60 Fun Facts About Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius was Roman emperor between which years?

He was the last of the Five Good Emperors, and many historians end the Pax Romana with his death.

Marcus Aurelius is remembered as a practitioner of which school of philosophy?

His teacher Quintus Junius Rusticus, grandson of a martyr to Domitian's tyranny, was the strongest influence on him.

What does the original title of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, Ta eis heauton, literally mean?

The familiar name was attached centuries later; the emperor never intended the notes for publication.

In which language did Marcus Aurelius write his Meditations?

He wrote the twelve books in Koine Greek while on campaign, and internal notes place the first book 'in the country of the Quadi'.

How many books make up the Meditations?

The first known mention of a division into twelve books is in the Byzantine Suda.

The Meditations was first printed in 1558 in which city?

Wilhelm Xylander worked from a manuscript that was reportedly lost soon afterwards; the oldest complete copy is a 14th-century Vatican manuscript.

The second book of the Meditations was written at which Roman legionary base on the Danube?

The site lies on the Danube in modern Austria, close to the front line of the Marcomannic Wars.

Marcus Aurelius was born in 121 on which of Rome's hills?

He grew up in his mother's villa, the Horti Domitia Calvillae, and referred fondly to 'My Caelian'.

Marcus's father's family, the Annii Veri, had settled in Ucubi, a colony in which Roman province?

The town lay south-east of Córdoba in what is now Andalusia; the family claimed descent from the legendary king Numa Pompilius.

Marcus's mother, Domitia Lucilla, inherited a fortune built partly on which business?

Rome was booming with construction, and her kilns on the city's outskirts were highly profitable.

How old was Marcus when his father died?

He was raised by his mother and paternal grandfather, and thanked the grandfather in the Meditations for teaching him 'good character and avoidance of bad temper'.

As a young man Marcus joined the Salii, priests devoted to which god?

The order kept the sacred shields called Ancilia; Marcus also trained in wrestling and boxing.

Which painting master is credited with first introducing the boy Marcus to the philosophic way of life?

At his prompting the 11-year-old took up the philosopher's rough cloak in 132.

Which emperor adopted Antoninus Pius in 138 on condition that Antoninus in turn adopt Marcus?

Antoninus also had to adopt Lucius, son of Hadrian's first choice as heir, Aelius Caesar, who had died earlier that year.

Marcus's tutors included Herodes Atticus and which orator, whose letters to Marcus survive?

Fronto grumbled that Marcus's 'conversion to philosophy' was a young man's escape from boring rhetorical exercises.

Whom did Marcus marry in 145?

She was his cousin, and after her death he took a concubine rather than give his children a stepmother.

Marcus and Faustina had at least how many children in their 30-year marriage?

They included two sets of twins; only one son and four daughters outlived their father.

What honorary title did the army give Faustina, who accompanied Marcus on his northern campaigns?

Mater Castrorum in Latin; she was deified after dying at the military camp of Halala in 175.

With whom did Marcus share the throne on his accession in 161?

His adoptive brother took charge of the Parthian war in the East and married Marcus's daughter Lucilla.

Which Parthian king invaded Roman client Armenia in 161, starting the eastern war of Marcus's reign?

He expelled the Armenian king and installed his own Arsacid relative, Pacorus.

The Antonine Plague, which struck the empire from about 165, is thought by most scholars to have been what?

The physician who described it noted fever, diarrhoea and pustular skin eruptions; some researchers argue for measles instead.

The Antonine Plague is also named after which physician who described it?

He was in Rome when the disease arrived in 166 and recorded its symptoms in his Methodus Medendi.

Roughly how many people is the Antonine Plague estimated to have killed?

It began during the siege of Seleucia in Mesopotamia and may have killed Marcus's co-emperor in 169.

A Roman traveller reached which Chinese dynasty's court in 166 claiming to represent 'Andun'?

Roman gold medallions from the period have turned up at Óc Eo in Vietnam, then part of the Kingdom of Funan.

The Marcomanni, who crossed the Danube in 166 and began Marcus's northern wars, came from where?

They had been Roman clients since AD 19; the Lombards, Iazyges and Costoboci joined the invasions.

Marcus Aurelius planned two new provinces beyond the Danube; along with Marcomannia, what was the other?

The scheme was abandoned after his death; the wars are the subject of the spiral reliefs on his column in Rome.

Marcus reduced the silver purity of the denarius from 83.5% to what?

The silver weight dropped from 2.68 to 2.57 grams as war and plague strained the treasury.

Which general was proclaimed emperor in 175 after a false report of Marcus's death?

His 'dream of empire' lasted three months and six days before a centurion killed him; Faustina was accused of encouraging him.

Which Egyptian magician do non-Christian sources credit with Marcus's 'rain miracle'?

Christians later attributed the same storm to the prayers of Christian soldiers; the scene appears on Marcus's column.

Marcus Aurelius died in 180 in a military camp in which modern city, or nearby Sirmium?

The Roman name was Vindobona; his ashes rested in the imperial mausoleum now called Castel Sant'Angelo until the Visigoth sack of 410.

Before Commodus, who was the only biological son to succeed his father as Roman emperor?

