LUCIUS VERUS 161AD Antioch in Seleukis and Pieria Ancient Roman Coin i47812 Rare

Item: i47812

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Lucius Verus
–
Roman Emperor
: 161-169 A.D.
Bronze 24mm (8.85 grams) of

Seleukis and Pieria
Reference: McAlee 615a
Laureate head right.
Large SC; K-A to to left and right; Є below; all
within wreath.

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item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime
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Lucius Aurelius Verus (15 December 130 – 169), born as Lucius

Ceionius Commodus, known simply as

Lucius Verus, was

Roman co-emperor

with

Marcus Aurelius

(161–180), from 161 until his death.

//

 Early life and career

Verus was the son of Avidia Plautia and

Lucius Aelius Caesar

, the adopted son, and intended successor, of Emperor

Hadrian

(117–138).

When Aelius Caesar died in 138, Hadrian chose

Antoninus Pius

(138–161) as his successor, on the condition that Antoninus

adopt

both Verus (then seven years old) and

Marcus Aurelius

, Hadrian’s nephew. As an imperial prince, Verus received

careful education from the most famous grammaticus

Marcus Cornelius Fronto

. Verus is reported to have been an excellent

student, fond of writing poetry and delivering speeches.

Verus had two sisters. One sister Ceionia Fabia was engaged to Marcus

Aurelius in 136. However Marcus Aurelius in 138, broke off the engagement to

Fabia. Aurelius was adopted by emperor

Antoninus Pius

’ and was engaged to Antoninus’ daughter

Faustina the Younger

whom he later married. Lucius had another sister

Ceionia Plautia, but little is known about the sisters.

Verus’ political career started as

quaestor
in

153 and then as consul

in 154. In 161, he was once again consul, with Marcus Aurelius as

senior partner.

 Emperor

 Accession

of Lucius and Marcus, 161

Antoninus died on 7 March 161, and was succeeded by Marcus Aurelius. Although

Marcus had 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.

Thus, although the senate planned to confirm Marcus alone, he refused to take

office unless Lucius received equal powers.

The senate accepted, granting Lucius the imperium, the tribunician power,

and the name Augustus.

Marcus became, in official titulature, Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius

Antoninus Augustus; Lucius, forgoing his name Commodus and taking Marcus’ family

name, Verus, became Imperator Caesar Lucius Aurelius Verus Augustus. It was the first time that Rome was ruled by two emperors.

In spite of their nominal equality, Marcus held more

auctoritas
,

or “authority”, than Verus. He had been consul once more than Lucius, he had

shared in Pius’ administration, 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.”

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.

This donative, however, was twice the size of those past: 20,000

sesterces

(5,000 denarii
)

per capita, more to officers. In return for this bounty, equivalent to several

years’ pay, the troops swore an oath to protect the emperors.

The ceremony was perhaps not entirely necessary, given that Marcus’ accession

had been peaceful and unopposed, but it was good insurance against later

military troubles.

Pius’ funeral ceremonies were, in the words of the biographer, “elaborate”.

If his funeral followed the pattern of past funerals, his body would have been

incinerated on a pyre at the

Campus Martius

, while his spirit would rise to the gods’ home in the

heavens. Marcus and Lucius nominated their father for deification. In contrast

to their behavior during Pius’ 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 Pius, now

Divus Antoninus. Pius’ remains were laid to rest in the Hadrian’s mausoleum,

beside the remains of Marcus’ children and of Hadrian himself.

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.

 Early rule, 161–62

Soon after the emperors’ accession, Marcus’ eleven-year-old daughter, Annia

Lucilla, was betrothed to Lucius (in spite of the fact that he was, formally,

her uncle).

At the ceremonies commemorating the event, new provisions were made for the

support of poor children, along the lines of earlier imperial foundations.

Marcus and Lucius proved popular with the people of Rome, who strongly approved

of their civiliter (“lacking pomp”) behavior. The emperors permitted free

speech, evinced by the fact that the comedy writer Marullus was able to

criticize them without suffering retribution. At any other time, under any other

emperor, he would have been executed. But it was a peaceful time, a forgiving

time. And thus, as the biographer wrote, “No one missed the lenient ways of

Pius.”

Fronto returned to his Roman townhouse at dawn on 28 March, having left his

home in Cirta
as

soon as news of his pupils’ accession reached him. He sent a note to the

imperial freedman Charilas, asking if he could call on the emperors. Fronto

would later explain that he had not dared to write the emperors directly.

