would also have to be annulled. Marcus consented to Antoninus's proposal.
Antoninus built temples, theaters, and mausoleums, promoted the arts and sciences, and bestowed honours and financial rewards upon the teachers of rhetoric and philosophy. Antoninus made few initial changes when he became emperor, leaving the arrangements instituted by Hadrian as undisturbed as possible. Epigraphical and prosopographical research has revealed that Antoninus's imperial ruling team centered around a group of closely knit senatorial families, most of them members of the priestly congregation for the cult of Hadrian, the sodales Hadrianales. According to the German historian H.-G. Pflaum, prosopographical research of Antoninus's ruling team allows us to grasp the deeply conservative character of the ruling senatorial caste.
He owned palatial villas near Lanuvium and Villa Magna and his ancestral estate at Lorium.
Lack of warfare
There are no records of his involvement in military acts during his tenure, with J. J. Wilkes noting that he likely never saw or commanded a Roman army and was never within five hundred miles of a legion throughout his twenty-three-year reign.His reign was the most peaceful in the entire history of the Principate, even though there were several military disturbances in the Empire in his time. Such disturbances happened in Mauretania, where a senator was named as governor of Mauretania Tingitana in place of the usual equestrian procurator and cavalry reinforcements from Pannonia were brought in, towns such as Sala and Tipasa being fortified. Similar disturbances took place in Judea, and amongst the Brigantes in Britannia; however, these were considered less serious than prior revolts among both. It was however in Britain that Antoninus decided to follow a new, more aggressive path, with the appointment of a new governor in 139, Quintus Lollius Urbicus, a native of Numidia and previously governor of Germania Inferior as well as a new man.
Under instructions from the emperor, Lollius undertook an invasion of southern Scotland, winning some significant victories and constructing the Antonine Wall from the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Clyde. However, the wall was soon gradually decommissioned during the mid-150s and eventually abandoned late during the reign for reasons that are still unclear. Antonine's Wall is mentioned in just one literary source, Antoninus's biography in the Historia Augusta. Pausanias makes a brief and confused mention of a war in Britain. In one inscription honouring Antoninus, erected by Legio II Augusta, which participated in the building of the Wall, a relief showing four naked prisoners, one of them beheaded, seems to stand for some actual warfare.
File:0 Antoninus Pius - Museo Chiaramonti.JPG|thumb|left|Statue of Antoninus Pius in military garb and muscle cuirass, from the Museo Chiaramonti
Although Antonine's Wall was, in principle, much shorter and, at first sight, more defensible than Hadrian's Wall, the additional area that it enclosed within the Empire was barren, with land use for grazing already in decay. This meant that supply lines to the wall were strained enough such that the costs of maintaining the additional territory outweighed the benefits of doing so. Also, in the absence of urban development and the ensuing Romanization process, the rear of the wall could not be lastingly pacified.
It has been speculated that the invasion of Lowland Scotland and the building of the wall had to do mostly with internal politics, that is, offering Antoninus an opportunity to gain some modicum of necessary military prestige at the start of his reign. An Imperial salutation followed the campaign in Britannia—that is, Antoninus formally took for the second time the title of Imperator in 142. The fact that around the same time coins were struck announcing a victory in Britain points to Antoninus's need to publicise his achievements. The orator Fronto was later to say that, although Antoninus bestowed the direction of the British campaign to others, he should be regarded as the helmsman who directed the voyage, whose glory, therefore, belonged to him.
That this quest for some military achievement responded to an actual need is proved by the fact that, although generally peaceful, Antoninus's reign was not free from attempts at usurpation: Historia Augusta mentions two, made by the senators Cornelius Priscianus and Atilius Rufius Titianus. Both attempts are confirmed by the Fasti Ostienses and by the erasing of Priscianus' name from an inscription. In both cases, Antoninus was not in formal charge of the ensuing repression: Priscianus committed suicide and Titianus was found guilty by the Senate, with Antoninus abstaining from sequestering their families' properties.
File:ANTONINUS PIUS. 138-161 AD Parthia coinage.jpg|thumb|A coin of Antoninus Pius showing a subdued Parthia handing the crown to him, an empty claim that Parthia was still subject to Rome after the events surrounding Parthamaspates
There were also some troubles in Dacia Inferior, which required the granting of additional powers to the procurator governor and the dispatch of additional soldiers to the province. On the northern Black Sea coast, the Greek city of Olbia was held against the Scythians. Also during his reign the governor of Upper Germany, probably Gaius Popillius Carus Pedo, built new fortifications in the Agri Decumates, advancing the Limes Germanicus fifteen miles forward in his province and neighboring Raetia. In the East, Roman suzerainty over Armenia was retained by the choice in AD 140 of Arsacid scion Sohaemus as client king.
Nevertheless, Antoninus was virtually unique among emperors in that he dealt with these crises without leaving Italy once during his reign, but instead dealt with provincial matters of war and peace through their governors or through imperial letters to the cities such as Ephesus. His contemporaries and later generations highly praised this style of government.
Antoninus was the last Roman Emperor recognised by the Indian Kingdoms, especially the Kushan Empire. Raoul McLaughlin quotes Aurelius Victor as saying, "The Indians, the Bactrians, and the Hyrcanians all sent ambassadors to Antoninus. They had all heard about the spirit of justice held by this great emperor, justice that was heightened by his handsome and grave countenance, and his slim and vigorous figure." Due to the outbreak of the Antonine epidemic and wars against northern Germanic tribes, the reign of Marcus Aurelius was forced to alter the focus of foreign policies, and matters relating to the Far East were increasingly abandoned in favour of those directly concerning the Empire's survival.