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For information on how to proceed, first see the FAQ for blocked users and the guideline on block appeals. The guide to appealing blocks may also be helpful. Other useful links: Blocking policy · Help:I have been blocked You can view and copy the source of this page: ===Accession of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus (161)=== [[File:Co-emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, British Museum (23455313842).jpg|thumb|Busts of the co-emperors Marcus Aurelius (left) and [[Lucius Verus]] (right), [[British Museum]]|alt=Busts of Marcus Aurelius and his co-ruler Lucius Verus]] After Antoninus died in 161, Marcus was effectively sole ruler of the Empire. The formalities of the position would follow. The senate would soon grant him the name Augustus and the title ''[[imperator]]'', and he would soon be formally elected as ''Pontifex Maximus'', chief priest of the official cults. Marcus made some show of resistance: the biographer writes that he was 'compelled' to take imperial power.''HA Marcus'' vii. 5, qtd. and tr. Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 116. This may have been a genuine ''horror imperii'', 'fear of imperial power'. Marcus, with his preference for the philosophic life, found the imperial office unappealing. His training as a Stoic, however, had made the choice clear to him that it was his duty.Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 116. Birley takes the phrase ''horror imperii'' from ''HA Pert''. xiii. 1 and xv. 8. Although Marcus showed no personal affection for Hadrian (significantly, he does not thank him in the first book of his ''Meditations''), he presumably believed it his duty to enact the man's succession plans.Birley, 'Hadrian to the Antonines', p. 156. Thus, although the senate planned to confirm Marcus alone, he refused to take office unless Lucius received equal powers.''HA Verus'' iii.8; Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 116; 'Hadrian to the Antonines', p. 156. The senate accepted, granting Lucius the ''imperium'', the tribunician power, and the name Augustus.''HA Verus'' iv.1; ''Marcus'' vii.5; Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 116. Marcus became, in official titulature, Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus; Lucius, forgoing his name Commodus and taking Marcus's family name Verus, became Imperator Caesar Lucius Aurelius Verus Augustus.Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', pp. 116–17.{{refn|These name-swaps have proven so confusing that even the ''Historia Augusta'', our main source for the period, cannot keep them straight.Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 117; 'Hadrian to the Antonines', p. 157 n.53. The 4th-century ecclesiastical historian [[Eusebius of Caesarea]] shows even more confusion.Birley, 'Hadrian to the Antonines', p. 157 n.53. The mistaken belief that Lucius had the name 'Verus' before becoming emperor has proven especially popular.Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 117.|group=note}} It was the first time that Rome was ruled by two emperors.{{refn|There was, however, much precedent. The consulate was a twin magistracy, and earlier emperors had often had a subordinate lieutenant with many imperial offices (under Antoninus, the lieutenant had been Marcus). Many emperors had planned a joint succession in the past: [[Augustus]] planned to leave [[Gaius Caesar|Gaius]] and [[Lucius Caesar]] as joint emperors on his death; Tiberius wished to have [[Gaius Caligula]] and [[Tiberius Gemellus]] do so as well; [[Claudius]] left the empire to [[Nero]] and [[Britannicus]], imagining that they would accept equal rank. All of these arrangements had ended in failure, either through premature death (Gaius and Lucius Caesar) or judicial murder (Gemellus by Caligula and Britannicus by Nero).|group=note}} In spite of their nominal equality, Marcus held more ''[[auctoritas]]'', or 'authority', than Lucius. He had been consul once more than Lucius, he had shared in Antoninus's rule, and he alone was ''Pontifex Maximus''. It would have been clear to the public which emperor was the more senior. As the biographer wrote, 'Verus obeyed Marcus...as a lieutenant obeys a proconsul or a governor obeys the emperor'.''HA Verus'' iv.2, tr. Magie, cited in Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', pp. 117, 278 n.4. Immediately after their senate confirmation, the emperors proceeded to the [[Castra Praetoria]], the camp of the [[Praetorian Guard]]. Lucius addressed the assembled troops, which then acclaimed the pair as ''imperatores''. Then, like every new emperor since [[Claudius]], Lucius promised the troops a special donative.''HA Marcus'' vii. 9; ''Verus'' iv.3; Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', pp. 117–18. This donative, however, was twice the size of those past: 20,000 [[sestertius|sesterces]] (5,000 [[denarius|denarii]]) per capita, with more to officers. In return for this bounty, equivalent to several years' pay, the troops swore an oath to protect the emperors.''HA Marcus'' vii. 9; ''Verus'' iv.3; Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', pp. 117–18. 'twice the size': Duncan-Jones, p. 109. The ceremony was perhaps not entirely necessary, given that Marcus's accession had been peaceful and unopposed, but it was good insurance against later military troubles.Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 118. Upon his accession he also devalued the [[Roman currency]]. He decreased the silver purity of the denarius from 83.5% to 79% – the silver weight dropping from {{cvt|2.68|g|oz}} to {{cvt|2.57|g|oz}}.[https://web.archive.org/web/20010210220413/http://www.tulane.edu/~august/handouts/601cprin.htm 'Roman Currency of the Principate']. Tulane.edu. Archived 10 February 2001. Antoninus's funeral ceremonies were, in the words of the biographer, 'elaborate'.''HA Marcus'' vii. 10, tr. Magie, cited in Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', pp. 118, 278 n.6. If his funeral followed those of his predecessors, his body would have been incinerated on a pyre at the [[Campus Martius]], and his spirit would have been seen as ascending to the gods' home in the heavens. Marcus and Lucius nominated their father for deification. In contrast to their behaviour during Antoninus's campaign to deify Hadrian, the senate did not oppose the emperors' wishes. A ''[[flamen]]'', or cultic priest, was appointed to minister the cult of the deified Divus Antoninus. Antoninus's remains were laid to rest in Hadrian's mausoleum, beside the remains of Marcus's children and of Hadrian himself.''HA Marcus'' vii. 10–11; Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 118. The temple he had dedicated to his wife, Diva Faustina, became the [[Temple of Antoninus and Faustina]]. It survives as the church of San Lorenzo in Miranda. In accordance with his will, Antoninus's fortune passed on to Faustina.''HA Antoninus Pius'' xii.8; Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', pp. 118–19. (Marcus had little need of his wife's fortune. Indeed, at his accession, Marcus transferred part of his mother's estate to his nephew, [[Marcus Ummidius Quadratus Annianus|Ummius Quadratus]].''HA Marcus'' vii. 4; Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 119.) Faustina was three months pregnant at her husband's accession. During the pregnancy she dreamed of giving birth to two serpents, one fiercer than the other.''HA Comm''. i.3; Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 119. On 31 August, she gave birth at [[Lanuvium]] to twins: T. Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus and Lucius Aurelius Commodus.''HA Comm''. i.2; Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 119.{{refn|The biographer relates the scurrilous (and, in the judgment of Anthony Birley, untrue) rumor that Commodus was an illegitimate child born of a union between Faustina and a gladiator.''HA Marcus'' xix. 1–2; Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 278 n.9.|group=note}} Aside from the fact that the twins shared [[Caligula]]'s birthday, the omens were favorable, and the astrologers drew positive horoscopes for the children.''HA Commodus''. i.4, x.2; Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 119. The births were celebrated on the imperial coinage.Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 119, citing H. Mattingly, ''Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum IV: Antoninus Pius to Commodus'' (London, 1940), Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, nos. 155ff.; 949ff. Return to Marcus Aurelius. 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