The tutor was immensely proud of his students. Reflecting on the speech he had

written on taking his consulship in 143, when he had praised the young Marcus,

Fronto was ebullient: “There was then an outstanding natural ability in you;

there is now perfected excellence. There was then a crop of growing corn; there

is now a ripe, gathered harvest. What I was hoping for then, I have now. The

hope has become a reality.”

Fronto called on Marcus alone; neither thought to invite Lucius.

Lucius was less esteemed by his tutor than his brother, as his interests were

on a lower level. Lucius asked Fronto to adjudicate in a dispute he and his

friend Calpurnius were having on the relative merits of two actors.

Marcus told Fronto of his reading—Coelius

and a little Cicero—and his family. His daughters were in Rome, with their

great-great-aunt Matilda; Marcus thought the evening air of the country was too

cold for them.

The emperors’ early reign proceeded smoothly. Marcus was able to give himself

wholly to philosophy and the pursuit of popular affection.

Some minor troubles cropped up in the spring; there would be more later. In the

spring of 162, the Tiber

flooded over its banks, destroying much of Rome. It drowned many

animals, leaving the city in famine. Marcus and Lucius gave the crisis their

personal attention. In other times of famine, the emperors are said to have provided

for the Italian communities out of the Roman granaries.

 War with

Parthia, 161–66

For details, see:

Roman–Parthian War of 161–66

. See also:

Roman–Persian Wars

 Origins to Lucius’ dispatch, 161–62

On his deathbed, Pius spoke of nothing but the state and the foreign kings

who had wronged him.

One of those kings,

Vologases IV of Parthia

, made his move in late summer or early autumn 161.

Vologases entered the

Kingdom of Armenia

(then a Roman client state), expelled its king and

installed his own—Pacorus, an

Arsacid

like himself.

At the time of the invasion, the governor of Syria was L. Attidius Cornelianus.

Attidius had been retained as governor even though his term ended in 161,

presumably to avoid giving the Parthians the chance to wrong-foot his

replacement. The governor of Cappadocia, the front-line in all Armenian

conflicts, was Marcus Sedatius Severianus, a Gaul with much experience in

military matters. But living in the east had a deleterious effect on his

character.

The confidence man

Alexander of Abonutichus

, a prophet who carried a snake named

Glycon
around

with him, had enraptured Severianus, as he had many others.

Father-in-law to the respected senator P. Mummius Sisenna Rutilianus,

then-proconsul of Asia, Abonutichus was friends with many members of the east

Roman elite.

Alexander convinced Severianus that he could defeat the Parthians easily, and

win glory for himself.

Severianus led a legion (perhaps the

IX Hispana

)

into Armenia, but was trapped by the great Parthian general Chosrhoes at Elegia,

a town just beyond the Cappadocian frontiers, high up past the headwaters of the

Euphrates. Severianus made some attempt to fight Chosrhoes, but soon realized

the futility of his campaign, and committed suicide. His legion was massacred.

The campaign had only lasted three days.

There was threat of war on other frontiers as well—in Britain, and in

Raetia
and

Upper Germany

, where the

Chatti
of the

Taunus

mountains had recently crossed over the limes.

Marcus was unprepared. Pius seems to have given him no military experience; the

biographer writes that Marcus spent the whole of Pius’ twenty-three-year reign

at his emperor’s side—and not in the provinces, where most previous emperors had

spent their early careers. Marcus made the necessary appointments:

Marcus Statius Priscus

, the governor of Britain, was sent to replace

Severianus as governor of Cappadocia.

Sextus Calpurnius Agricola

would take Priscus’ former office.

More bad news arrived: Attidius Cornelianus’ army had been defeated in battle

against the Parthians, and retreated in disarray.

Reinforcements were dispatched for the Parthian frontier. P. Julius Geminius

Marcianus, an African senator commanding

X

Gemina
at Vindobona (Vienna), left for Cappadocia with detachments from the

Danubian legions.

Three full legions were also sent east:

I Minervia

from Bonn in Upper Germany,

II Adiutrix

from Aquincum,

and

V Macedonica

from Troesmis.

The norther frontiers were strategically weakened; frontier governors were told

to avoid conflict wherever possible.

