The early life of Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180) spans the time from his birth on 26 April 121 until his accession as Roman emperor on 8 March 161.
Following the death of his father, Marcus Annius Verus (III), Marcus Aurelius was raised by his grandfather, Marcus Annius Verus (II). Educated at home, Marcus became an adherent of Stoicism at a young age. In 138 he was adopted by Titus Aurelius Antoninus, himself the adopted heir of Emperor Hadrian. Hadrian died later that year, and his adoptive son succeeded him under the name Antoninus Pius.
Among Marcus' tutors were the orators Marcus Cornelius Fronto and Herodes Atticus. Marcus held the consulship jointly with Antoninus Pius in 140 and in 145. In between his first and second consulships, Marcus served as a quaestor. In 145 he married his first cousin, Pius' daughter Faustina. They had a number of children, including the future empress Lucilla and the future emperor Commodus. Marcus took on more responsibilities of state as Pius aged; at the time of Pius' death in 161, he was consul with his adoptive brother Lucius. Upon their adoptive father's death, Marcus and Lucius became co-emperors.
Sources The major sources for the life and rule of Marcus Aurelius are patchy and frequently unreliable. This is particularly true of his youth. The biographies contained in the Historia Augusta claim to be written by a group of authors at the turn of the fourth century, but are in fact written by a single author (referred to here as "the biographer") from the later fourth century (c. 395). The later biographies and the biographies of subordinate emperors and usurpers are a tissue of lies and fiction, but the earlier biographies, derived primarily from now-lost earlier sources (Marius Maximus or Ignotus), are much better.Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 229–230. The thesis of single authorship was first proposed in H. Dessau's "Über Zeit und Persönlichkeit der Scriptoes Historiae Augustae" (in German), Hermes 24 (1889), 337ff. For Marcus' life and rule, the biographies of Hadrian, Pius, Marcus himself and Lucius Verus are largely reliable, but those of Aelius Verus and Avidius Cassius are full of fiction.Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 230. On the HA Verus, see Barnes, 65–74.
A body of correspondence between Marcus' tutor Fronto and various Antonine officials (with a focus on Marcus himself) survives in a series of patchy manuscripts, covering the period from c. 138 to 166.Mary Beard, "Was He Quite Ordinary?", London Review of Books 31:14 (23 July 2009), accessed 15 September 2009; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 226. Marcus' own Meditations offer a window on his inner life, but are largely undateable, and make few specific references to worldly affairs.Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 227. The main narrative source for the period is Cassius Dio, a Greek senator from Bithynian Nicaea who wrote a history of Rome from its founding to 229 in eighty books. Dio is vital for the military history of the period, but his senatorial prejudices and strong opposition to imperial expansion obscure his perspective.Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 228–229, 253. Some other literary sources provide specific detail: the writings of the physician Galen on the habits of the Antonine elite, the orations of Aelius Aristides on the temper of the times, and the constitutions preserved in the Digest and Codex Justinianus on Marcus' legal work.Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 227–228. Inscriptions and coin finds supplement the literary sources.Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 228.
Family and childhood The gens Annia, to which Marcus belonged, had an undistinguished history. Their only famous member was Titus Annius Milo, a man known for hastening the end of the free republic through his use of political violence.Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 28. Marcus' paternal family originated in Ucubi, a small town southeast of Córdoba in Iberian Baetica. The family rose to prominence in the late first century AD. Marcus' great-grandfather Marcus Annius Verus (I) was a senator and (according to the Historia Augusta) ex-praetor; in 73–74 his grandfather Marcus Annius Verus (II) was made a patrician.HA Marcus 1.2, 1.4; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 28; McLynn, 14. Cassius Dio asserts that the Annii were near-kin of Hadrian, and that it was to these familial ties that they owed their rise to power.Dio 69.21.2, 71.35.2–3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 31. The precise nature of these kinship ties is nowhere stated. One conjectural bond runs through Annius Verus (II). Verus' wife Rupilia Faustina was the daughter of the consular senator Libo Rupilius Frugi and a mother whose name is unknown. It has been hypothesized Rupilia Faustina's mother was Salonia Matidia, who was also the mother through another marriage of Vibia Sabina, Hadrian's wife,Codex Inscriptionum Latinarum 14.3579 ; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 29; McLynn, 14, 575 n. 53, citing Ronald Syme, Roman Papers 1.244. but the theory is not universally accepted. Anthony Birley argued that it is implausible based on Rupilia's age. Historians Strachan and Christian Settipani proposed instead Vitellia, the daughter of emperor Vitellius, as her mother.Rupilius. Strachan stemma. Verus' elder son—Marcus Aurelius' father—Marcus Annius Verus (III) married Domitia Lucilla Minor.Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 29; McLynn, 14.
Lucilla was the daughter of the patrician P. Calvisius Tullus Ruso and Domitia Lucilla Major. Lucilla Major had inherited a great fortune (described at length in one of Pliny's letters) from her maternal grandfather and her paternal grandfather by adoption.Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 29, citing Pliny, Epistulae 8.18. The younger Lucilla would acquire much of her mother's wealth, including a large brickworks on the outskirts of Rome—a profitable enterprise in an era when the city was experiencing a construction boom.Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 30.
