Marcus Annius Verus (grandfather of Marcus Aurelius)

Marcus Annius Verus
Born	c. 50
Died	138
Nationality	Roman
Office	Consul (97, 121, 126) Praefectus urbi
Spouse	Rupilia Faustina
Children	Faustina the Elder Marcus Annius Libo Marcus Annius Verus

Marcus Annius Verus (c. 50 – 138 AD) was the paternal grandfather and adoptive father of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, and father-in-law of emperor Antoninus Pius.

Biography

Verus was the son of an elder Marcus Annius Verus, who gained the rank of senator and praetor. The Annia gens was ancient and its first known member is mentioned by Livy as praetor of Setia, in central Italy, for the year 340 BC; the branch of the Annii Veri settled in the colony of Ucubi (modern Espejo) near Corduba (modern Córdoba) in the Roman province of Hispania Baetica. The family came to prominence and became wealthy through olive oil production in Spain.^[1] He was close friends with the emperor Hadrian.

He was urban prefect of Rome and was enrolled as a patrician when Vespasian and Titus were censors. Verus was three times consul, the first time as a suffect in 97,^[2] then as ordinary consul in both 121 and 126. This is apparently the cause for a "very strange inscription, found on a large marble tablet excavated in the sixteenth century at St. Peter's in Rome" which alludes to this achievement while celebrating his skill "playing with a glass ball". Edward Champlin notes it was likely the creation of a friendly rival, Lucius Julius Ursus Servianus, who also held the consulate three times the last after Verus.^[3]

One explanation is that the whole thing is a joke, based on the connection between Verus' known passion for playing ball and the notion of the ball game as political juggling: an elegant, self-deprecating and rather bitter joke, one not wholly complimentary to Verus. The aged L. Iulius Servianus wrote the piece himself, had it engraved on a marble slab - perhaps accompanying it with the statue of a toga-clad bear playing ball? - and had it delivered to M. Annius Verus on the Kalends of January, 126. When next they met, the two old men affected to laugh heartily at the joke. Fantasy perhaps, but this is a very strange inscription.

He died in 138, nearly aged ninety. Marcus Aurelius says in his "Meditations": "From my grandfather Verus, [I learned] a kindly disposition and sweetness of temper".^[4] In his elder years, he had a mistress, of whom he expresses gratitude that "I wasn’t raised by my grandfather's mistress for longer than I was".^[5]

Family

Verus married Rupilia Faustina (fl. 90 AD), a daughter of the consul Libo Rupilius Frugi and probably Vitellia Galeria Fundania, daughter of emperor Vitellius.^[6][7] Frugi also had another daughter named Rupilia who was the grandniece of emperor Trajan. Verus had at least three children by Faustina:^[8]

• Annia Galeria Faustina or Faustina the Elder, a future empress, who married the future emperor Antoninus Pius
• Marcus Annius Libo, consul in 128
• Marcus Annius Verus, father to future emperor Marcus Aurelius

Ronald Syme suggests, based on onomastic evidence, that they had a fourth child, a daughter Annia, who married Gaius Ummidius Quadratus Sertorius Severus.^[9]

After Verus the son died in 124, the elder Verus adopted, and, together with his daughter-in-law Domitia, raised their children.^[10]

