Aurelius
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
Roman Emperor and philosopher, sonin-law, adopted son, and successor of Antoninus Pius, born A. D. 121, succeeded to the throne 161; died 180. His name originally was Marcus Annius Verus. He voluntarily shared the government with Lucius Verus, whom Antoninus Pius had also adopted. A war with Parthia broke out in the year of his accession, and did not terminate till 166. A confederacy of the northern tribes now threatened Italy, while a frightful pestilence , brought from the East with the army, raged in Rome itself. Both emperors set out in person against the rebellious tribes. In 169 Verus died, and the sole command of the war devolved on Marcus Aurelius, who prosecuted it with the utmost rigor, and nearly exterminated the Marcomanni. His victory over the Quadi (174) is connected with a famous legend. Dion Cassius tells us that the 12th legion of the Roman army was shut up in a defile, and reduced to great straits for want of water, when a body of Christians enrolled in the le- / gion prayed for relief. Not only was the rain sent, which enabled the Romans to quench their thirst, but a fierce storm of hail beat upon the enemy, which so MARCOAL MARCUS AURELIUS terrified them that a complete victory was obtained, and the legion was ever after called "The Thundering Legion." After this victory, the Marcomanni, the Quadi, as well as the rest of the barbarians, sued for peace. Aurelius returned to Rome, after visiting Egypt and Greece, but soon new incursions of the Marcomanni compelled him once more to take the field. He defeated the enemy several times, but was taken sick at and died at Vindobona (Vienna) in 180. His only extant work is the "Meditations," written in Greek, and which has been translated into most modern languages.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The outline Collier's gave in 1921 still stands: the dates 121-180, the joint rule with Lucius Verus, the Danubian wars, the death in the north. Two things have shifted. The "frightful pestilence brought from the East with the army" now has a name and a scale in the literature — the Antonine Plague of about 165-180, widely suspected to have been smallpox and reckoned to have killed millions across the empire; and the rain-miracle story of the Thundering Legion is treated as pious legend rather than history, since the Twelfth Legion had borne the name fulminata long before 174, and the rain-god scene carved on the Column of Marcus Aurelius in Rome carries no Christian element. The "Meditations," which Collier's noted was translated into most modern languages, has gone far beyond that: it is a steady commercial bestseller and the central text of a popular revival of Stoicism, so that the emperor is now better known as a writer than as a general.
Written for this edition, 2026.