Upon Hadrian’s death Antoninus Pius became Emperor and his adopted son, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus after him (though he was co-emperor with Lucius Verus before the latter died). Together ‘the two Antonines’ governed for 40 years of relative calm and indeed during Atoninus’ reign there were no serious military crises for Rome. Gibbon argues that ‘their united reigns were possibly the only period of history in which the happiness of a great people was the sole objective of government.’ This certainly fits the image of a ‘Golden Age’ for the people of Rome and especially for the arts as the two Antonines encouraged the ‘love of religion, justice and peace’. Particularly in Marcus Aurelius’ reign where the stoic philosophy is preserved through his Meditations we can see a truly golden age of peace and harmony. All 12 books of the Meditations are notes on how to be a better person with such instructions as ‘do what thou hast in hand with perfect and simple dignity, and feeling of affection, and freedom, and justice; and to give thyself relief from all other thoughts’. They are effectively a set of moral guidelines to be consulted almost like someone of faith might consult scripture. Marcus Aurelius detested the concept of war therefore but when it was required travelled with the men himself and spent eight winter campaigns on the banks of the Danube which eventually took its toll on his health; he was the last good Emperor. There ends the period of happiness and prosperity, argue both Cassius Dio and Gibbon who label Commodus as the beginning of the decline of the Empire. Cassius Dio labels him as a coward that craved the comfort of the palace in Rome and killed many people who plotted against him including women and children. Both Gibbon and Dio agree that Commodus was spineless and through his ignorance removed the precedent of Emperors caring for the people and society as his father and adoptee grandfather had done and therefore he is a logical marker for the end of the ‘Golden Age’ in the latter years of the 2nd Century AD.
In light of the arguments expressed, this paper concludes that Gibbon’s statement is correct to say that from Nerva to the accession of Commodus was the single happiest and most prosperous period in Roman history at least. However to say that the second century AD as a whole was a Golden Age is somewhat inaccurate as Commodus saw the decline of such an era in 192 AD in the final decade of the 2nd century. Therefore for anyone living in those last eight years the notion of a ‘Golden Age’ would be misleading and largely untrue. From 96AD through till 192 AD the Roman Empire endured five good emperors who showed military, architectural, economic, social and political genius between them. Though Trajan’s military conquests and Marcus Aurelius’ religious and philosophical views could not be more contrasted, they all maintained relative harmony and allowed freedom of expression for the people of Rome. Perhaps most importantly for this ‘Golden Age’ is stability. So many emperors had been (and would be afterwards), usurped, murdered or denounced post mortem yet this century, for the most part, genuinely saw as fair and prosperous a society as the Roman Empire could ever hope to have.
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