alizing his clemency.
Instead of stirring up persecution against the Christians, he extended to
them the strong hand of his protection throughout the empire. Rather than
give occasion to that oppression which he regarded as inseparable from an
emperor's progress through his dominions, he was content to spend all the
years of his reign in Rome, or its neighbourhood. Under his patronage the
science of jurisprudence was cultivated by men of high ability, and a
number of humane and equitable enactments were passed in his name. Of the
public transactions of this period we have but scant information, but, to
judge by what we possess, those twenty-two years were not remarkably
eventful. One of his first acts was to persuade the senate to grant
divine honours to Hadrian, which they had at first refused; this gained
him the title of Pius (dutiful in affection). He built temples, theatres,
and mausoleums, promoted the arts and sciences, and bestowed honours and
salaries upon the teachers of rhetoric and philosophy. His reign was
comparatively peaceful. Insurrections amongst the Moors, Jews, and
Brigantes in Britain were easily put down. The one military result which
is of interest to us now is the building in Britain of the wall of
Antoninus from the Forth to the Clyde. In his domestic relations
Antoninus was not so fortunate. His wife, Faustina, has almost become a
byword for her lack of womanly virtue; but she seems to have kept her
hold on his affections to the last. On her death he honoured her memory
by the foundation of a charity for orphan girls, who bore the name of
_Alimentariae Faustinianae_. He had by her two sons and two daughters;
but they all died before his elevation to the throne, except Annia
Faustina, who became the wife of Marcus Aurelius. Antoninus died of fever
at Lorium in Etruria, about 12 m. from Rome, on the 7th of March 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--_aequanimitas_.

The only account of his life handed down to us is that of Julius
Capitolinus, one of the _Scriptores Historiae Augustae_. See
Bossart-Mueller, _Zur Geschichte des Kaisers A._ (1868); Lacour-Gayet,
_A. le Pieux et son Temps_ (1888); Bryant, _The Reign of Antonine_
(Cambridge Historical Essays, 1895); P.B. Watson, _Marcus Aurelius
Antoninus_ (London, 1884), chap. ii.

ANTONIO, known as "THE PRIOR OF CRATO" (1531-1595), claimant