|
Lucius Verus
–
Roman Emperor
: 161-169 A.D.
Bronze 19mm (2.93 grams) of
Augusta Traiana
in
Thrace
Bare-headed, draped and cuirassed bust right.
AVΓOVCTHC TPAIANHC,
Serpent entwined around central leg of tripod.
You are bidding on the exact
item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime
Guarantee of Authenticity.
A sacrificial tripod is a three-legged piece of religious furniture
used for offerings or other ritual procedures. As a seat or stand, the
tripod
is the most stable furniture
construction for uneven ground, hence its use is universal and ancient. It is
particularly associated with
Apollo
and the
Delphic oracle
in
ancient Greece
, and the word “tripod” comes
from the Greek meaning “three-footed.”
Apollo and
Heracles
struggle for the Delphic
tripod (Attic
black-figure
hydria
, c. 520 BC)
Ancient Greece
The most famous tripod of ancient Greece was the
Delphic
tripod from which the
Pythian priestess
took her seat to deliver the
oracles
of the deity. The seat was formed by a
circular slab on the top of the tripod, on which a branch of
laurel
was deposited when it was unoccupied by
the priestess. In this sense, by Classical times the tripod was sacred to
Apollo
. The
mytheme
of
Heracles
contesting with Apollo for the tripod
appears in vase-paintings older than the oldest written literature. The oracle
originally may have been related to the primal deity, the Earth.
Priestess of Delphi (1891), as imagined by
John Collier
; the Pythia is
inspired by
pneuma
rising from below as she
sits on a tripod
Another well-known tripod in Delphi was the
Plataean Tripod
; it was made from a tenth part
of the spoils taken from the
Persian
army after the
Battle of Plataea
. This consisted of a golden
basin, supported by a
bronze
serpent
with three heads (or three serpents
intertwined), with a list of the states that had taken part in the war inscribed
on the coils of the serpent. The golden bowl was carried off by the
Phocians
during the
Third Sacred War
(356–346 BC); the stand was
removed by the emperor
Constantine
to
Constantinople
in 324, where in modern
Istanbul
it still can be seen in the
hippodrome
, the Atmeydanı, although in
damaged condition: the heads of the serpents have disappeared, however one is
now on display at the nearby Istanbul Archaeology Museums. The inscription,
however, has been restored almost entirely. Such tripods usually had three
ears (rings which served as handles) and frequently had a central upright as
support in addition to the three legs.
Tripods frequently are mentioned by
Homer
as prizes in
athletic games
and as complimentary gifts; in
later times, highly decorated and bearing inscriptions, they served the same
purpose. They also were used as dedicatory
offerings
to the deities, and in the dramatic
contests at the Dionysia
the victorious
choregus
(a wealthy citizen who bore the
expense of equipping and training the chorus) received a crown and a tripod. He
would either dedicate the tripod to some deity or set it upon the top of a
marble structure erected in the form of a small circular temple in a street in
Athens
, called the street of tripods,
from the large number of memorials of this kind. One of these, the
Choragic Monument of Lysicrates
, erected by him
to commemorate his victory in a dramatic contest in 335 BC, still stands. The
form of the victory tripod, now missing from the top of the Lysicrates monument,
has been rendered variously by scholars since the 18th century.
An ancient Greek coin c. 330-300 BC. Laureate head of Apollo (left)
and ornate tripod (right).
Martin L. West
writes that the sibyl at Delphi
shows many traits of
shamanistic
practices, likely inherited or
influenced from Central Asian practices. He cites her sitting in a cauldron on a
tripod, while making her prophecies, her being in an ecstatic trance state,
similar to shamans, and her utterings, unintelligible.
According to Herodotus (The Histories, I.144), the victory tripods were not
to be taken from the temple sanctuary precinct, but left there as dedications.
Sometimes the tripod was used as a support for a
lebes
or cauldron or for supporting other items
such as a vase.
-
Delphic tripod (red-figured
bell-krater
,
Paestum
, c. 330 BC)
Ancient China
A
ding
from the late
Shang Dynasty
.
Tripod pottery have been part of the archaeological assemblage in China since
the earliest Neolithic cultures of
Cishan
and
Peiligang
in the 7th and 8th millennium BC.
Sacrificial tripods were also found in use in ancient
China
usually cast in bronze but sometimes
appearing in ceramic form. They are often referred to as “dings”
and usually have three legs, but in some usages have four legs.
The Chinese use sacrificial tripods in modern times, such as in 2005, when a
“National Unity Tripod” made of bronze was presented by the central Chinese
government to the government of northwest China’s
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
to mark its
fiftieth birthday. It was described as a traditional Chinese sacrificial vessel
symbolizing unity.
Stara Zagora is considered one of the oldest settlements in Bulgaria. It was
founded by the
Thracians
under the name Beroe (meaning
iron) about
6th
–5th
century BCE, with the
Neolithic
dwellings and the copper mine near
the city being the oldest preserved ones in
Europe
. The area has been a mining region since
antiquity.
A city was founded by
Phillip II of Macedon
at 342 BC. Under the
Roman Empire
, the town was renamed to Ulpia
Augusta Traiana in honour of emperor
Trajan
.
