Antoninus
- Antonine, the name of several Roman emperors; among whom the most distinguished were Antoninus Pius and M. Aurelius Antoninus Philosophus, Inscr. Orell. 834 sq.; 856 sq.
- —Hence, Antōnīnĭānus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to Antonine, Eutr. 8, 10; Lampr. Elag. 24 al.
1. A Roman of high rank, and a contemporary and friend of Pliny the Younger, among whose letters there are three addressed to Antoninus. Pliny heaps the most extravagant praise upon his friend both for his personal character and his skill in composing Greek epigrams and iambics. (Plin. Ep. 4.3, 18, 5.10.)
2. A new-Platonist, who lived early in the fourth century of our era, was a son of Eustathius and Sosipatra, and had a school at Canopus, near Alexandria in Egypt. He devoted himself wholly to those who sought his instructions, but he never expressed any opinion upon divine things, which he considered beyond man's comprehension. He and his disciples were strongly attached to the heathen religion; but he had acuteness enough to see that its end was near at hand, and he predicted that after his death all the splendid temples of the gods would be changed into tombs. His moral conduct is described as truly exemplary. (Eunapius, Vit. Aedesii, p. 68, ed. Antw. 1568.) [L.S]
The work which bears the title of Antonini Itinerarium is usually attributed to the emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus. It is also ascribed in the MSS. severally to Julius Caesar, Antonius Augustus, Antonius Augustalis, and Antoninus Augustus. It is a very valuable itinerary of the whole Roman empire, in which both the principal and the cross-roads are described by a list of all the places and stations upon them, the distances from place to place being given in Roman miles.
We are informed by Aethicus, a Greek geographer whose Cosmographia was translated by St. Jerome, that in the consulship of Julius Caesar and M. Antonius (B. C. 44), a general survey of the empire was undertaken, at the command of Caesar and by a decree of the senate, by three persons, who severally completed their labours in 30, 24, and 19, B. C., and that Augustus sanctioned the results by a decree of the senate. The probable inference from this statement, compared with the MS. titles of the Itinerary, is, that that work embodied the results of the survey mentioned by Aethicus. In fact, the circumstance of the Itinerary and the Cosmographia of Aethicus being found in the same MS. has led some writers to suppose that it was Aethicus himself who reduced the survey into the form in which we have it. The time of Julius Caesar and Augustus, when the Roman empire had reached its extent, was that at which we should expect such a work to be undertaken; and no one was more likely to undertake it than the great reformer of the Roman calendar. The honour of the work, therefore, seems to belong to Julius Caesar, who began it; to M. Antonius, who, from his position in the state, must have shared in its commencement and prosecution ; and to Augustus, under whom it was completed. Nevertheless, it is highly probable that it received important additions and revision under one or both of the Antonines, who, in their labours to consolidate the empire, would not neglect such a work. The names included in it, moreover, prove that it was altered to suit the existing state of the empire down to the time of Diocletian (A. D. 285-305), after which we have no evidence of any alteration, for the passages in which the name "Constantinopolis" occurs are probably spurious.
Whoever may have been its author, we have abundant evidence that the work was an official one. In several passages the numbers are doubtful. The names are put down without any specific rule as to the case. Editions
It was first printed by H. Stephens, Paris. (1512.) The best edition is that of Wesseling, Amst. 1735, 4to. Further Information
The Preface to Wesseling's edition of the Itinerary; The Article `Antoninus, the Itinerary of,' in the Penny Cyclopædia. [P.S]
[M. Aurelius.]
The name of this emperor in the early part of his life, at full length, was Titus Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Arrius Antoninus--a series of appellations derived from his paternal and maternal ancestors, from whom he inherited great wealth. The family of his father was originally from Nemausus (Nismes) in Transalpine Gaul, and the most important members of the stock are exhibited in the following table:
Antoninus himself was born near Lanuvium on the 19th of September, A. D. 86, in the reign of Domitian ; was brought up at Lorium, a villa on the Aurelian way, about twelve miles from Rome ; passed his boyhood under the superintendence of his two grandfathers, and from a very early age gave promise of his future worth. After having filled the offices of quaestor and praetor with great distinction, he was elevated to the consulship in 120, was afterwards selected by Hadrian as one of the four consulars to whom the administration of Italy was entrusted, was next appointed proconsul of the province of Asia, which he ruled so wisely that he surpassed in fame all former governors, not excepting his grandfather Arrius, and on his return home was admitted to share the secret counsels of the prince. In consequence, it would appear, of his merit alone, after the death of Aelius Caesar, he was adopted by Hadrian on the 25th of February 138, in the 52nd year of his age. He was immediately assumed by his new father as colleague in the tribunate and proconsular imperium, and thenceforward bore the name of T. Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Caesar. Being at this period without male issue, he was required to adopt M. Annius Verus, the son of his wife's brother, and also L. Ceionius Commodus, the son of Aelius Caesar, who had been previously adopted by Hadrian but was now dead. These two individuals were afterwards the emperors M. Aurelius Antoninus and L. Aurelius Verus.