Lucilla and Verus (III) had two children: a son, Marcus, born on 26 April 121, and Annia Cornificia Faustina, probably born in 122 or 123.Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 31, 44. Verus (III) probably died in 124, during his praetorship, when Marcus was only three years old.Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 31. Though he can hardly have known him, Marcus wrote in his Meditations that he had learned "modesty and manliness" from his memories of his father and from the man's posthumous reputation.Meditations 1.1, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 31. Lucilla did not remarry.
Lucilla, following prevailing aristocratic customs, probably did not spend much time with her son. Marcus was in the care of "nurses".HA Marcus 2.1 and Meditations 5.4, qtd. in Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 32. He credits his mother with teaching him "religious piety, simplicity in diet" and how to avoid "the ways of the rich".Meditations 1.3, qtd. in Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 35. In his letters, Marcus makes frequent and affectionate reference to her; he was grateful that, "although she was fated to die young, yet she spent her last years with me".Meditations 1.17.7, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 35.
After his father's death, Marcus was adopted by his paternal grandfather, Marcus Annius Verus (II).Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 33. Another man, Lucius Catilius Severus, also participated in his upbringing. Severus is described as his "maternal great-grandfather"; he is probably the stepfather of the elder Lucilla. Marcus was raised in the home of his mother (the Horti Domitiae Lucillae) on the Caelian Hill, a district he would affectionately refer to as "my Caelian".Ad Marcum Caesarem 2.8.2 (= Haines 1.142), qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 31. It was an upscale region, with few public buildings but many aristocratic villas. The most famous of these villas was the Lateran Palace, seized under Nero (r. 54–68) and thenceforth imperial property. Marcus' grandfather owned his own palace beside the Lateran, where Marcus would spend much of his childhood.Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 31–32.
Marcus thanks his grandfather for teaching him "good character and avoidance of bad temper".Meditations 1.1, qtd. and tr. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 35. He was less fond of the mistress his grandfather took and lived with after the death Rupilia Faustina, his wife and Marcus' grandmother.Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 35. Anthony Birley, Marcus' modern biographer, detects a hint of sexual tension in Marcus' writings on the mistress.Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 35, 53. Marcus was grateful that he did not have to live with her longer than he did. Marcus thanks the gods that he did not lose his virginity before its due time, and even held out a bit longer.Meditations 1.17.2; Farquharson, 1.102; McLynn, 23. He is proud that he did not indulge himself with Benedicta or Theodotus (household slaves, presumably).Meditations 1.17.11; Farquharson, 1.103; McLynn, 23.
Early education, 128–136
Marcus probably began his education at the age of seven.Cf. Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 1.1.15–16; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 35–36; McLynn, 19. He was taught at home, in line with contemporary aristocratic trends;McLynn, 20–21. Marcus thanks his great-grandfather Catilius Severus for encouraging him to avoid public schools.Meditations 1.4; McLynn, 20. Three of his childhood tutors are known: Euphoric, Geminus, and an educator whose name is unknown. These three are otherwise unattested in the ancient sources, and would probably have been household slaves or freedmen. Since Euphoric had a Greek name, he probably taught Marcus the basics of that language.HA Marcus 2.2; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 36. (He is said to have taught Marcus literature.HA Marcus 2.2; McLynn, 21.) Geminus is described as an actor, and he may have taught Marcus Latin pronunciation and general elocution. The educator would have been Marcus' overall supervisor, charged with his moral welfare and general development. Marcus speaks of him with admiration in his Meditations: he taught him to "bear pain and be content with little; to work with my own hands, to mind my own business, to be slow to listen to slander".Meditations 1.2, qtd. in Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 36. At the age of twelve, Marcus would have been ready for secondary education, under the grammatici. Two of his teachers at this age are known: Andro, a "geometrician and musician"; and Diognetus, a painting-master.HA Marcus 2.2, 4.9; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 37; McLynn, 21–22. Marcus thought of Diognetus as more than a mere painter, however. He seems to have introduced Marcus to the philosophic way of life. Marcus writes that Diognetus taught him "to avoid passing enthusiasms; to distrust the stories of miracle-workers and impostors about incantations and exorcism of spirits and such things; not to go cock-fighting or to get excited about such sports; to put up with outspokenness; and to become familiar with philosophy" and "to write philosophical dialogues in my boyhood".Meditations 1.6, qtd. in Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 37; cf. McLynn, 21–22. In April 132, at the behest of Diognetus, Marcus took up the dress and habits of the philosopher: he studied while wearing a rough Greek cloak, and would sleep on the ground until his mother convinced him to sleep on a bed.HA Marcus 2.6; cf. Meditations 1.6; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 38; McLynn, 21.
A new set of tutors—Alexander of Cotiaeum, Trosius Aper, and Tuticius Proculus—took over Marcus' education in about 132 or 133.HA Marcus 2.3; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 40, 270 n.27. Little is known of the latter two (both teachers of Latin), but Alexander was a major littérateur, the leading Homeric scholar of his day.Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 40, citing Aelius Aristides, Oratio 32 K; McLynn, 21. Marcus thanks Alexander for his training in literary styling.Meditations 1.10; Birley, Marcus Aurelius, 40; McLynn, 22. Alexander's influence—an emphasis on matter over style, on careful wording, with the occasional Homeric quotation—has been detected in Marcus' Meditations''''