extend the boundaries of the empire. The
barbarous races who were now beginning to swarm upon the frontiers, the
Germans and the Dacians, were held in check; and although the Brigantes
made several inroads into Britain, they were defeated by A. Lollius, the
Legate, in A.D. 141; and a wall of turf was raised beyond the former
wall built by Agricola to check the incursions of the Caledonians. This
peaceful reign, however, seems to have increased the general indolence
of the people, and the martial spirit of the Roman soldiers declined in
the idleness of their stationary camps. After a reign of twenty-three
years, Antoninus died, March 7th, A.D. 161, in his villa at Lorium, aged
seventy-five years.

REIGN OF MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS, A.D. 161-180.

He was succeeded by Aurelius, who was born at Rome A.D. 121. This prince
is known as the Philosopher; and the wish of Plato that philosophers
might be kings, or kings philosophers, seems to have been fulfilled at
his accession. Aurelius had been from his youth a lover of truth. His
morals and his intellect were trained by the purest and wisest men of
his age. He had studied under Herodes Atticus and Cornelius Fronto, two
famous rhetoricians, and also under the Stoic philosophers Junius
Rusticus and Apollonius; and he had been constantly employed by his
adopted father Antoninus as an associate in all his useful and
benevolent designs. His health was, however, delicate, and he now
admitted to a share in the empire his adopted brother, L. Verus, who
possessed a vigorous constitution, but was addicted to licentious
pleasures.

The general peace which had prevailed during the reign of Marcus
Antoninus was forever passed away, and the world was in future to be
desolated by almost perpetual hostilities. The Parthian king Vologeses
III. having invaded the eastern provinces, and cut to pieces a Roman
legion, L. Verus was sent to oppose his advance; but upon arriving at
Antioch, Verus remained there, plunged in dissipation, while his brave
lieutenant Avidius Cassius drove back the Parthians, invaded
Mesopotamia, destroyed Seleucia, and penetrated to Babylon. Another
Roman general conquered Armenia, and restored the legitimate king Soaemus
to his throne. At the close of the war, Verus, A.D. 166, returned to
Rome, and triumphed. His army brought the plague with it from the East,
which now desolated Italy and Rome. Many illustrious men died; but the
famous physician Galen (Claudius Gal