Hadrian died at Baiae on the 2nd of July, 138, but a few months after these arrangements had been concluded, and Antoninus without opposition ascended the throne. Several years before this event, he had married Annia Galeria Faustina, whose descent will be understood by referring to the account given of the family of her nephew, M. Aurelius. By her he had two daughters, Aurelia Fadilla and Annia Faustina, and two sons, M. Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus and M. Galerius Antoninus. Aurelia married Lamia Syllanus, and died at the time when her father was setting out for Asia. Faustina became the wife of her first cousin Marcus Aurelius, the future emperor. Of the male progeny we know nothing. The name of the first mentioned was discovered by Pagi in an inscription, the portrait of the second appears on a rare Greek coin, with the legend, Μ. ΓΑΛΕΠΙΟΞ. ΑΝΤΩΝΕΙΝΟΞ. ΑΥΤΟΚΠΑΤΟΠΟΞ. ΑΝΤΩΝΕΙΝΟΤ ΥΙΟΞ. On the reverse of the medal is the head of his mother, with the words, ΘΕΑ ΦΑΥΞΤΕΙΝΑ, which prove that it was struck subsequently to her death, which happened in the third year after her husband's accession. It will be observed, that while Galerius is styled "son of the emperor Antoninus," he is not termed ΚΑΙΣΑΡ, a title which would scarcely have been omitted had he been born or been alive after his father's elevation. From this circumstance, therefore, from the absolute silence of history with regard to these youths, and from the positive assertion of Dio Cassius (69.21), that Antoninus had no male issue when adopted by Hadrian, we may conclude that both his sons died before this epoch; and hence the magnanimity ascribed to him by Gibbon (100.3) in preferring the welfare of Rome to the interests of his family, and sacrificing the claims of his own children to the talents and virtues of young Marcus, is probably altogether visionary.
The whole period of the reign of Antoninus, which lasted for upwards of twenty-two years, is almost a blank in history--a blank caused by the suspension for a time of war, and violence, and crime. Never before and never after did the Roman world enjoy for an equal space so large a measure of prosperous tranquillity. All the thoughts and energies of a most sagacious and able prince were steadfastly dedicated to the attainment of one object--the happiness of his people. And assuredly never were noble exertions crowned with more ample success.
At home the affections of all classes were won by his simple habits, by the courtesy of his manners, by the ready access granted to his presence, by the patient attention with which he listened to representations upon all manner of subjects, by his impartial distribution of favours, and his prompt administration of justice. Common informers were discouraged, and almost disappeared; never had confiscations been so rare; during a long succession of years no senator was punished with death; one man only was impeached of treason, and he, when convicted, was forbidden to betray his accomplices.
Abroad, the subject states participated largely in the blessings diffused by such an example. The best governors were permitted to retain their power for a series of years, and the collectors of the revenue were compelled to abandon their extortions. Moreover, the general condition of the provincials was improved, their fidelity secured, and the resources and stability of the whole empire increased by the communication, on a large scale, of the full rights and privileges of Roman citizens to the inhabitants of distant countries. In cases of national calamity and distress, such as the earthquakes which devastated Rhodes and Asia, and the great fires at Narbonne, Antioch, and Carthage, the sufferers were relieved, and compensation granted for their losses with the most unsparing liberality.