Attidius Cornelianus himself was replaced by M. Annius Libo, Marcus’ first

cousin. He was young—his first consulship was in 161, so he was probably in his

early thirties—and,

as a mere patrician, lacked military experience. Marcus had chosen a reliable

man rather than a talented one.

Marcus took a four-day public holiday at

Alsium
, a

resort town on the

Etrurian

coast. He was too anxious to relax. Writing to Fronto, he declared that he would

not speak about his holiday.

Fronto replied ironically: “What? Do I not know that you went to Alsium with the

intention of devoting yourself to games, joking and complete leisure for four

whole days?”

He encouraged Marcus to rest, calling on the example of his predecessors (Pius

had enjoyed exercise in the

palaestra
,

fishing, and comedy),

going so far as to write up a fable about the gods’ division of the day between

morning and evening—Marcus had apparently been spending most of his evenings on

judicial matters instead of at leisure.

Marcus could not take Fronto’s advice. “I have duties hanging over me that can

hardly be begged off,” he wrote back.

Marcus put on Fronto’s voice to chastise himself: “‘Much good has my advice done

you’, you will say!” He had rested, and would rest often, but “—this devotion to

duty! Who knows better than you how demanding it is!”

Fronto sent Marcus a selection of reading material, including Cicero’s pro

lege Manilia, in which the orator had argued in favor of

Pompey
taking

supreme command in the

Mithridatic War

. It was an apt reference (Pompey’s war had taken him to

Armenia), and may have had some impact on the decision to send Lucius to the

eastern front.

“You will find in it many chapters aptly suited to your present counsels,

concerning the choice of army commanders, the interests of allies, the

protection of provinces, the discipline of the soldiers, the qualifications

required for commanders in the field and elsewhere […]”

To settle his unease over the course of the Parthian war, Fronto wrote Marcus a

long and considered letter, full of historical references. In modern editions of

Fronto’s works, it is labeled De bello Parthico (On the Parthian War).

There had been reverses in Rome’s past, Fronto writes, at

Allia

, at

Caudium

, at

Cannae

, at

Numantia

,

Cirta

, and

Carrhae

;

under Trajan, Hadrian, and Pius;

but, in the end, Romans had always prevailed over their enemies: “always and

everywhere [Mars] has changed our troubles into successes and our terrors into

triumphs”.

 Lucius’ dispatch and journey east, 162–63?

Over the winter of 161–62, as more bad news arrived—a rebellion was brewing

in Syria—it was decided that Lucius should direct the Parthian war in person. He

was stronger and healthier than Marcus, the argument went, more suited to

military activity.

Lucius’ biographer suggests ulterior motives: to restrain Lucius’ debaucheries,

to make him thrifty, to reform his morals by the terror of war, to realize that

he was an emperor. Whatever the case, the senate gave its assent, and Lucius left.

Marcus would remain in Rome; the city “demanded the presence of an emperor”.

Furius Victorinus, one of the two praetorian prefects, was sent with Lucius,

as were a pair of senators, M. Pontius Laelianus Larcius Sabinus and M. Iallius

Bassus, and part of the praetorian guard.

Victorinus had previously served as procurator of Galatia, giving him some

experience with eastern affairs. Moreover, he was far more qualified than his praetorian partner,

Cornelius Repentinus

, who was said to owe his office to the influence of

Pius’ mistress Galeria Lysistrate.

Repentius had the rank of a senator, but no real access to senatorial

circles—his was merely a decorative title.

Since a prefect had to accompany the guard, Victorinus was the clear choice.

Laelianus had been governor of both Pannonias and governor of Syria in 153;

he hence had first-hand knowledge of the eastern army and military strategy on

the frontiers. He was made

comes
Augustorum

(“companion of the emperors”) for his service.

Laelianus was, in the words of Fronto, “a serious man and an old-fashioned

disciplinarian”.

Bassus had been governor of Lower Moesia, and was also made comes.

Lucius selected his favorite freedmen, including Geminus, Agaclytus, Coedes,

Eclectus,

and Nicomedes, who gave up his duties as praefectus vehiculorum to run

the commissariat of the expeditionary force.

The

fleet of Misenum

was charged with transporting the emperor and general

communications and transport.

Lucius left in the summer of 162 to take a ship from

Brundisium

; Marcus followed him as far as

Capua
. Lucius

feasted himself in the country houses along his route, and hunted at

Apulia
. He fell

ill at

Canosa

, probably afflicted with a mild stroke, and took to bed.

