ABSTRACT
A relief from Ephesus now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum at Vienna has been interpreted as depicting the imperial family in 138, between the adoption of Antoninus Pius and the death of Hadrian. It shows both Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. For the twenty-three years of Antoninus's reign after 146/7 Marcus lived at Antoninus's side. Like Antoninus, he scarcely moved outside the palace; indeed, he was not absent from it for more than two nights. Marcus Aurelius was born in 121, and his original name, Marcus Annius Verus, was that of his forebears. Hadrian entrusted his education to the best teachers of the day, including the famous Fronto to whom Marcus Aurelius became so close. The Parthians' huge army consisted of permanent frontier garrisons plus 'feudal' levies summoned for military operations. The crisis was considered so severe that Aurelius told the senate that both emperors, he and Lucius Verus, were needed to go north.
