Marcus Aurelius Essay

Around 71 B.C.,a few years before Augustus was born, Gaius Octavius started pursuing a job within the senate, but because of his latin instead of roman descent the pursuit of the job was very difficult for him. He continued pursuing the job in senate till around 70 B.C. when he won a quaestorship, a lower place in the government that entails supervising tax collection and doing special tasks for consuls in Rome, and joined the senate. Based on his latin descent winning a questorship was no small feat so it was no surprise when he was offered a spouse from one of Rome’s great trician clans. The only problem with this was he was already married to Ancharia who is not very well recorded in history so people have no firm evidence for why Gaius Octavius suddenly married Atia, a member of the Julian family making Julius Caesar his great-uncle. Together Atia and Gaius had two children, Octavius the younger and Gaius Octavian, named after his father, along with the one from Ancharia the second of the two being who we know as Augustus.

Both Marcus Aurelius and Cicero try to create a guide, based on their stoic views, on how a person is supposed to live a purposeful life. Marcus Aurelius was an emperor and Cicero was a politician, so both serve somebody or something. In Cicero’s “On Friendship” he bases his guides on what he has learned from important people in his life. In Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations” he bases his guide off of what he has learned as an emperor with stoic views. Some of what he Aurelius has learned is different from Cicero’s view of stoicism; an example of this is in section seven of Meditations. Section seven of Meditations is about what Aurelius learned from his tutor. He states, “Endure hardship, and have few needs; to do things for myself and not

Augustus, who was once named C. Octavius, was the grand-nephew of Julius Caesar. Due to Caesar’s death from the uprising in 44 B.C., it was stated from his will, that Octavian was to be adopted as Caesar’s son. So his name was changed to C. Julius Caesar Octavianus (Porter, 2010). Later throughout his political and military career, he controlled Rome under the title Augustus (Brand, 2013). This begins a story of a young man to an emperor of the Roman world.

To seek to keep the established constitution unchanged argues a good citizen and a good man (Augustus) A. Augustus, otherwise known as Octavian, was an excellent Emperor and was considered to be the best ever. B. He had a rather rough history, after losing his parents at a young age his uncle, Julius Ceaser, took over as his guardian, and made Octavian a very good and humble man. C. Octavian had a fairly good education after being taught by Apollodurus.

Marcus Ulpius Trajanus, better known as Trajan, was a Roman emperor from 98 AD until his death on August 9, 117 AD. He was born on September 18, 53 AD in Italica Spain, where he lived with his mother, Marcia and his father, also named Marcus Ulpius Trajanus. Trajan was the first emperor to be born outside of Italy, in Italica. He was a successful soldier and general; he was very passionate about war. Nerva the emperor before him adopted him as his “son” because he had no children. Nerva died a natural death and after Trajan became emperor.

Gaius Octavius was born September 23, 63 BCE. His father’s name was Gaius. His father, who died in 59 BCE, had been the first of the family to become a Roman senator and was elected to the high annual office of the praetorship, which ranked second in the political hierarchy to the consulship. This office was judicial and second only to consul in status in the Roman government. “Gaius Octavius was of a successful family that had long been settled at Velitrae, southeast of Rome.”1 Octavius began his public life at age 12 when he delivered the funeral oration for his grandmother, Julia. His great uncle, Julius Caesar, became the chief priest, Pontifex Maximus. Gaius Octavius was from a prosperous family in Velitrae, a city southeast of Rome. “He was described as unusually handsome and exceedingly graceful at all periods of his life, though he cared nothing for personal adornment. It was claimed that his expression, whether in conversation or when he was silent, was calm and mild; that he had clear, bright eyes, in which he believed there was a kind of divine power. His teeth were wide apart, small and ill-kept; his hair was slightly curly and gold in color.”2 He had a medium complexion, neither light nor dark. He was short.