Marcus made prayers to the gods for his safety in front of the senate, and

hurried south to see him.

Fronto was upset at the news, but was reassured when Lucius sent him a letter

describing his treatment and recovery. In his reply, Fronto urged his pupil to

moderate his desires, and recommended a few days of quiet bedrest. Lucius was

better after three days’ fasting and a bloodletting. It was probably only a mild

stroke.

Verus continued eastward via

Corinth
and

Athens
,

accompanied by musicians and singers as if in a

royal

progress
.

At Athens he stayed with Herodes Atticus, and joined the

Eleusinian Mysteries

.

During sacrifice, a falling star was observed in the sky, shooting west to east.

He stopped in Ephesus

, where he is attested at the estate of the local aristocrat Vedius

Antoninus,

and made an unexpected stopover at

Erythrae
.

The journey continued by ship through the Aegean and the southern coasts of Asia

Minor, lingering in the famed pleasure resorts of

Pamphylia

and Cilicia
,

before arriving in

Antioch
.

It is not known how long Verus’ journey east took; he might not have arrived in

Antioch until after 162.

Statius Priscus, meanwhile, must have already arrived in Cappadocia; he would

earn fame in 163 for successful generalship.

 Luxury, dissolution, and logistics at Antioch, 162?–65

Lucius spent most of the campaign in Antioch, though he wintered at

Laodicea

and summered at Daphne

, a resort just outside Antioch.

He took up a mistress named Panthea, from Smyrna

.

The biographer calls her a “low-born girl-friend”,

but she is probably closer to

Lucian
‘s “woman

of perfect beauty”, more beautiful than any of

Phidias
and

Praxiteles
‘

statues.

Polite, caring, humble, she sang to the lyre perfectly and spoke clear

Ionic

Greek
, spiced with Attic wit.

Panthea read Lucian’s first draft, and criticized him for flattery. He had

compared her to a goddess, which frightened her—she did not want to become the

next Cassiopeia

.

She had power, too. She made Lucius shave his beard for her. The Syrians mocked

him for this, as they did for much else.

Critics declaimed Lucius’ luxurious lifestyle.

He had taken to gambling, they said; he would “dice the whole night through”.

He enjoyed the company of actors.

He made a special request for dispatches from Rome, to keep him updated on how

his chariot teams were doing.

He brought a golden statue of the Greens’ horse Volucer around with him, as a

token of his team spirit.

Fronto defended his pupil against some of these claims: the Roman people needed

Lucius’

bread and circuses

to keep them in check.

This, at least, is how the biographer has it. The whole section of the

vita dealing with Lucius’ debaucheries (HA Verus 4.4–6.6) is an

insertion into a narrative otherwise entirely cribbed from an earlier source.

Some few passages seem genuine; others take and elaborate something from the original. The rest is by the biographer himself, relying on nothing better

than his own imagination.

Lucius faced quite a task. Fronto described the scene in terms recalling

Corbulo

‘s arrival one hundred years before.

The Syrian army had turned soft during the east’s long peace. They spent more

time at the city’s open-air cafés than in their quarters. Under Lucius, training

was stepped up. Pontius Laelianus ordered that their saddles be stripped of

their padding. Gambling and drinking were sternly policed.

Fronto wrote that Lucius was on foot at the head of his army as often as on

horseback. He personally inspected soldiers in the field and at camp, including

the sick bay.

Lucius sent Fronto few messages at the beginning of the war. He sent Fronto a

letter apologizing for his silence. He would not detail plans that could change

within a day, he wrote. Moreover, there was little thus far to show for his

work: “not even yet has anything been accomplished such as to make me wish to

invite you to share in the joy”.

Lucius did not want Fronto to suffer the anxieties that had kept him up day and

night.

One reason for Lucius’ reticence may have been the collapse of Parthian

negotiations after the Roman conquest of Armenia. Lucius’ presentation of terms

was seen as cowardice.

The Parthians were not in the mood for peace.

Lucius needed to make extensive imports into Antioch, so he opened a sailing

route up the

Orontes

. Because the river breaks across a cliff before reaching the city,

Lucius ordered that a new canal be dug. After the project was completed, the

Orontes’ old riverbed dried up, exposing massive bones—the bones of a

giant

.

