8.10

Lucius Verus' Campaigns in the East (163 CE)

Dio Cassius 71.2; Historia Augusta, Marcus Aurelius 8.6; Verus 7.1; Victor, De Caesaribus 16.4; Orosius, Histories against the Pagans 7.15.2

Hī: Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus

et...et...: "both...and..."

Vērus Annius Antōnīnus: = L. Annius Antōnīnus Vērus, or Lucius Verus

in mātrimōnium habuit: in 145 CE Marcus Aurelius married Antoninus Pius' daughter Anna Galeria Faustina the Younger, who was also Marcus' cousin. Lucius Verus married Marcus' and Faustina's daughter Lucilla in 164.

(2) contrā Parthōs: Lucius Verus nominally had the guidance of the war, but it was carried on by his lieutenants while he lingered in Antioch (Hazzard). In 161 Vologaeses III of Parthia seized Armenia and defeated two Roman armies. Verus arrived in Antioch in early 163, but it was his generals Statius Priscus, who recovered Armenia in 163 and placed a Roman nominee on the throne, and Avidius Cassius, who captured Seleucia and Ctesiphon two years later and made Mesopotamia a Roman protectorate (H.A. Marc. Aur. 12.8-10; Verus 7.9; Victor, De Caes. 16.4; Oros. 7.15.2). (Bird)

Seleucīam: Seleucia or Seluceia, a large city on the right bank of the Tigris.

cum quadringentīs mīlibus hominum: the Greek translation of Eutropius by Paeanius from the fourth century suggests that Marcus captured the city along with 40,000 (not 400,000) enemy soldiers who were garrisoned there (ἑλὼν μετὰ τῶν ἐγκαθημένων αὐτῇ στρατιωτῶν τετρακισμυρίων), rather than using 400,000 soldiers to take the city, which is incredible.

revexit: "won," reveho being used for the more usual reporto to mean "bring back (from a war) a particular outcome" (OLD reporto 3.b). Triumphāvit below refers to the actual procession. The triumph for the Parthian War occurred around 166 CE.

(3) Obiit tamen in Venetiā: Lucius Verus died of a stroke in Venetia in 169 CE.

cāsū morbī: "in an attack of the disease" (LS casus II.C)

(4) Vir ingeniī parum cīvīlis: "a man of insufficiently citizen-like disposition," i.e., his temperament was somewhat arrogant and autocratic. Ingeniī cīvīlis is genitive of quality (AG 345).

Cum obīsset: "when he had died" (> obeō).

inter deōs: See apotheosis.