OTD: 180 CE Marcus Aurelius does nobody any favors by dying and leaving Commodus in charge

[Ryro]

That's right, 1843 years ago we lost one of the very few philosopher rulers called upon by Plato over half a millenia before:

Worn out, sick and tired of all your bull shit Marcus Elizabeth Aurelius perspired and expired in modern Vienna. 

Jokes aside, he really knew how to use that think noodle of his. Hence the curly hair!

Per Cassius Dio his last words were, "Go to the rising sun; I am already setting.”

Cassius Ryo purports they were, "Suck it nerds."

 

 

 

All that greatness, only to leave this clown in charge;

Help celebrate the death of the world's richest stoic!

 

Edited March 17, 2023 by Ryro

[CPK]

Cool coins! Here is my most recent Marcus Aurelius:

[Curtisimo]

A very interesting father-son combo. Great coins Ryan. Here is a denarius and a sestertius of each. 

RIP Marcus!

Marcus Aurelius

Commodus

Edited March 17, 2023 by Curtisimo
Bear stuffs

[Roman Collector]

Entertaining and informative multi-media sensation, as always, @Ryro!!! How about a sestertius each of dad and lad??

Marcus Aurelius, 161-180 CE.
Roman orichalcum sestertius, 24.20 g, 29.2 mm, 12 h.
Rome, 22nd emission, June-September 171 CE.
Obv: IMP M ANTONINVS AVG TR P XXV, laureate head, right.
Rev: VOTA SOL DECENN COS III S C, emperor, veiled and togate, standing facing, head left, sacrificing out of patera held in right hand over tripod-altar; behind altar, prostrate bull.
Refs: RIC 1014; BMCRE 1400; Cohen 1032; Sear RCV 5019; MIR 221-6/30; Banti 525.

Commodus, AD 177-192.
Roman orichalcum sestertius, 22.51 g, 29.2 mm, 1 h.
Rome, AD 192.
Obv: L AEL AVREL COMM AVG P FEL, laureate bust of Commodus, right, with slight drapery on left shoulder.
Rev: LIB AVG P M TR P XVII COS VII P P, Libertas standing facing, head left, holding pileus in right hand and vindicta in left hand; S C l. and r., low in field; star, mid right, in field.
Refs: RIC 619b; BMCRE 692 var. (bust); Cohen 290; RCV 5764; ERIC II 573 var. (bust).

[Qcumbor]

The thread that made @Curtisimo come back : great !

Q

[Ancient Coin Hunter]

Marcus Aurelius Caesar as a beardless youth, or youngish man. Drachm of Alexandria.

"Death Smiles on us All. All a man can do is smile back."

 

[Marsyas Mike]

A lot of Marcus Aurelius AEs coming my way lately, most not very toothsome.  This PRIMI DECEN dupondius is my favorite:

Marcus Aurelius  Æ Dupondius (170-171 A.D.) Rome Mint IMP M ANTONINVS AVG TR P XXV Radiate head right / PRIMI | DECEN | NALES | COS III . | S C within wreath. RIC III 1008; BMCRE 1407; Cohen RSC 498. (15.41 grams / 26 x 25 mm) eBay Feb. 2023 (France) Note: "This is for vows for ten years taken when he became Augustus upon the death of  Antoninus" Augustus Coins

 Die-Match Characteristics:  Obv.: Two forks in beard, etc. Rev.: ES droops; dot at end. 

Die-Match Obverse: Numismatik Lanz München Auction 117; Lot 780; 24.11.2003

[ambr0zie]

Possibly one of the turning points in the Empire.

Here are some Marcus Aurelius coin (missing completely in Imperial bronze in my collection, except for a very beat up As .... this must be changed)

an Ephesos provincial I am pretty fond of 

 

The not so good son 

 

[kapphnwn]

Marcus Aurelius Ae Sestertius 170-171 AD Obv Head right laureate Rv Inscription within wreath RIC 106 30.57 grms 33 mm Photo by W. Hansen 

[Spaniard]

Neat write up @Ryro..Here's a bit of silver & bronze of the main man!

[ewomack]

One of my favorite coins and one of my favorite stoics. I have read The Meditations. Now I need to read it again. One of my favorite lines from that book remains: "The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.” But yes, that whole breaking of the "good emperor" tradition that brought him to power by elevating his (questionable) son still confuses me somewhat.

Marcus Aurelius. AR Denarius. Struck 161/2 AD. M ANTONINVS AVG, bare head right / CONCORD AVG TR P XVII, COS III in exergue, Concordia seated left, holding patera, resting left elbow on statuette of Spes set on base. 18mm 3.4gm

Edited March 18, 2023 by ewomack

[Jims,Coins]

Begin the morning by saying to yourself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. But I who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the bad that is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that it is akin to mine, not only of the same blood or seed, but that it participates in the same intelligence and the same portion of divinity, I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no one can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my brother, nor hate him. For we are made for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to nature: and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn away.