Pausanias

says they were from a beast “more than eleven cubits” tall;

Philostratus

says the it was “thirty cubits” tall. The oracle at

Claros
declared

that they were the bones of the river’s spirit.

In the middle of the war, perhaps in autumn 163 or early 164, Lucius made a

trip to Ephesus to be married to Marcus’ daughter Lucilla.

Lucilla’s thirteenth birthday was in March 163; whatever the date of her

marriage, she was not yet fifteen.

Marcus had moved up the date: perhaps stories of Panthea had disturbed him.

Lucilla was accompanied by her mother Faustina and M. Vettulenus Civica

Barbarus, the half-brother of Lucius’ father.

Marcus may have planned to accompany them all the way to Smyrna (the biographer

says he told the senate he would); this did not happen.

Marcus only accompanied the group as far as Brundisium, where they boarded a

ship for the east.

Marcus returned to Rome immediately thereafter, and sent out special

instructions to his proconsuls not to give the the group any official reception.

Lucilla would bear three of Lucius’ children in the coming years. Lucilla became

Lucilla Augusta.

 Counterattack and victory, 163–66

I Minervia and V Macedonica, under the legates M. Claudius Fronto and P.

Martius Verus, served under Statius Priscus in Armenia, earning success for

Roman arms during the campaign season of 163,

including the capture of the Armenian capital

Artaxata
.

At the end of the year, Verus took the title Armeniacus, despite having

never seen combat; Marcus declined to accept the title until the following year.

When Lucius was hailed as imperator again, however, Marcus did not

hesitate to take the Imperator II with him.

The army of Syria was reinforced by II Adiutrix and Danubian legions under X

Gemina’s legate Geminius Marcianus.

Occupied Armenia was reconstructed on Roman terms. In 164, a new capital,

Kaine Polis (‘New City’), replaced Artaxata.

On Birley’s reckoning, it was thirty miles closer to the Roman border.

Detachments from Cappadocian legions are attested at

Echmiadzin

, beneath the southern face of

Mount

Ararat
, 400 km east of

Satala
. It

would have meant a march of twenty days or more, through mountainous terrain,

from the Roman border; a “remarkable example of imperialism”, in the words of

Fergus Millar

.

A new king was installed: a Roman senator of consular rank and Arsacid descent,

C. Iulius Sohaemus. He may not even have been crowned in Armenia; the ceremony

may have taken place in Antioch, or even Ephesus.

Sohaemus was hailed on the imperial coinage of 164 under the legend

Rex armeniis Datus:

Verus sat on a throne with his staff while Sohamenus stood before him, saluting

the emperor.

In 163, while Statius Priscus was occupied in Armenia, the Parthians

intervened in Osroene

, a Roman client in upper Mesopotamia, just east of Syria, with its

capital at Edessa
.

They deposed the country’s leader, Mannus, and replaced him with their own

nominee, who would remain in office until 165.

(The Edessene coinage record actually begins at this point, with issues showing

Vologases IV on the obverse and “Wael the king” (Syriac:

W’L MLK’) on the reverse.)

In response, Roman forces were moved downstream, to cross the Euphrates at a

more southerly point.

On the evidence of Lucian, the Parthians still held the southern, Roman bank of

the Euphrates (in Syria) as late as 163 (he refers to a battle at Sura, which is

on the southern side of the river).

Before the end of the year, however, Roman forces had moved north to occupy

Dausara and Nicephorium on the northern, Parthian bank. Soon after the conquest of the north bank of the Euphrates, other

Roman forces moved on Osroene from Armenia, taking Anthemusia, a town south-west

of Edessa.

There was little movement in 164; most of the year was spent on preparations for

a renewed assault on Parthian territory.

In 165, Roman forces, perhaps led by Martius Verus and the V Macedonica,

moved on Mesopotamia. Edessa was re-occupied, Mannus re-installed.

His coinage resumed, too: ‘Ma’nu the king’ (Syriac: M’NW MLK’) or Antonine

dynasts on the obverse, and ‘King Mannos, friend of Romans’ (Greek: Basileus

Mannos Philorōmaios) on the reverse.

The Parthians retreated to Nisibis, but this too was besieged and captured. The

Parthian army dispersed in the Tigris; their general Chosrhoes swam down the

river and made his hideout in a cave.

