441 



AURELIUS ANTOXINUS, MARCUS. 



AURUNQZEBE. 



412 



gave the legion the title of the Thunderbolt; and Xiphilinus, the 

 epitomator of Dion, says the same. But the twelfth legion hnd this 

 name at least aa early as the time of Trajan. Tertullian also speaks 

 of a letter which the emperor wrote, in which he ascribed the miracle 

 to the prayers of the Christians. Tertullian speaks of the letter as 

 if he had seen it ; yet Lardner infers just the contrary from his words. 

 Eusebiua has no information on the matter of the letter, except what 

 he gets from Tertulliau ; and other writers speak of the letter as 

 existing, but without being more particular. A letter in Greek, which 

 is extant, and printed after the ' Apologies ' of Justin, is admitted not 

 to be genuine by the best critics, even among those who maintain the 

 truth of the miracle, and that it was due to the prayers of a Christian 

 legiou. The matter is worth notice, aa it haa alwaya been, and still is, 

 a subject of controversy. 



The German war was interrupted by an event which in an especial 

 manner called forth the clemency, justice, and sound policy of Aurelius. 

 This was the rebellion of Cassius, a brave and skilful general, high in 

 the confidence of the emperor, who, after an unsuccessful attempt to 

 get possession of the imperial power, was put to death by his own 

 officers (A.D. 175). Aurelius would not extend the usual penalties to 

 hi< family, nor suffer many of his accomplices to be punished. He 

 left the whole matter to the senate, recommending the greatest 

 clemency towards the guilty. [CASSIDS, AVIDIUS.] 



After the death of Gassing, the emperor made a journey into the 

 ea*t In hia visit to Lower Egypt and Syria, he conciliated the good- 

 will and affection of his various subjects by his kindness and his 

 affaLlx manners. During his return through Asia Minor, his wife 

 Faustina, who accompanied him, died at a place called Ualale, at the 

 foot of Mount Taurus. Though her infidelity to the emperor waa 

 generally believed, Aurelius lamented her loss as if she had been the 

 best of wives ; and the senate, in the usual style of adulation, decreed 

 a temple to her memory ; raised her to divine honours with the title 

 of Diva; and decreed that silver statues of Aurelius and Faustina, 

 and an altar, should be erected, at which all the girla of the city at 

 their marriage should sacrifice with their husbands. It is only fair 

 to mention, in opposition to the accounts of Capitolinua and Dion 

 Cassiua, that the emperor in his ' Meditations,' i. 17, extols the 

 obedience, affection, and simplicity of his wife. 



At Smyrna, the emperor witnessed a display of the rhetorical talents 

 of Aristides, who pronounced on that occasion his declamation in 

 praise of Smyrna, which still exists among his works. Two years after- 

 wards, when Smyrna was ruined by an earthquake, Aristides pre- 

 vailed upon Aurelius to extend to its suffering inhabitants the same 

 bounty that he had already bestowed on other cities. [ARISTIDES ; 

 -iEuus.] From Smyrna Aureliua passed to Athens, where he appears 

 to have been admitted into the sacred mysteries of Ceres. During his 

 reign he showed his affection to this ancient aeat of learning by found- 

 ing chairs of philosophy for the four chief sects, the Platonics, Stoics, 

 Peripatetics, and Epicureans; and also a professorship of rhetoric. 



The close of the philosophical emperor's life was not spent in the 

 peaceful retirement which he loved, but in the midst of a northern 

 campaign against the Marcomanni, Hermunduri, Sarmatians, and 

 Quadi. His son Commodus accompanied him during these campaigns, 

 which appear to have lasted between two and three years. Aurelius 

 died, A.D. 180, after a short illness, at Vindebona (Vienna), in his fifty- 

 ninth year, having reigned ten years alone, and nine with his col- 

 league. His loss was regretted by the whole empire ; he was ranked 

 amongst the gods, and every house in Rome had his statue or picture. 

 One of the medals that we have given, bearing the inscription CON- 

 BECBATIO, represents the apotheosis of Aurelius. 



Brns. Britiih Mnicnm. Actual size. 



A question which has excited much discussion is that of the share 

 which Aurelius had in the persecution of the Christians. During the 

 time of Aurelius, Justin and Polyearp suffered death for their religiou, 

 and the persecutions raged at Lyon in France with great fierceness. 

