Antoninus pius biography of rory

Born into a senatorial family, Antoninus held various offices during the reign of Emperor Hadrian.

Antoninus was the most Stoic.

He married Hadrian's niece Faustina , and Hadrian adopted him as his son and successor shortly before his death. Antoninus acquired the cognomen Pius after his accession to the throne, either because he compelled the Senate to deify his adoptive father, [ 4 ] or because he had saved senators sentenced to death by Hadrian in his later years.

A successful military campaign in southern Scotland early in his reign resulted in the construction of the Antonine Wall. Antoninus was an effective administrator, leaving his successors a large surplus in the treasury, expanding free access to drinking water throughout the Empire, encouraging legal conformity, and facilitating the enfranchisement of freed slaves.

He is considered one of the five good emperors of the Antonine dynasty under whom the pax Romana enabled the empire to prosper, trade to flourish and culture to.

The Aurelii Fulvi were therefore a relatively new senatorial family from Gallia Narbonensis whose rise to prominence was supported by the Flavians. Antoninus' father had no other children and died shortly after his 89 ordinary consulship. Antoninus was raised by his maternal grandfather Gnaeus Arrius Antoninus , [ 3 ] reputed by contemporaries to be a man of integrity and culture and a friend of Pliny the Younger.

Arria Fadilla, Antoninus' mother, married afterwards Publius Julius Lupus , suffect consul in 98; from that marriage came two daughters, Arria Lupula and Julia Fadilla. Faustina bore Antoninus four children, two sons and two daughters. When Faustina died in , Antoninus was greatly distressed. He further founded a charity, calling it Puellae Faustinianae or Girls of Faustina , which assisted destitute girls [ 12 ] of good family.

The emperor never remarried. Instead, he lived with Galeria Lysistrate , [ 24 ] one of Faustina's freed women. Concubinage was a form of female companionship sometimes chosen by powerful men in Ancient Rome, especially widowers like Vespasian , and Marcus Aurelius.