Marcus Aurelius: Meditations

Silver coin (AR Denarius) minted at Rome during the reign of MARCUS AURELIUS in 166 A.D. Obv. M.ANTONINVS.AVG.ARM.PARTH.MAX.: laur. head r. Rev. TR.P.XX.IMP.IIII.COS.III./PAX.: Pax standing l., holding branch and caduceus.  RSCII #435 pg.208. RICIII #159 pg.225. DVM #69.

[Marsyas Mike]

12 hours ago, ewomack said:

But yes, that whole breaking of the "good emperor" tradition that brought him to power by elevating his (questionable) son still confuses me somewhat.

There's a pretty good biography of Aurelius by Frank McLynn that addresses this puzzling event - McLynn says that if Aurelius did not elevate his son to the purple, he would surely be murdered by whoever did become emperor.  This made for an impossible situation for a father; elevate your nincompoop son or have him murdered.  None of the other "adoptive" emperors had sons of their own, so they could pick the best man for the job.  

Another puzzling thing about this situation are the wars with the Germans.  Aurelius fought for years on the borders against the barbarians.  As soon as Commodus came to power he basically called off the wars and, I'm guessing, paid the barbarians off.  The peace lasted for 20 years or so, I believe.  A pretty plausible argument could be made that this was a good move.  

Father:

Son, looking up to dear old dad:

 

[Ancient Coin Hunter]

13 minutes ago, Marsyas Mike said:

There's a pretty good biography of Aurelius by Frank McLynn that addresses this puzzling event - McLynn says that if Aurelius did not elevate his son to the purple, he would surely be murdered by whoever did become emperor.  This made for an impossible situation for a father; elevate your nincompoop son or have him murdered.  None of the other "adoptive" emperors had sons of their own, so they could pick the best man for the job.  

Another puzzling thing about this situation are the wars with the Germans.  Aurelius fought for years on the borders against the barbarians.  As soon as Commodus came to power he basically called off the wars and, I'm guessing, paid the barbarians off.  The peace lasted for 20 years or so, I believe.  A pretty plausible argument could be made that this was a good move.  

Father:

Son, looking up to dear old dad:

 

He really needed a choice like Maximus in the movie Gladiator. The problem was presumably nobody fit this role. I would surmise that Marcus, after showing loyalty to the general Avidius Cassius by naming him Rector Orientis with military control of the provinces in the Near East including Egypt, then having him revolt because of a rumor that Marcus was dying (this in 175 A.D.), made him question the adoptive strategy. Cassius controlled seven legions. However, a centurion killed him and sent his head to Marcus as proof of his demise. There is no evidence that Marcus was a secret Republican who wanted to restore the Senate to full power.

[Dafydd]

And the adoptive brother

 

 

161 AD. Rome mint. Obv: IMP CAES M AVREL ANTONINVS AVG P M legend with bare head right, slight drapery on left shoulder. Rev: CONCORD AVGVSTOR TR P XV legend with Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus clasping hands; COS III below, S-C across fields. RIC 795; Sear 4962 variant (bust type"). 25.26 grams.

[Steppenfool]

I realised after writing this, I'm not really responding to anyone in this thread, moreso commenting on a common trope that I hear about Aurelius and Commodus.

In my humble opinion, people tend to pass over the most plausible explanation as to why Aurelius elevated Commodus. He was his biological son. I think that's all there is to it. I believe people are mistaken when they think that there was an institution of adoption that Marcus somehow eschewed. This completely ignores the fact that none of the other emperors produced biolgical sons. It also doesn't take into account the nuances of the previous adoptions.

By all accounts, Nerva, who was childless, was forced into the adoption of Trajan in order to placate the various factions in the fallout from Domitian's assasination. The childless Trajan's adoption of Hadrian was completed on his deathbed and was completed so hastily that rumors spread the adoption was fabricated by Trajan's wife Plotina who favoured Hadrian.

The only real adoptive institution that was present was the system of the again childless Hadrian who I rank exceptionally highly due to this foresight. Hadrian planned his succession ahead for two seperate generations, even after his initial attempt of Aelius failed. He adopted Pius (who was, you guessed it, sonless too at this point) on the condition that Pius adopted Aurelius and Verus. 

Therefore, if we are to take the Nerva-Antonine adoptive succession system in totality, it appears to be more of a hasty response to necessity rather than a clearly defined strategy. I believe only Hadrian can be said to have taken any deliberate initiative here.

Furthermore, is there any evidence that Commodus was going to be a poor emperor when Aurelius was alive? He was only 18 years old at the time of Aurelius' death. As another posted alluded to, in his early reign, Commodus appeared to make a sound strategic decision in ending the costly Marcomanic wars and adhered to the Augustan (and to some extent, Hadrianic) policy of not overstretching the Empire for little gain.

I have seen it speculated that the conspiracy against Commodus in 182 was a major catalyst for his descent into being rubbish, however the sources aren't clear enough to make any sound judgements. Here's my early Commodus from 181, perhaps minted very soon before it all went wrong.

Edited March 19, 2023 by Steppenfool