ad Titum, Arabice, cum J. Anton interlineari versione Latina ad verbum," Antwerp, 1612, 4to. 4. Theodore, a theologian, who flourished in the early part of the eighteenth century. He wrote, in Dutch, Commentaries on the Epistles of St. James, St. Peter, and St. Jude, and on the Book of Job.—T. J.
ANTONINA, the wife of Belisarius, a woman of abandoned character, lived towards the end of the sixth century.
ANTONINI, Annibale, an Italian author and lexicographer of the last century. His principal work is a triglot lexicon of the Latin, Italian, and French languages.
ANTONINI, Filippo, an Italian antiquary of the 16th cent.
ANTONINI, Giuseppe, an Italian jurist and antiquary, lived in the earlier part of the eighteenth century.
ANTONI´NUS, a name borne by six Roman emperors—Antoninus Pius, M. Aurelius, L. Commodus, Caracalla, Diadumenianus, and Heliogabalus.
ANTONINUS, Pius, the sixteenth in order of the Roman emperors from Julius Cæsar, was born at Lanuvium, a.d. 86. By a strange fatality, history is nearly silent as to the events of his reign. That portion of the history of Dion Cassius which contained the narrative of his life and actions, is unfortunately lost; and the only sources of authentic information that we possess consist of a few pages by an obscure chronicler, Julius Capitolinus, together with the numerous coins and inscriptions, dating from his reign, which have come down to us, the latter supplying a kind of knowledge eminently satisfactory so far as it goes, because contemporary and thoroughly reliable.
The name of Antoninus, written at full length, was Titus Aurelius Fulvius Boionius Arrius Antoninus. His father was Aurelius Fulvius, his mother Arria Fadilla. His grandfather was a native of Nemausus or Nismes, in Transalpine Gaul. His father dying while he was yet young, Arrius Antoninus, his maternal grandfather, took charge of his education, and brought him up at his estate of Lorium, a station on the Via Aurelia, about twelve miles from Rome, near the modern village of Castel di Guido. Arrius was the intimate friend of the Emperor Nerva, and a man of considerable distinction, having held, besides other posts, the proconsulate of the province of Asia. Thus introduced into public life under the most favourable auspices, and having constantly before his eyes an example of the highest administrative energy and ability during the successive reigns of Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian,—gifted himself by nature with a capacious mind and an equable temperament, and fortified, through the lessons of the Stoic philosophy, with the best system of moral training which the human mind, unassisted by revelation, has ever discovered,—Antoninus soon rose into distinction in the public service, deserved and obtained the esteem of Hadrian, and developed a genius for government which that emperor was not slow to perceive, and—a rarer characteristic was equally prompt in doing justice to. In the year 120 he was first made consul, and when his year of office was expired, he retired to his estate at Lorium, content if he had remained thenceforward in a private station. But Hadrian soon drew him from his retirement, and nominated him one of the four consular officers, to whom he confided the administration of Italy. As proconsul of Asia, a post to which he was subsequently appointed, he yet further increased his reputation for justice and generosity; he surpassed in the exercise of this employment, says Capitolinus, the glory of his grandfather, who had till then remained without a rival. His administrative talent and singular probity were not lost sight of by the discerning Hadrian, and after the death of Ælius Cæsar, he resolved to adopt him as his heir, and as his successor in the empire. In announcing this step to the senate, he concluded his panegyric upon Antoninus in these words: "In imposing the empire upon him, I do not consult him; I only consult the interest of the state. He will accept from patriotism the mission which his modesty would have declined."
The adoption of Antoninus took place in February, a.d. 138: four months later Hadrian died, and his adopted son assumed without opposition the reins of government. Soon after, he received from the senate the surname of Pius, of which various explanations are mentioned by Capitolinus. The following appears to be the most probable:—Offended on account of certain severities which Hadrian had exercised towards members of their body, the senate was disposed, after his death, to withhold from him the usual divine honours paid to deceased emperors. But when Antoninus strongly opposed this, and insisted upon their decreeing the apotheosis of his benefactor, the senate, fearing, perhaps, that they had gone too far, not only yielded the point at issue, but, in recognition of his filial zeal, decreed to him the title of Pius, the exact force of which is "dutifully affectionate."