Titus succeeded Vespasian a century earlier; every emperor in between had been adopted, appointed or had seized power.

Cassius Dio wrote that under Commodus, Rome descended from a kingdom of gold to one of what?

Dio admired Marcus for surviving 'unusual and extraordinary difficulties' while preserving the empire.

Commodus was born in 161 as one of a pair of twins; his twin brother died in which year?

The elder twin died young; Commodus was made Caesar in 166 and co-ruler in 177.

Commodus was assassinated in 192 by whom?

His death ended the Nerva-Antonine dynasty and opened the Year of the Five Emperors.

The bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius survived the Middle Ages because it was mistaken for whom?

Bronze statues of pagan emperors were usually melted down for coins; this one is the only ancient Roman equestrian statue still standing.

Who redesigned the Capitoline Hill in 1538 and made the pedestal for Marcus's equestrian statue?

He disagreed with putting the statue at the centre of the piazza; the original is now indoors and a 1981 replica stands outside.

Which figure did Pope Sixtus V place atop the Column of Marcus Aurelius in 1589?

The Doric column was modelled on Trajan's Column and completed in 193, after Marcus's death.

The Column of Marcus Aurelius stands in which Roman square?

Its 112-metre spiral frieze wraps around 21 times, telling the story of the Danubian wars.

Antoninus Pius's family came from Nemausus, a colony in Gaul known today as which city?

The Aurelii Fulvi were a branch of the old Roman gens Aurelia, whose name Marcus took on adoption.

What did Justin Martyr and Tertullian do regarding Marcus, despite persecutions in his reign?

No Christian source blames him personally, and Eusebius set him against the persecuting emperors Nero and Domitian.

Which Prussian king admired the Meditations, alongside John Stuart Mill and Goethe?

The book still sells strongly, and its sales rose several-fold during the 2010s.

How many copies of the Meditations were reportedly sold in 2019?

That was up from 16,000 in 2012, a measure of the emperor's modern popularity.

Which historian wrote that Marcus 'alone of the emperors' proved his learning by 'his blameless character'?

Both Cassius Dio and the Historia Augusta simply call him 'the philosopher'.

Who played Marcus Aurelius in Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000)?

In the film he tells Maximus that Commodus is unfit to rule, and is murdered by his son as a result.

Which actor played Marcus Aurelius in the 1964 epic The Fall of the Roman Empire?

The film built a 92,000-square-metre replica of the Roman Forum, the largest outdoor set in history at the time, and still lost money.

Marcus's daughter Lucilla married her father's co-emperor and later which senator?

She was only eleven when betrothed to her uncle; the marriage took place at Ephesus during the Parthian war.

The equestrian statue shows Marcus with his hand outstretched in what gesture?

His weary expression is sometimes read as a break with the idealised classical tradition of sculpture.

Antoninus, Marcus's uncle, acquired the cognomen 'Pius' on becoming emperor possibly for doing what?

An alternative explanation is that he saved senators whom his predecessor had sentenced to death in his final years.

How tall is the bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius?

The emperor rides without stirrups, which had not yet reached the West, and his saddle cloth is actually Sarmatian in origin.

Where did the equestrian statue stand on public view through the Middle Ages before its 1538 move?

The site had held the house of Marcus's grandfather, where the emperor was born; a mob once hung an unpopular prefect from the statue by his hair.

Which pope ordered the equestrian statue moved to the Capitoline Hill in 1538?

Michelangelo disagreed with placing it at the centre of the square but designed its pedestal anyway; the outdoor statue today is a replica cast from a 1981 laser survey.

In which building is the original bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius displayed?

It is part of the Capitoline Museums; the version in the piazza outside is a modern replica.

The Column of Marcus Aurelius is built from marble quarried at Luna, north of which Italian city?

Its 27 or 28 Carrara blocks were hollowed out at the quarry for an internal stair of 190–200 steps, lit by slits cut into the relief.

What nickname, meaning 'snail column', did Romans give the Column of Marcus Aurelius?

It was also called the Columna Centenaria because its shaft stands roughly 100 Roman feet high.

Which architect did Sixtus V hire in 1589 to restore the Column of Marcus Aurelius?

He excavated the buried base, sealed cracks and chiselled away the pedestal's original reliefs of victories and barbarians.

The Column of Marcus Aurelius stands in front of which building in Rome?

Its spiral relief tells the story of the Marcomannic Wars, beginning with the army crossing the Danube.

Which 10th-century bishop gives us the first direct mention of the Meditations?

Before 907 he sent a copy to the Archbishop of Heracleia, calling the emperor's book 'so old indeed that it is altogether falling to pieces'.

Who produced the first printed edition of the Meditations, in 1558 or 1559?

Conrad Gesner instigated it and his cousin Andreas printed it in Zürich, bound together with a work by Marinus.

Which Chinese premier said he had read the Meditations a hundred times?

The book has also been called a favourite of Bill Clinton.

Besides the lost Palatinus, which manuscript is the main basis of the Meditations' modern text?

The Palatinus was published in 1558–59 and then disappeared; the Vaticanus copy survives in the Vatican Library.