A second force, under Avidius Cassius and the III Gallica, moved down the

Euphrates, and fought a major battle at Dura.

By the end of the year, Cassius’ army had reached the twin metropolises of

Mesopotamia: Seleucia

on the right bank of the Tigris and

Ctesiphon

on the left. Ctesiphon was taken and its royal palace set to flame. The citizens

of Seleucia, still largely Greek (the city had been commissioned and settled as

a capital of the

Seleucid empire

, one of

Alexander the Great

‘s

successor

kingdoms
), opened its gates to the invaders. The city got sacked

nonetheless, leaving a black mark on Lucius’ reputation. Excuses were sought, or

invented: the official version had it that the Seleucids broke faith first.

Whatever the case, the sacking marks a particularly destructive chapter in

Seleucia’s long decline.

Cassius’ army, although suffering from a shortage of supplies and the effects

of a plague contracted in Seleucia, made it back to Roman territory safely.

Iunius Maximus, a young tribunus laticlavius serving in III Gallica under

Cassius, took the news of the victory to Rome. Maximus received a generous cash

bounty (dona) for bringing the good news, and immediate promotion to the

quaestorship.

Lucius took the title Parthicus Maximus, and he and Marcus were hailed as

imperatores again, earning the title ‘imp. III’.

Cassius’ army returned to the field in 166, crossing over the Tigris into Media.

Lucius took the title ‘Medicus’,

and the emperors were again hailed as imperatores, becoming ‘imp. IV’ in

imperial titulature. Marcus took the Parthicus Maximus now, after another
tactful delay.

Most of the credit for the war’s success must be ascribed to subordinate

generals. The forces that advanced on Osroene were led by M. Claudius Fronto, an

Asian provincial of Greek descent who had led I Minervia in Armenia under

Priscus. He was probably the first senator in his family.

Fronto was consul for 165, probably in honor of the capture of Edessa.

P. Martius Verus had led V Macedonica to the front, and also served under

Priscus. Martius Verus was a westerner, whose patria was perhaps

Tolosa
in

Gallia Narbonensis

.

The most prominent general, however, was

C. Avidius Cassius

, commander of III Gallica, one of the Syrian legions.

Cassius was young senator of low birth from the north Syrian town of

Cyrrhus

. His father, Heliodorus, had not been a senator, but was nonetheless

a man of some standing: he had been Hadrian’s ab epistulis, followed the

emperor on his travels, and was prefect of Egypt at the end of Hadrian’s reign.

Cassius also, with no small sense of self-worth, claimed descent from the

Seleucid kings

.

Cassius and Martius Verus, still probably in their mid-thirties, took the

consulships for 166.

Vologases IV of Parthia

(147–191) made peace but was forced to cede western

Mesopotamia

to the Romans. Lucius is reported to have been an excellent

commander, without fear of delegating military tasks to more competent generals.

On his return to Rome, Lucius was awarded with a

triumph

. The parade was unusual because it included Lucius, Marcus Aurelius,

their sons and unmarried daughters as a big family celebration. Marcus Aurelius’

two sons, Commodus

five years old and Annius Verus of three, were elevated to the

status of Caesar for the occasion.

 Years in Rome

The next two years (166–168) were spent in Rome. Verus continued with his

glamorous lifestyle and kept the troupe of actors and favourites with him. He

had a tavern built in his house, where he celebrated parties with his friends

until dawn. He also enjoyed roaming around the city among the population,

without acknowledging his identity. The games of the circus were another passion

in his life, especially

chariot racing

. Marcus Aurelius disapproved of his conduct but, since Verus

continued to perform his official tasks with efficiency, there was little he

could do.

 Wars on the Danube

and death

In the spring of 168 war broke out in the

Danubian
border

when the Marcomanni

invaded the Roman territory. This war would last until 180, but

Verus did not see the end of it. In 168, as Verus and Marcus Aurelius returned

to Rome from the field, Verus fell ill with symptoms attributed to

food poisoning

, dying after a few days (169). However, scholars believe that

Verus may have been a victim of

smallpox
,

as he died during a widespread epidemic known as the

Antonine Plague

. Despite the minor differences between them, Marcus Aurelius

grieved the loss of his adoptive brother. He accompanied the body to Rome, where

he offered games to honour his memory. After the funeral, the senate declared

Verus divine to be worshipped as Divus Verus.