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Titus Aurelius Fulvius Boionius Arrius Antoninus Pius (September 19, 86 - March 7, 161) was Roman emperor from 138 to 161.
He was the son of Aurelius Fulvus, a Roman consul whose family came from Nemausus (Nîmes). Antoninus Pius was born near Lanuvium. After the death of his father, he was brought up under the care of Arrius Antoninus, his maternal grandfather, and a friend of Pliny the Younger.
Having discharged the offices of quaestor and praetor, and twice served as consul, Antoninus was appointed by the emperor Hadrian as one of the four ex-consuls to administer Italy, then greatly increased his reputation by his conduct as proconsul of Asia. He acquired much favor with the emperor Hadrian, who adopted him as his son and successor February 25, 138, after the death of his first adopted son Aelius Verus, on the condition that he would adopt Marcus Annius Verus, the son of his wife's brother, and Lucius, son of Aelius Verus, who afterward became the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Aelius Verus.
Antoninus in many ways was the ideal of the landed gentleman praised not only by ancient Romans like Varro and Cato the Elder, but later scholars of classical history, such as Edward Gibbon or the author of the article on Antoninus Pius in the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica:
His reign was comparatively uneventful in comparison to those before and after his; the surviving evidence is not complete enough to determine whether we should interpret, with older scholars, that he wisely curtailed the activities of the Roman Empire to a careful minimum, or perhaps that he was uninterested in events away from Rome and Italy and his inaction contributed to the pressing troubles that faced not only Marcus Aurelius but also the emperors of the third century.
One of his first acts as Emperor was to persuade the senate to grant divine honors to Hadrian, which they had at first refused; his efforts to persuade the Senate to grant these honors is one of the reasons given for his title of Pius (dutiful in affection; compare pietas). Two other reasons for this title are that he would support his aged father-in-law with his hand at Senate meetings, and that he had saved from death those men that Hadrian, during his period of ill-health, had condemned to death. He built temples, theatres, and mausoleums, promoted the arts and sciences, and bestowed honors and salaries upon the teachers of rhetoric and philosophy.
There were several military disturbances throughout the Empire in his time, in Mauretania, Judea, and amongst the Brigantes in Britain, but none of them are considered serious. The unrest in Britain is believed to have led to the construction of the wall of Antoninus from the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Clyde.
By his wife Faustina (the Elder) he had two sons and two daughters, but all died before his elevation to the throne -- except Faustina (the Younger), who became the wife of Marcus Aurelius. On her death in the third year of his reign, he honored her memory by the foundation of a charity for orphan girls, following the practice of prior emperors in endowing an Alimentaria to promote the welfare of children and an increased population.
Antoninus died of fever at Lorium in Etruria, about 12 miles from Rome, on March 7, 161, giving the keynote to his life in the last word that he uttered when the tribune of the night-watch came to ask the password -- "Equanimity".
The only account of his life handed down to us is one of the Scriptores Historiae Augustae.
He was also the first Roman emperor to appear in Chinese historical sources.
This is a list of Roman Emperors with the dates they controlled the Roman Empire.
(Note that, contrary to popular belief, Julius Caesar was never Emperor (princeps), although he was named dictator for life in 45 BC (but was not the first Roman to hold that title) and was regarded as such by Roman historians. On the other hand, the name Caesar became the family name of the first dynasty and was effectively treated as a title, a practice which continued throughout the Empire. Similarly, Suetonius wrote of The Twelve Caesars (including the Flavians) so some sense of continuity was evidently felt.)
For the worship of the Roman Emperor as a god, see imperial cult.
For a simplified list see: Concise List of Roman Emperors
italics: claimant who cannot be conisdered to have ruled or held power over part of the empire only
bold italics: nickname by which the individual is commonly known
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