In foreign policy, the judicious system of his predecessor was steadily followed out. No attempt was made to achieve new conquests, but all rebellions from within and all aggressions from without were promptly crushed. Various movements among the Germans, the Dacians, the Jews, the Moors, the Greeks, and the Egyptians, were quelled by persuasion or by a mere demonstration of force ; while a more formidable insurrection in northern Britain was speedily repressed by the imperial legate Lollius Urbicus, who advancing beyond the wall of Hadrian, connected the friths of the Clyde and the Forth by a rampart of turf, in order that the more peaceful districts might be better protected from the inroads of the Caledonians. The British war was concluded, as we learn from medals, between the years 140-145, and on this occasion Antoninus received for a second time the title of imperator--a distinction which he did not agair accept, and he never deigned to celebrate a triumph. (Eckhel, vol. vii. p. 14.)
Even the nations which were not subject to Rome paid the utmost respect to the power of Antoninus. The Parthians, yielding to his remonstrances, abandoned an attempt upon Armenia. The Scythians submitted disputes with their neighbours to his arbitration; the barbarians of the Upper Danube received a king from his hands; a great chief of the clans of Caucasus repaired to Rome to tender his homage in person, and embassies flocked in from Hyrcania and Bactria, from the banks of the Indus and of the Ganges, to seek the alliance of the emperor.
In his reign various improvements were introduced in the law, by the advice of the most eminent jurists of the day; the health of the population was protected by salutary regulations with regard to the interment of the dead, and by the establishment of a certain number of licensed medical practitioners in the metropolis and all large towns. The interests of education and literature were promoted by honours and pensions bestowed on the most distinguished professors of philosophy and rhetoric throughout the world. Commercial intercourse was facilitated by the construction or repair of bridges, harbours, and lighthouses; and architecture and the fine arts were encouraged by the erection and decoration of numerous public buildings. Of these the temple of Faustina in the forum, and the mausoleum of Hadrian on the right bank of the Tiber, may still be seen, and many antiquarians are of opinion, that the magnificent amphitheatre at Nismes, and the stupendous aqueduct now termed the Pont du Gard, between that town and Avignon, are monuments of the interest felt by the descendant of the Aurelii Fulvi for the country of his fathers. It is certain that the former of these structures was completed under his immediate successors and dedicated to them.
In all the relations of private life Antoninus was equally distinguished. Even his wife's irregularities, which must to a certain extent have been known to him, he passed over, and after her death loaded her memory with honours. Among the most remarkable of these was the establishment of an hospital, after the plan of a similar institution by Trajan, for the reception and maintenance of boys and girls, the young females who enjoyed the advantages of the charity being termed puellae alimentariae Faustinianae. By fervent piety and scrupulous observance of sacred rites, he gained the reputation of being a second Numa ; but he was a foe to intolerant fanaticism, as is proved by the protection and favour extended to the Christians. His natural taste seems to have had a strong bias towards the pleasures of a country life, and accordingly we find him spending all his leisure hours upon his estate in the country. In person he was of commanding aspect and dignified countenance, and a deep toned melodious voice rendered his native eloquence more striking and impressive.
His death took place at Lorium on the 7th of March, 161, in his 75th year. He was succeeded by M. Aurelius.
Some doubts existed amongst the ancients themselves with regard to the origin of the title Pius, and several different explanations, many of them very silly, are proposed by his biographer Capitolinus. The most probable account of the matter is this. Upon the death of Hadrian, the senate, incensed by his severity towards several members of their body, had resolved to withhold the honours usually conferred upon deceased emperors, but were induced to forego their purpose in consequence of the deep grief of Antoninus, and his earnest entreaties. Being, perhaps, after the first burst of indignation had passed away, somewhat alarmed by their own rashness, they determined to render the concession more gracious by paying a compliment to their new ruler which should mark their admiration of the feeling by which he had been influenced, and accordingly they hailed him by the name of Pius, or the dutifully affectionate. This view of the question receives support from medals, since the epithet appears for the first time upon those which were struck immediately after the death of Hadrian; while several belonging to the same year, but coined before that date, bear no such addition. Had it been, as is commonly supposed, conferred in consequence of the general holiness of his life, it would in all probability have been introduced either when he first became Caesar, or after he had been seated for some time on the throne, and not exactly at the moment of his accession. Be that as it may, it found such favour in the eyes of his successors, that it was almost universally adopted, and is usually found united with the appellation of Augustus.
Our chief and almost only authority for the life of Antoninus Pius is the biography of Capitolinus, which, as may be gathered from what has been said above, is from beginning to end an uninterrupted panegyric. But the few facts which we can collect from medals, from the scanty fragments of Dio Cassius, and from incidental notices in later writers, all corroborate, as far as they go, the representations of Capitolinus; and therefore we cannot fairly refuse to receive his narrative merely because he paints a character of singular and almost unparalleled excellence.