Marcus Brutus was born in 85 bc, to a roman general of the same name, who was later killed by Pompey, a young general. Marcus Brutus was educated by his mother's half brother, Marcus Portius Cato. Marcus was later adopted by a relative of his mother, Quintus Servilius Caepio, and in honor of his adopted father Brutus began to call himself Marcus Junius Brutus Caepio. Brutus’ uncle continued to bestow great lessons on schooling as well as life. In 59 Bc Brutus was declared as a part of a conspiracy to kill Pompey, that did not exist. A young politician named Gaius Julius Caesar, who was an ally of Pompey, and having an affair with Brutus’s mother,did his best to clear it away. Caesar, had great reasoning seeing as he did not want to watch the

Lucilla’s life began in Rome. On March 7th, 149. She was the daughter of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina II. Her full name was Annia Aurelia Galeria Lucilla.

Lucius Septimius Severus was born in a Afrivan descent family on 1 Aprils AD 145 at Lepcis Magna in Tripolitania. His paternal great-grandfater who was moved from Lepcis Magna to Italy, and then became an equestrian. It was the most likely of Punic origin and his mom, Fulvia Pia, she was from a family which was moved from Africa to Italy. Lucius Septimius Severus was Roman Emperor from 193 AD to 211 AD. Severus caught hold of power after the Emperor Pertinax was death in 193 AD during the year of the fifth Emperor.

When the third triumvirate divided the Roman Empire after Caesar's death, Marcus Antonius was given domain over the eastern provinces. Foreseeing a future of warfare, Marcus Antonius intelligently appointed Lucius Verus to rule the eastern provinces alongside him. When the Parthian invasion occurred Marcus Antonius insured that he contributed his best generals and armies to recover his lost territories. The recovery was extremely successful that Marcus crowned a new vassel and conquered Mesopotamia which was also Parthian territory. One success led to another as Marcus and his son severely defeated the Marcomanni and the Quadi gaining Danubian provinces during the Marcomannic wars. Unfortunately, Lucius Verus died during these wars but that

Marcus Cocceius Nerva was born on November 8, 35 CE in the small town of Narnia in Umbria, fifty miles north of Rome. He was the Roman emperor from 96 to 98 CE and his reign brought stability after the turbulent successions of his predecessors. Nerva became emperor at the age of sixty-five, after a lifetime of imperial service under Nero and the rulers of the Flavian dynasty. (Murison, 154). On 18 September, 96, Domitian was assassinated in a palace conspiracy organised by court officials, which had brought an end to the Flavian Dynasty, a dynasty started by his father Vespasian in 69 CE. On the same day, Nerva was declared emperor by the Roman Senate as the new ruler of the Roman Empire.

Marcus Aurelius, was born in 121 C.E. Growing up his focus of education was overseen by Emperor Hadrian and soon taken over by Emperor Antonius teaching him more of a rhetoric (Sellars, 2002). As the years progressed he shifted in to a study of philosophy leading to him becoming what we know as one of the most important Stoic philosophers. Marcus Aurelius became an emperor in A.D. 160 lasting to A.D.180. he was working closely with Lucius Verus in 169 and his son Commodus in 177 (Crook, 2017). Marcus Aurelius later passed away in A.D. 180, yet his most personal literature is still read today, Meditations.

Marcus Aurelius was born on April 20, 121 AD into a family of royalty. His uncle and adoptive father, Antoninus Pius, was the emperor of Rome. Aurelius, too, was trained from birth to be a great ruler like his father. At age eleven, he dedicated himself to religion, although he considered philosophy to be the "true, inward" religion, one which did not require ceremonies necessary in others.

According to www.ancient.eu/commodus/ , in his early life, Commodus full name was Lucius Aurelius Commodus. He was born to a philosopher and a king. He was tenth out of fourteen children. He and his twin brother were adopted. After a long time Commodus was the only son to survive.

- Lucilla is the daughter of Marcus Aurelius and the brother of Commodus whom lusts for her. She has been recently widowed and was left with a son, Lucius Verus.