Nerva–Antonine family tree

v t e Nerva–Antonine family tree
Q. Marcius Barea Soranus Q. Marcius Barea Sura Antonia Furnilla M. Cocceius Nerva Sergia Plautilla P. Aelius Hadrianus Titus (r. 79–81) Marcia Furnilla Marcia Trajanus Pater Nerva (r. 96–98) Ulpia[i] Aelius Hadrianus Marullinus Flavia[ii] Marciana[iii] C. Salonius Matidius[iv] Trajan (r. 98–117) Plotina P. Acilius Attianus P. Aelius Afer[v] Paulina Major[vi] Lucius Mindius (2) Libo Rupilius Frugi (3) Salonia Matidia[vii] L. Vibius Sabinus (1)[viii] Paulina Minor[vi] L. Julius Ursus Servianus[ix] Matidia Minor[vii] Sabina[iii] Hadrian[v][x][vi] (r. 117–138) Antinous[xi] C. Fuscus Salinator I Julia Serviana Paulina M. Annius Verus[xii] Rupilia Faustina[xiii][xiv] Boionia Procilla Cn. Arrius Antoninus L. Ceionius Commodus Appia Severa C. Fuscus Salinator II L. Caesennius Paetus Arria Antonina Arria Fadilla[xv] T. Aurelius Fulvus L. Caesennius Antoninus L. Commodus Plautia unknown[xvi] C. Avidius Nigrinus M. Annius Verus[xiii] Calvisia Domitia Lucilla[xvii] Fundania[xviii] M. Annius Libo[xiii] Faustina[xv] Antoninus Pius (r. 138–161)[xv] L. Aelius Caesar[xvi] Avidia[xvi] Cornificia[xiii] Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180)[xix] Faustina Minor[xix] C. Avidius Cassius[xx]^[clarification needed] Aurelia Fadilla[xv] Lucius Verus (r. 161–169)[xvi] (1) Ceionia Fabia[xvi] Plautius Quintillus[xxi] Q. Servilius Pudens Ceionia Plautia[xvi] Cornificia Minor[xxii] M. Petronius Sura Commodus (r. 177–192)[xix] Fadilla[xxii] M. Annius Verus Caesar[xix] Ti. Claudius Pompeianus (2) Lucilla[xix] M. Plautius Quintillus[xvi] Junius Licinius Balbus Servilia Ceionia Petronius Antoninus L. Aurelius Agaclytus (2) Aurelia Sabina[xxii] L. Antistius Burrus (1) Plautius Quintillus Plautia Servilla C. Furius Sabinus Timesitheus Antonia Gordiana Junius Licinius Balbus? Furia Sabina Tranquillina Gordian III (r. 238–244)
(1) = 1st spouse (2) = 2nd spouse (3) = 3rd spouse   Reddish-purple indicates emperor of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty   lighter purple indicates designated imperial heir of said dynasty who never reigned   grey indicates unsuccessful imperial aspirants   bluish-purple indicates emperors of other dynasties dashed lines indicate adoption; dotted lines indicate love affairs/unmarried relationships Small Caps = posthumously deified (Augusti, Augustae, or other)
Notes: Except where otherwise noted, the notes below indicate that an individual's parentage is as shown in the above family tree. Sister of Trajan's father: Giacosa (1977), p. 7. Giacosa (1977), p. 8. Levick (2014), p. 161. Husband of Ulpia Marciana: Levick (2014), p. 161. Giacosa (1977), p. 7. DIR contributor (Herbert W. Benario, 2000), "Hadrian". Giacosa (1977), p. 9. Husband of Salonia Matidia: Levick (2014), p. 161. Smith (1870), "Julius Servianus". Smith (1870), "Hadrian", pp. 319–322. Lover of Hadrian: Lambert (1984), p. 99 and passim; deification: Lamber (1984), pp. 2–5, etc. Husband of Rupilia Faustina: Levick (2014), p. 163. Levick (2014), p. 163. It is uncertain whether Rupilia Faustina was Frugi's daughter by Salonia Matidia or another woman. Levick (2014), p. 162. Levick (2014), p. 164. Wife of M. Annius Verus: Giacosa (1977), p. 10. Wife of M. Annius Libo: Levick (2014), p. 163. Giacosa (1977), p. 10. The epitomator of Cassius Dio (72.22) gives the story that Faustina the Elder promised to marry Avidius Cassius. This is also echoed in HA "Marcus Aurelius" 24. Husband of Ceionia Fabia: Levick (2014), p. 164. Levick (2014), p. 117.
References: DIR contributors (2000). "De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and Their Families". Retrieved 2015-04-14. Giacosa, Giorgio (1977). Women of the Caesars: Their Lives and Portraits on Coins. Translated by R. Ross Holloway. Milan: Edizioni Arte e Moneta. ISBN 0-8390-0193-2. Lambert, Royston (1984). Beloved and God: The Story of Hadrian and Antinous. New York: Viking. ISBN 0-670-15708-2. Levick, Barbara (2014). Faustina I and II: Imperial Women of the Golden Age. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-537941-9. Smith, William, ed. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

References

1. Anthony Birley, Marcus Aurelius, a Biography (London: Routledge, 1987), p. 28
2. Fausto Zevi "I consoli del 97 d. Cr. in due framenti gia' editi dei Fasti Ostienses", Listy filologické / Folia philologica, 96 (1973), pp. 125-137
3. Champlin, "The Glass Ball Game", Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 60 (1985), pp. 159-163
4. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, i.1
5. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, i.17
6. Rupilius. Strachan stemma.
7. Settipani, Christian (2000). Continuité gentilice et continuité familiale dans les familles sénatoriales romaines à l'époque impériale: mythe et réalité. Prosopographica et genealogica (in Italian). Vol. 2 (illustrated ed.). Unit for Prosopographical Research, Linacre College, University of Oxford. p. 278. ISBN 9781900934022.
8. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, pp. 28f
9. Syme, "Ummidius Quadratus, Capax Imperii", Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 83 (1979), p. 308
10. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 31

Political offices
Preceded by Gnaeus Arrius Antoninus II Gaius Calpurnius Piso as Suffect consuls	Roman consul 97 (suffect) with Lucius Neratius Priscus	Succeeded by Lucius Domitius Apollinaris Sextus Hermentidius Campanus as Suffect consuls
Preceded by Gaius Carminius Gallus Gaius Atilius Serranus as Suffect consuls	Roman consul II 121 with Gnaeus Arrius Augur	Succeeded by Marcus Herennius Faustus Quintus Pomponius Marcellus as Suffect consuls
Preceded by Quintus Vetina Verus Publius Lucius Cosconianus as Suffect consuls	Roman consul III 126 with Gaius Eggius Ambibulus	Succeeded by Lucius Valerius Propinquus Gaius Eggius Ambibulus

External links

• Aurelius, Marcus (167). Meditations.
• Birley, Anthony Richard (2000). Marcus Aurelius: A Biography (2nd revised ed.). Routledge. ISBN 0-415-17125-3.
• "Matidia the Elder". Livius.org. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
• "Faustina, Annia Galeria (1)". Fofweb.com. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 26 January 2007.
• Rodgers, N. (2005). The History and Conquests of Ancient Rome. Hermes House. ISBN 1844773337.
• "The Life of Marcus Aurelius: Part 1". Historia Augusta. Loeb Classical Library. 1921. Retrieved 27 June 2015.