If a Roman emperor has gone down in posterity with the image of a wise and considered man, capable of making the right and just decisions, as a thoughtful politician, drawn against his will to numerous wars, which he always led to the good of the empire, that is Marcus Aurelius (121-180). His book The Meditations, An Imperishable Stoic Manual continues to be sold and distributed. The Spanish translation is available in eight different editions, not counting a manga version. But posterity is always a mystery, because under his rule some of the most brutal and best-documented persecutions of Christians took place: the famous Martyrs of Lyon being devoured by wild beasts in 177, to the delight of people who never tired of asking Blood.
From The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Atalanta), the great 18th-century classic by Edward Gibbon, to The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), where he is played by Alec Guinness, or Gladiator (2000), the Film in which the Emperor The Philosopher was impersonated by Richard Harris, the Emperor of the Antonine Dynasty had only one blemish on his record: that his successor was his son Commodus, one of history’s worst emperors, rivaling Caligula in cruelty and madness or Nero. In fact, the script in Ridley Scott’s film relieves him of even that deficiency, as the Emperor wants his successor to be his finest general, Máximo Décimo Meridio, played by Russell Crowe.
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Alec Guinness as Marcus Aurelius in The Fall of the Roman Empire.
Realizing he will be pushed aside, Commodus first strangles his father and then attempts to kill Máximo, who only survives to become a slave and avenge his family’s murder by delivering one of the greatest speeches, ever heard Amphitheater: “My name is Máximo Décimo Meridio, commander of the armies of the North, general of the Phoenix Legions, faithful servant of the true Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife, and I swear I will avenge myself, in this life or the next.”
Gibbon goes even further, marking the reign of Marcus Aurelius as the happiest in human history, an honor he shares with five other emperors: Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Lucius Verus. “If a man were asked to point to the period of world history when the condition of mankind was happier and more prosperous,” writes the English historian in José Sánchez de León Menduiña’s translation for Atalanta, “he would say without hesitation the one that passed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus. The expanse of the Roman Empire was ruled by absolute power under the guidance of virtue and wisdom. The armies were held in the firm but measured hand of successive emperors, whose character and authority inspired respect.
“The life of Marcus Aurelius himself (121-180) spanned almost three quarters of this period, while his reign (161-180) occupied the last 19 years,” writes Anthony Birley in his biography of the ruler (published in Spanish by Gredos). in translation by José Luis Gil Aristu), whose summary says it all: “The portrait of a humane and just emperor”. “Casius Dion, born shortly after Marcus came to power, wrote of his death: ‘My history descends from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust, and so did the kings, the Romans, of that time. Interestingly, Birley points out, neither of these emperors was the son of his predecessor, “thus some contemporary observers and many later commentators, including Gibbon, thought that imperial succession was then governed by a new principle: ‘choose the best.’ In reality, it was not a matter of principle or deliberate action.”
Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, on the Capitoline Hill in Rome.getty
Wise as he was, Marcus Aurelius lived in a violent world, and his life and reign were shaped by the wars of the North, in which he had to defend the Empire’s borders from barbarian attacks – a conflict that was carried out with such force and Detail reconstructed by Ridley Scott in the opening scenes of Gladiator—. And it was also a time when Christians could be torn to pieces by wild beasts: after a period of calm after Nero’s persecutions, the professors of this faith were martyred again, albeit not organized but dependent on each individual. Governor and Citizen Complaints. Birley reports in his biography that such eminent intellectuals as Tacitus, Pliny, and Suetonius—whom we still read and admire centuries after their disappearance—held the view that “Christians were perishable men deserving of death.” However, Mar Marcos, a professor of ancient history at the University of Cantabria, believes that he was not a particularly bitter emperor towards those who practiced this new cult.
“There is no evidence that Marcus Aurelius would have changed the policy of his predecessors towards Christians, which had insisted on specific punishments for complaints,” says the old Christianity expert. “In no case can one speak of ‘persecution’. There are no legal documents of this emperor about Christians. What we know of their attitude toward them comes from Christian apologetic literature and generally unreliable accounts of martyrdom. In the Meditations Marcus Aurelius negatively admires the propensity of Christians to martyrdom.
However, during his reign the martyrs of Lyon, then called Lugdunum, were executed. “The story of the Martyrs of Lyon is the longest-surviving of several alluding to martyrs in the time of Marcus Aurelius,” Professor Marcos continues. “The document has a very special format, a letter from the Christians of Gaul to the Christians of Asia Minor, detailing the facts, particularly the torture used on them. The names of the martyrs are mentioned, and among them one woman stands out, Blandina, who showed great steadfastness. Roman citizens were beheaded; Non-citizens were thrown to the wild animals in the amphitheater in front of a large audience. The document circulated throughout antiquity and had a major impact on the Christian community. It’s still chilling to a modern reader.”
The Martyrdom of Saint Blandina, after Émile Bayard.Getty
Researcher Douglas Boin, author of Coming Out. Christians in the Roman World. How Jesus’ followers made a place in Caesar’s kingdom (Bloomsbury) – “Going out into the light. Christians in the Roman World. How Jesus’ followers carved a niche for themselves in Caesar’s kingdom” – similarly notes: “The punishments under Marcus Aurelius were very likely no more deadly or cruel than at any earlier period in Roman history for other criminals.
“Rome’s treatment of criminals, including slaves and non-citizens, was always brutal and cruel, with a standard menu of sadistic punishments – lashes, torches, crosses, and the like – used to deter riots, riots, slaves, and other outbreaks of rebellion . Christians arrested in Lyon would have been subject to some or all of this torture, especially if they did not have the rights of a Roman citizen, and sources indicate that many did not. Being thrown into the wild was always a very real possibility for convicted criminals in Rome,” continues Boin, who concludes: “So it’s true: an emperor who became famous for his reflections on how to be a just ruler oversaw an empire of citizens who drank blood in the amphitheatres”.
This researcher from the University of Saint Louis (USA) believes that what is known about this episode comes mainly from Christian writers who used it as propaganda with stories of martyrs who did not hesitate to face the beasts , without giving up their faith or as in the case of Blandina, they managed to defeat her – although she was later torn to pieces by a brave bull. They were stories that helped solidify a religion that was forming. “What happened in Lyon was a great spectacle for the Romans and a martyrdom for the Christians, but as history the heroes and villains of the time are much less clear. The role of the supposedly ‘enlightened’ emperor is also difficult to explain”.
Lyon amphitheater. Alamy / Cordon Press
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