STORY OF MARCUS AURELIUS

Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius, like Trajan and Hadrian, derived his origin from Spain, but was born in Italy. His features are the most conspicuously preserved in the repositories of ancient art, as his name is the most honorably enshrined on the pages of history—the noblest and most august type of the ancient rulers of the world, far transcending any Jewish king in the severity of his virtues, and the elevation of his soul. His life was modeled on the strictest discipline of the stoical philosophy, of which he was the brightest ornament. 

 
     
Marcus Aurelius  origin from Spain

He was nearly forty years of age on the death of his father-in-law, although for twenty-three years he had sat side by side with him on the tribunals of the State. His reign, therefore, was virtually a long one, and he was devoted to all the duties which his station imposed. He was great as ruler, as he was profound as a philosopher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 
 Sarmatians
 
 Marcomanni

 
 Quadi
 
 Alani


 It was under his illustrious reign that the barbarians formed a general union for the invasion of the Roman world, and struck the first of those fatal blows under which the empire finally succumbed. We have but little information of the long contest with Germans, Sarmatians, Marcomanni, Quadi, and Alani, on the banks of the Danube, who were pressed forward by the Scythian tribes. They were repelled, indeed, but they soon after advanced, with renovated forces, when the empire was weakened by the miserable emperors who succeeded Aurelius. And although this great prince commemorated his victory over the barbarians by a column similar to that of Trajan, still they were far from being subdued, and a disgraceful peace, which followed his death, shows that they were exceedingly formidable. He died at Sirmium, or Vindobona (Vienna), exhausted by incessant wars and the cares of State, A.D. 180, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, and twentieth of his reign. The concurrent testimony of historians represents this emperor as the loftiest character that ever wielded a sceptre among the nations of antiquity, although we can not forget that he was a persecutor of the Christians. 


THE ROMAN EMPIRE WAS ALARMED ON THE CONVERSION OF GOTHIC BARBARIANS TO CHRISTIANITY 

spread of christianity to the roman empire