Marcus Aurelius: A Life From Beginning to End by Hourly History

Author:Hourly History [History, Hourly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hourly History
Published: 2018-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

The Eastern Front

“Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.”

—Marcus Aurelius

Emperor Antoninus had barely been laid to rest before calamity began to besiege the Roman Empire. The first disaster occurred in late 161 when the Italian Tiber River flooded from heavy downpours, and the resulting deluge tore through Roman buildings like a wrecking ball, leaving dead farm animals as well as people in its wake. This devastation then resulted in a severe famine from ruined crops.

During this first major crisis of their reign, Marcus and Lucius quickly moved to relieve their distressed citizenry by distributing grain reserves to the masses. These efforts helped ease the populace through these hard times, but even as this problem was solved a new dilemma was emerging on the eastern borders of the Roman Empire that extra bags of grain would not solve. This dilemma was the rising power of the Parthian Empire.

Based out of ancient Persia (modern-day Iran) and encompassing most of Iraq, Turkey, and Syria, this formidable Middle Eastern empire had begun making inroads against the Romans as soon as the word was out on Emperor Antoninus’ passing. In particular, Parthian King Vologases II had directed the invasion of Armenia, which had been a protectorate of the Romans. Vologases II had the Armenian king kicked out of power and replaced with a puppet potentate named Pacorus who was a member of the Parthian royal family.

At the outset of this overthrow, it was the governor of nearby Cappadocia (Central Turkey), a man named Marcus Sedatius Severianus, who took the first countermeasures against the Parthians. As well as governing Cappadocia, Severianus was also a general of the Roman army, so military engagement was hardly anything new for him. Even so, it appears that he may have miscalculated when he attempted to engage the Parthians. He took only one of his legions, utilized like a special task force, and struck out at the Parthian incursion in Armenia.

Severianus apparently believed that a quick, surgical strike would be enough to remove the Parthians, but things did not turn out as he had planned. The Parthian general he was up against, Chosrhoes, proved to be a formidable tactician and managed to trap Severianus and his legion against the Euphrates River. Severianus and his men were outnumbered, unable to cross the river and unable to fight off the Parthians.

In the end, as his men were summarily butchered all around him, Severianus lost all hope and took his own life. It was devastating news to the new Roman Emperors Marcus and Lucius to hear that one of their best commanders had met such a grisly fate in the field. And as tensions further deteriorated with their remaining legions in the east, they determined that the war effort would go better if one of them were there in person to oversee it.

The only question was: which one of them would go? According to Roman historian Cassius Dio, it was determined that Lucius would be the

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