[W.R]
(Ἀντωνῖνος Λιβεράλις), a Greek grammarian, concerning whose life nothing is known, but who is generally believed to have lived in the reign of the Antonines, about A. D. 147. Works μεταμορφώσεων συναγωγή (Collection of Metamorphoses
We possess a work under his name, entitled μεταμορφώσεων συναγωγή, and consisting of forty-one tales about mythical metamorphoses. With the exception of nine tales, he always mentions the sources from which he took his accounts. Since most of the works referred to by him are now lost, his book is of some importance for the study of Greek mythology, but in regard to composition and style it is of no value. There are but very few MSS. of this work, and the chief ones are that at Heidelberg and the one in Paris. Editions
The first edition from the Heidelberg MS. with a Latin translation, is by Xylander, Basel, 1568, 8vo. There is a good edition by Verheyk (Lugd. Bat. 1774, 8vo.) with notes by Muncker, Hemsterhuis, &c.
The best is by Koch (Leipz. 1832, 8vo.), who collated the Paris MS. and added valuable notes of his own. Further Information
Mallmann, Commentatio de causis et auctoribus narrationum de mutatis formis, Leipz. 1786, p. 89,&c.; Bast, Epistola critica ad Boissonade super Antonino Liberali, Parthenio et Aristaeneto, Leipz. 1809; Koch's Preface to his edition. [L.S]
(1) Pius, or Titus Aurelius Fulvius Boionius Antonīnus, a Roman emperor, A.D. 138-161, born near Lanuvium, A.D. 86, adopted by Hadrian in 138, and succeeded the latter in the same year. The Senate conferred upon him the title of Pius, or “the dutifully affectionate,” because he persuaded them to grant to his father Hadrian the apotheosis and other honours usually paid to deceased emperors. The reign of Antoninus is almost a blank in history—a blank caused by the suspension for a time of war, violence, and crime. He was one of the best princes that ever mounted a throne, and all his thoughts and energies were dedicated to the happiness of his people. He died in A.D. 161, in his seventy-fifth year. He was succeeded by M. Aurelius, whom he had adopted, when he himself was adopted by Hadrian, and to whom he gave his daughter Faustina in marriage.
(2) Marcus Annius (Verus) Aurelius, was born at Rome in the year A.D. 121. Upon the death of Ceionius Commodus, the emperor Hadrian turned his attention towards Marcus Aurelius; but he being then too young for an early assumption of the cares of empire, Hadrian adopted Antoninus Pius, on condition that he in his turn should adopt Marcus Aurelius. His father dying early, the care of his education devolved on his paternal grandfather, Verus, who caused him to receive a general education; but philosophy so early became the object of his ambition that he assumed the philosophic mantle when only twelve years old. The species of philosophy to which he attached himself was the Stoic, as being most connected with morals and the conduct of life; and such was the natural sweetness of his temper that he exhibited none of the pride which sometimes attended the artificial elevation of the Stoic character. This was the more remarkable, as all the honour and power that Antoninus could bestow upon him became his own at an early period, since he was practically associated with him in the administration of the Empire for many years. On his formal accession to the sovereignty his first act was of a kind which at once proved his great disinterestedness; for he immediately took Lucius Verus as his colleague, who had indeed been associated with him by adoption, but who, owing to his defects and vices, had been excluded by Antoninus from the succession, which, at his instigation, the Senate had confined to Marcus Aurelius alone. Notwithstanding their dissimilarity of character, the two emperors reigned conjointly without any disagreement. Verus took the nominal guidance of the war against the Parthians, which was successfully carried on by the lieutenants under him, and during the campaign married Lucilla, the daughter of his colleague. The reign of Marcus Aurelius was more eventful than that of Antoninus. Before the termination of the Parthian War, the Marcomanni and other German tribes began those disturbances which more or less annoyed him for the rest of his life. Against these foes, after the termination of hostilities with Parthia, the two emperors marched; but what was effected during three years' war and negotiation, until the death of Verus, is little known. The sudden decease of that unsuitable colleague by an apoplexy restored to Marcus Aurelius the sole dominion; and for the next five years he carried on the Pannonian War in person, without ever returning to Rome. During these fatiguing campaigns he endured all the hardships incident to a rigorous climate and a military life with a patience and serenity which did the highest honour to his philosophy. Few of the particular actions of this tedious warfare have been fully described; although, owing to conflicting religious zeal, one of them has been