Ascending the throne at the mature age of fifty-two, Antoninus swayed for twenty-three years the destinies of the Roman world, which, during the whole of that period, from Britain to the Libyan desert, and from Parthia to Lusitania, enjoyed with trifling exceptions a profound peace. Periods like these are usually the blank spaces of history, though changes are often silently going on in them, which are fraught with future blessings to the human race. Relieved from persecution during this mild reign, Christianity made great advances in every part of the empire. It was in this reign, also, that a great number of those wise laws and imperial rescripts were framed, and those improvements in jurisprudence effected, which, when codified and methodized under Justinian, formed the basis of the civil law and judicial procedure of modern Europe.
The private life of Antoninus was not altogether happy, owing to the irregularities of his wife Faustina. He had four children by her; two sons who died previously to his adoption by Hadrian, and two daughters, one of whom, Annia Faustina, married Marcus Aurelius. The elder Faustina died in the year 142; Antoninus procured her deification, and had a temple erected in her honour; but a more durable monument to her memory consisted in the institution which he founded for the support and education of young girls (Puellæ Faustinianæ), whose parents were either dead or in needy circumstances, and which he endowed with ample revenues. The personal habits of Antoninus were simple, and such as became a Stoic philosopher. His table was supplied from the produce of his own estates; and he purposely confined his journeys within the boundaries of Italy, in order that he might not burden the provinces with the inevitable expenses of an imperial progress.
In his administration of the affairs of Italy, Antoninus happily united the character of an energetic reformer with that of a wise conservative. The great improvements in Roman law which were effected under his auspices, and by the instrumentality of the able lawyers whom he employed, have been already noticed. We learn from inscriptions that he was not less active In the prosecution of great public works, among which are mentioned the mole of Puteoli, the lighthouse of Caieta, and the port of Terracina. Again, on the side of conversatism, we find him—ignorant as he unfortunately was of that religion, the treasures of which contain equally "things new and old"—endeavouring to keep alive among his subjects a reverence for the old gods and heroes of their mythology, for Æneas, Mars, Romulus, and Æsculapius. To Christianity he granted all that she needs at the hands of princes—perfect freedom of action. Save that, in some parts of the empire. In spite of the humane intentions of Antoninus, individual governors would sometimes act upon the sanguinary edicts of former emperors, and institute partial persecutions, the Christian church was allowed to pursue her divine mission of converting the world in peace.
Of foreign or civil wars we hear almost nothing in the reign of Antoninus. The revolt of the Brigantes, a British tribe, and the invasion of the empire by the Moors, an independent people of Libya, are the most important events of the kind mentioned, and in both cases, the assailants were easily crushed by the able lieutenants of the emperor. It was on the former of these occasions that Lollius Urbicus, commander of the legions in Britain, erected the wall of Antoninus as a rampart against the barbarous Caledonians, extending from the frith of Forth to the frith of Clyde. Yet the power of Rome was respected and feared far beyond the borders of the empire; and the coins of this reign attest that Antoninus gave kings to the Armenians and the Quadi of Germany, at the request of those nations themselves.
Antoninus had a majestic presence, and a remarkably deep-toned melodious voice, which enhanced the effect of his natural eloquence. He greatly enjoyed the pleasures and pursuits of a country life, and used to escape, whenever he could find an opportunity, from the cares of state to one of his numerous estates. It was at Lorium that he died, on the 7th March, 161, at the age of seventy-five. As he lay on his deathbed, the tribune on duty came, it is said, to ask what was to be the password for the night. Antoninus replied, "Æquanimitas," the name of the favourite virtue of the Stoics: it was his last word. He was succeeded by his adopted son, Marcus Aurelius.—(Biogr. Universelle; Smith's Greek and Roman Biography.)—T. A.