 There is no doubt that Aurelius was acquainted with the Cnristians 

 and with their doctrines in a general way. Ho speaks of them iu his 

 ' Meditations ' (xi. 3), as persons who were ready to die from mere 

 obstinacy : a passage which seems to prove that he knew that they 

 had been put to death. The sufferings of the martyrs of Lyon are 

 told at great length by Eusebius, and though there are manifest 

 absurdities and exaggerations in the narrative, there is no reason to 

 doubt the main facts. Justin was executed at Rome, but it is not 

 agreed in what year. Justin and his associates were required by the 

 prajfect to sacrifice to the gods, and on their refusal were sentenced to 

 be whipped and beheaded, pursuant to the emperor's edict an expres- 

 sion which seems to have been sometimes misunderstood, and taken 

 to signify that the emperor sat in judgment. (' Acta Martyria Justiui ; ' 

 Justinus, ' Opera,' ed. Haag, fol. 1742.) It is difficult to reconcile 

 the behaviour of Aurelius towards the Christians with the general 

 humanity and kindness of his character. There is indeed no satis- 

 factory evidence of any edict being published by him against the 

 Christians, and the persecutions of Smyrna and Lyon were carried on 

 in places distant from Rome. Still it cannot be doubted that he was 

 well acquainted with what was going on in the provinces, and he 

 must have heard of what took place at Lyon and Smyrna. There is 

 no evidence that Aurelius encouraged these persecutions ; nor is there 

 any evidence that he prevented the persecutions or punished those 

 who were most active in them. Aurelius did not like the Christians, 

 and he may have thought their assemblies dangerous to the state. Those 

 ecclesiastical historians who have judged him the most severely have 

 judged him unfairly ; and yet the admirers of Aurelius will find it 

 difficult to give a satisfactory explanation of the sufferings of the 

 Christians in his time. 



(Capitolinus, M. Ant. Philotophus ; Dion Cast! us, lib. 71; Fabricius, 

 Bibliotheca Graca, v. 500 ; Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, &c.) 



AURE'LIUS VICTOR. Four books are commonly published to- 

 gether under the name of Aurelius Victor. 1. ' Origo Gentis Romance,' 

 an imperfect work, beginning with Janus and Saturn, and going down 

 to the foundation of Rome. 2, ' De Viris Illustrious Urbis Roma;,' 

 which contains short biographies of the most illustrious Romans, with 

 a few foreigners, from Romulus down to Pompeius. 3. ' De Cajsari- 

 bua," which contains the lives of the emperors, from Augustus to the 

 appointment of Julian to govern Gaul, A.D. 356. 4. ' De Vita et 

 Moribus Imperatorum Romanorum," or 'Aurelii Victoris Epitome,' 

 another history of the emperors, from Augustus to the death of 

 Theodosius the Great, A.D. 395. 



That all these are not written by the same person is generally 

 acknowledged ; by whom they are written it is harder to say. It is 

 pretty well agreed that the ' Origo ' is not written by the same person 

 as the ' Illustrious Men,' or the ' Cassars ; ' and some persons, on very 

 slight grounds, have attributed it to Asconius the critic. The ' Illus- 

 trious Men ' has been variously ascribed to Cornelius Nepos, Pliny the 

 Younger, Suetonius, and the true Aurelius Victor, wbo is the un- 

 doubted author of the ' Caesars.' Of his life we know hardly any 

 thing ; he tella us (' De Ca;s.,' xx. 5) that he was " born in the country, 

 of a poor and unlearned father," and it is conjectured, from his abund- 

 ant praises of Africa, that he was a native of that province. The 

 'Cicsars' seems, on the evidence of a passage written in the present 

 tense, to have been composed about the year 359 ; and there are other 

 grounds for supposing that Victor was alive at that time. It is said 

 in ' Ammianua Marcellinus' (xxi.) that the emperor Julian " appointed 

 Victor the historian prefect of Pannonia Sccunda, and honoured him 

 with a brazen statue," and that some time after he was made prefect 

 of the city. An extant inscription shows that Aurelius Victor waa 

 pref -ct of the city iu the reign of Theodogius ; and it is probable that 

 these two notices refer to the same person. An Aureliua Victor was 

 consul with Valentinian iu 373. The ' Epitome ' extends to the death 

 of Theodosius. In all the titles prefixed to the manuscripts it is 

 mentioned as ' Epitome ex libris,' ' Breviatus ex libris,' Sext. Aur. 

 Victoris ; and it agreea for the most part very closely with the ' De 

 Cassaribus,' but, as noticed above, is brought down some forty years 

 lower. Neither the style nor the contents of these books entitle the 

 author to a high place among historians. The most important 

 portion is that which contains the history of the empire, where the 

 frequent want of all contemporary authority renders a continuous 

 sketch, even though it be a meagre one, of the more value. The 

 editions of Aurelius Victor are numerous : among the best are the 

 Delphin, and those of Schott, Gruner, Arntzenius, Schoeuberger, and 

 Schroeter. Valpy'a Delphiu edition (vol. i.) contains a collection of 

 notices from various writera concerning the life of Victor, and the 

 authorship of 'the works bearing hia name. 



(Moller, DitpMatio de Aurelio Victors, Altdorf., 1805.) 



AURUNGZEBE was the last powerful and energetic sovereign that 

 ruled over the Mogul empire of Hindustan during the latter half 

 of the 17th century. His proper name was Mohammed; but his 

 grandfather gave him the surname Aurungzebe (properly Aurang- 

 z!b), that is, ' the ornament of the throne ; ' and when he became 

 emperor, he assumed the titles of Mohl-eddlu, that is, ' the reviver 



