Biography of
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
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 Born: CE
April 26, 121 – Rome, Italy
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Died: CE March 17, 180 – Battle Camp,
Northern Frontier
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Father: Annius Verus
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Mother: Domitia Calvilla
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Wife: Faustina
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Children: Lucilla (F), Commodus
(M)
The Emperor T. Antoninus Pius married Faustina, the
sister of Annius Verus, and was consequently the uncle of Marcus
Antoninus.
When Hadrian adopted Antoninus Pius and declared
him his successor in the empire, Antoninus Pius adopted both L.
Ceionius Commodus and Marcus Antoninus, generally called Marcus
Aurelius Antoninus.
The youth was most carefully brought up. He thanked
the gods 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 work the virtues of this excellent man and
prudent ruler. Like many young Romans he tried his hand at poetry
and studied rhetoric. There are letters extant showing the great
affection of the pupil for the master, and the master's great hopes
of his industrious pupil.
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. He abandoned poetry and rhetoric for philosophy,
and 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. 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.
Antoninus has recorded in his first book the names
of his teachers, and the obligations which he owed to each of them.
The way in which he speaks of what he learned from them might seem
to savor of vanity or self- praise, if we look carelessly at the
way in which he has expressed himself; but if anyone draws this
conclusion, he will be mistaken. Antoninus means to commemorate the
merits of his several teachers, what they taught, and what a pupil
might learn from them. Besides, this book, like the eleven other
books, was for his own use; and if we may trust the note at the end
of the first book, it was written during one of Marcus Antoninus'
campaigns against the Quadi, at a time when the commemoration of
the virtues of his illustrious teachers might remind him of their
lessons and the practical uses which he might derive from them.
Among his teachers of philosophy was Sextus of
Chaeroneia, a grandson of Plutarch. What he learned from this
excellent man is told by himself. His favorite teacher was
Rusticus, a philosopher, and also a man of practical good sense in
public affairs. Rusticus was the adviser of Antoninus after he
became emperor. Young men who are destined for high places are not
often fortunate in those who are about them, their companions and
teachers; and I do not know any example of a young prince having
had an education which can be compared with that of Marcus
Antoninus. Such a body of teachers distinguished by their
acquirements and their character will hardly be collected again;
and as to the pupil, we have not had one like him since.
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