Description
Roman Empire. Five Good Emperors. Marcus Aurelius (r. 161-180 AD) AR (Silver) denarius. All are Mint of Rome. Some are issues struck as Caesar (139-161 AD). All are graded Genuine by NGC. You will receive one coin (or more, if you order more) at random. The photos are a sampling of the coins you will receive. If you order multiple coins, we will make sure every reverse has a different theme or deity.
Design: Head or bust of Marcus Aurelius right / Various reverse types; usually gods/goddesses, including Minerva, Roma, Mars, Aequitas, Jupiter, Nike, Annona, etc.
Dimensions: ~18 mm / ~3.20 gm
Condition: NGC Genuine. Grades are generally Good to Fine.
Marcus Aurelius
One of the most competent, successful, and admired rulers of the Roman state, Marcus Aurelius was born to a wealthy old Roman family in the summer of 121 AD. Destined for a career in the civil service or the army, Marcus’ fortunes changed in 138 when Hadrian’s adopted son and presumed successor, Aelius, suddenly died. Hadrian, himself close to death, quickly made another man, Antoninus Pius, his designated successor. Pius was Marcus Aurelius’ uncle, and when the former assumed the throne in July of 138, he quickly adopted Marcus as his son and successor. Assuming the imperial succession at 17 came with several benefits, including the finest education in Latin and Greek rhetoric and philosophy. He studied Greek under Herodes Atticus and Latin with Fronto, becoming one of the most learned and scholarly Romans to ever sit on the throne. Fronto and Atticus, the two most skilled rhetoricians of their day, both remained close to Marcus for many years, though they did not like each other. The intellectual life had always come naturally to him; from the age of eleven, Marcus had enjoyed donning the cloak of a Greek philosopher and the austere lifestyle that came with it, including sleeping on the floor. Marcus Aurelius particularly gravitated towards Stoicism, a Greek philosophy that emphasized a calm pursuit of eudaimonia (a well-lived life), guided by the four cardinal virtues of prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice.
But the duties of government called: Marcus Aurelius accepted his adoption by Antoninus in 138 and became junior emperor (Caesar), a role in which he served from 138 until Antoninus’ death in 161. He married Antoninus’ daughter Faustina the Younger, with whom he had many children, including his notorious successor Commodus. His biographers write that he was reluctant in 161 to adopt the position of senior emperor, but his stoic beliefs helped convince him that it was his responsibility to the state and to himself. And it was a good thing for Roman fortunes, for Marcus’ twenty years on the throne would later be seen as the final chapter of the Pax Romana – the golden age of the two centuries of peace and prosperity from Augustus’ time onward. His rule may have been peaceful internally, but Marcus did fight several intense and taxing wars on the frontiers. The first, with Parthia, was waged from 161 to 166 over Armenia, the usual point of contention between the two states. The war ended with a decisive Roman victory in 165, as the Romans occupied Armenia and sacked the Pathian capital of Ctesiphon. Also victorious, but coming at a far higher cost, were the long Marcomannic Wars (166-180), a series of conflicts with Germanic tribes across the Rhine and Danube that, coincidentally, provide the context for the opening scenes of the movie Gladiator.
Marcus Aurelius is perhaps most notable today for his 12-book work Meditations, written in Greek while he was campaigning in Germany and the northern Balkans against the Marcomanni in the 170s. The work takes the form of a personal guide to character-building and self-fulfillment, with a distinctly Stoic ethos. Aurelius preaches against the pains and pleasures of the material world, and to manage one’s reactions to things beyond their control. In Book Four, he writes, “be like a rocky promontory against which the restless surf continually pounds; it stands fast while the churning sea is lulled to sleep at its feet. I hear you say, ‘How unlucky that this should happen to me!’ Not at all! Say instead, ‘How lucky that I am not broken by what has happened and am not afraid of what is about to happen. The same blow might have struck anyone, but not many would have absorbed it without capitulation or complaint.’” His desire to transcend the material world and its trifles was both impressive and unusual among Roman emperors, many of whom were consumed by hedonism. To end with a quote from Book Three: “Soon you'll be ashes or bones. A mere name at most—and even that is just a sound, an echo. The things we want in life are empty, stale, trivial.”