exceedingly celebrated. This was the deliverance of the emperor and his army from imminent danger by a victory over the Quadi, in consequence of an extraordinary storm of rain, hail, and lightning, which disconcerted the barbarians, and was, by the conquerors, regarded as miraculous. The emperor and the Romans attributed the timely event to Iupiter Tonans; but the Christians affirmed that God granted this favour on the supplications of the Christian soldiers in the Roman army, who are said to have composed the Twelfth, or Meletine, Legion; and, as a mark of distinction, we are informed by Eusebius that they received from an emperor who persecuted Christianity the title of the “Thundering Legion.” The date of this event is fixed by Tillemont as A.D. 174. The general issue of the war was that the barbarians were repressed, but admitted to settle in the territories of the Empire as colonists; and a complete subjugation of the Marcomanni might have followed had not the emperor been recalled by the conspiracy of Avidius Cassius, who assumed the purple in Syria. This usurper was quickly destroyed by a conspiracy among his own officers, and the clemency shown by the emperor to his family was most exemplary. After the suppression of this revolt he made a progress through the East, in which journey he lost his wife Faustina, daughter of Antoninus Pius, a woman as dissolute as she was beautiful, but whose irregularities he never seems to have noticed—a blindness or insensibility that has made him the theme of frequent ridicule. While on this tour he visited Athens, and, like Hadrian, was initiated in the Eleusinian Mysteries. His return to Rome did not take place until after an absence of eight years, and his reception was in the highest degree popular and splendid. After remaining in the capital for nearly two years, and effecting several popular reforms, he was once more called away by the necessity of checking the Marcomanni, and was again successful, but fell ill, at the expiration of two years, at Vindobona, now Vienna. His illness arose from a pestilential disease which prevailed in the army; and it cut him off in the fifty-ninth year of his age and nineteenth of his reign. His death occasioned universal mourning throughout the Empire. Without waiting for the usual decree on the occasion the Roman Senate and people voted him a god by acclamation, and his image was long afterwards regarded with peculiar veneration.
Marcus Aurelius was no friend to the Christians, who were persecuted during the greater part of his reign—an anomaly in a character so universally merciful and clement that may be attributed to an excess of pagan devotion on his part, and still more to the influence of the persons by whom he was surrounded. In all other points of policy and conduct he was one of the most excellent princes on record, both in respect to the salutary regulations he adopted and the temper with which he carried them into practice. Compared with Trajan or Antoninus Pius, he possibly fell short of the manly sense of the one and the simple and unostentatious virtue of the other—philosophy or scholarship on a throne always more or less assuming the appearance of pedantry. The emperor was also himself a writer, and his Meditations (Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν), in Greek in twelve books, have descended to posterity. They are a collection of maxims and thoughts in the spirit of the Stoic philosophy, which, without much connection or skill in composition, breathe the purest sentiments of piety and benevolence. They were jotted down from time to time in his leisure moments, and largely while he was in camp along the Danube during his campaign against the Marcomanni. His theology, in general, seems pantheistic, the key-note being the doctrine of a “natural unity,” including God, nature, and all mankind.
Marcus Aurelius left one son, the brutal Commodus, and three daughters. Among the weaknesses of this good emperor, his too great consideration for his son is deemed one of the most striking; for, although he was unremitting in his endeavours to reclaim him, they were accompanied by much erroneous indulgence, and especially by an early and ill-judged elevation to titles and honours.
Good texts of the Meditations are those of Gataker (London, 1697) and Stich (1882). See also the translation, with notes, by Long (1869); the French version by Pierron (1878); Renan's Marc-Aurèle (1882); and Watson's Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (N. Y., 1884).
(3) Bassiānus Caracalla. (See Caracalla.)
(4) Liberālis. A mythological writer supposed to have lived in the age of the Antonines, and to have been a freedman of one of them. He wrote a work entitled A Collection of Metamorphoses (Μεταμορφωσέων Συναγωγή), in forty-one chapters. Edition by Westermann (Brunswick, 1839). See Oder, De Antonino Liberali (1886).
- erects buildings in sanctuary of Aesculapius at Epidaurus: Paus. 2.27.6
- builds cistern on Mount Cynortium: Paus. 2.27.7