On This Day In Roman History, March 8
Following the death of Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus is given the title Augustus and becomes sole ruler of the Roman Empire on March 8, 161 CE. Within the following days, the title Imperator and Pontifex Maximus were bestowed upon him by the Senate. Marcus' first months in office looked to complete the unfinished tasks Hadrian had left before him. This was motivated by his Stoic beliefs and it is believed he had no personal affiliation or obligation to complete some or all of the tasks Hadrian left behind. Marcus would also take the step to appoint a co-Emperor, Lucius Verus. To the public and politically elite alike, there would be no doubt that Verus was junior to his senior Augustus. Marcus held more auctoritas, which is the Latin word for "authority", due to the retention of the titles Imperator and Pontifex Maximus.
Did you know?
Marcus and Verus met with the Praetorian guard shortly after their Imperial ascension and donated an incredible 20,000 sesterces, or 5,000 denarii, per soldier. It scaled up and doled out more to higher ranking officers. This amount was equivalent to several years' worth of salary for these men and was over double that of any previous donation from an Emperor. The pair were saluted as "imperatores" by the soldiers, and the ceremony concluded.
The selected quote from today is from Macrus' personal writing found within his books "Meditations", written between 161 to 180: "Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things act with one movement; and how all things are the cooperating causes of all things which exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the contexture of the web."
Opinion
Welcome to my daily opinion! Today I would like to ponder the question: why did Verus and Marcus donate SO MUCH money to the Praetorians? To help answer this, we must follow the trends. Every Emperor after Claudius was donating to the guard and financially securing the army. As the army became more and more disconnected from their original farmer-soldier motives, complexities with auxiliary and new citizen-soldiers alike were starting to become a complex beast to tackle. For Marcus, he didn't personally receive any external or internal threat on his route to Emperor. This massive donation was simply insurance. I think he is one of the most intelligent Emperors ever to reign and truly believe he was predicting the future for what holding power looked like; solid control of the armed forces via personal loyalty in the form of huge donations.
Sources
Birley, A. (2016). Marcus Aurelius: a biography. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
McLynn, F. (2010). Marcus Aurelius: a life. New York: Da Capo Press.
Further Reading:
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