Gold bust of Marcus Aurelius
Photo Roman Museum of Avenches
Roman Emperor (161-180). Latin Marcus Aurelius Marcus Annius Verus, then Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Originating in Spain, adopted by Antonin the Piles at the request of Hadrian, he married Faustine the Young person, the girl of his adoptive father, and reigned initially jointly with his adoptive brother, Lucius Verus (169).
Its reign, marked by many wars, against Parthes then against the German ones, was obscured by natural disasters and epidemics.
Friend of Hérode Atticus and Pediment, this paradoxical emperor (peaceful, it did not cease fighting; tolerating, he persecuted the Christians) wanted to be philosopher and the pilot large last of ancient stoicism: the autonomy of the individual and his membership of the order of the world are expressed in Thoughts addressed to itself, written essentially during a campaign on the Danube into 172-173, and which originate in the practice of the examination of conscience borrowed from the pythagorism.