Serpents figured prominently in archaic Greek myths. According to some
sources,
Ophion (“serpent”, a.k.a. Ophioneus), ruled the world with Eurynome
before the two of them were cast down by Cronus and Rhea. The oracles of the
Ancient Greeks were said to have been the continuation of the tradition begun
with the worship of the Egyptian cobra goddess,
Wadjet.
The
Minoan
Snake
Goddess brandished a serpent in either hand, perhaps evoking her role
as source of wisdom, rather than her role as Mistress of the Animals (Potnia
theron), with a leopard
under each arm. She is a Minoan version
of the Canaanite
fertility goddess
Asherah[citation
needed]. It is not by accident that later the infant
Heracles,
a liminal hero on the threshold between the old ways and the new Olympian world,
also brandished the two serpents that “threatened” him in his cradle. Classical
Greeks did not perceive that the threat was merely the threat of wisdom. But the
gesture is the same as that of the Cretan goddess.
Typhon
the enemy of the Olympian gods is described as a vast grisly monster with a
hundred heads and a hundred serpents issuing from his thighs, who was conquered
and cast into Tartarus
by
Zeus,
or confined beneath volcanic regions, where he is the cause of eruptions. Typhon
is thus the chthonic figuration of volcanic forces. Amongst his children by
Echidna are Cerberus
(a monstrous three-headed dog with a
snake for a tail and a serpentine mane), the serpent tailed
Chimaera
, the serpent-like chthonic water beast
Lernaean Hydra and the hundred-headed serpentine dragon
Ladon.
Both the Lernaean Hydra and Ladon were slain by
Heracles.
Python
was the earth-dragon of
Delphi,
she always was represented in the vase-paintings and by sculptors as a serpent.
Pytho was the chthonic enemy of Apollo
, who slew her and remade her former home
his own oracle, the most famous in Classical Greece.
Amphisbaena a Greek word, from amphis, meaning “both ways”, and
bainein, meaning “to go”, also called the “Mother of Ants”, is a mythological,
ant-eating serpent with a head at each end. According to Greek mythology, the
mythological amphisbaena was spawned from the blood that dripped from
Medusa
the Gorgon‘s
head as
Perseus flew over the Libyan Desert with her head in his hand.
Medusa and the other Gorgons were vicious female monsters with sharp fangs
and hair of living, venomous snakes whose origins predate the written myths of
Greece and who were the protectors of the most ancient ritual secrets. The
Gorgons wore a belt of two intertwined serpents in the same configuration of the
caduceus.
The Gorgon was placed at the highest point and central of the relief on the
Parthenon.
Asclepius, the son of Apollo and Koronis, learned the secrets of
keeping death at bay after observing one serpent bringing another (which
Asclepius himself had fatally wounded) healing herbs. To prevent the entire
human race from becoming immortal under Asclepius’s care, Zeus killed him with a
bolt of lightning. Asclepius’ death at the hands of Zeus illustrates man’s
inability to challenge the natural order that separates mortal men from the
gods. In honor of Asclepius, snakes were often used in healing rituals.
Non-poisonous snakes were left to crawl on the floor in dormitories where the
sick and injured slept. In
The Library
,
Apollodorus claimed that
Athena
gave Asclepius a vial of blood from the Gorgons. Gorgon blood had magical
properties: if taken from the left side of the Gorgon, it was a fatal poison;
from the right side, the blood was capable of bringing the dead back to life.
However
Euripides wrote in his tragedy
Ion
that the Athenian queen Creusa had
inherited this vial from her ancestor Erichthonios, who was a snake himself and
receiving the vial from Athena. In this version the blood of Medusa had the
healing power while the lethal poison originated from Medusa’s serpents.
Laocoön
was allegedly a priest of Poseidon
(or of Apollo, by some accounts) at
Troy;
he was famous for warning the Trojans in vain against accepting the Trojan Horse
from the Greeks, and for his subsequent divine execution. Poseidon (some say
Athena),
who was supporting the Greeks, subsequently sent sea-serpents to strangle
Laocoön and his two sons, Antiphantes and Thymbraeus. Another tradition states
that Apollo sent the serpents for an unrelated offense, and only unlucky timing
caused the Trojans to misinterpret them as punishment for striking the Horse.
Olympias, the mother of
Alexander the Great
and a princess of the
primitive land of
Epirus
, had the reputation of a snake-handler,
and it was in serpent form that Zeus was said to have fathered Alexander upon
her; tame snakes were still to be found at Macedonian
Pella
in the 2nd century AD (Lucian,
Alexander the false prophet
) and at
Ostia
a bas-relief shows paired coiled serpents
flanking a dressed altar, symbols or embodiments of the
Lares
of the household, worthy of veneration (Veyne 1987 illus p 211).
Aeetes
, the king of
Colchis
and father of the sorceress Medea
, possessed the
Golden Fleece. He guarded it with a massive serpent that never slept.
Medea, who had fallen in love with Jason
of the
Argonauts,
enchanted it to sleep so Jason could seize the Fleece.
See Lamia (mythology)
.
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
Antioch from the southwest (engraving by
William Miller
after a drawing by H. Warren from a sketch by
Captain
Byam Martin
, R.N., 1866)
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.
Portrait head of Lucius Verus, found in Athens (National
Archaeological Museum of Athens) He used to sprinkle gold-dust
on his blond hair to make it brighter.
Wars on the Danube
and death
Further information:
Marcomannic Wars
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.
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