| Lucius Aelius | |||||||||
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| Caesar of theRoman Empire | |||||||||
 Lucius Aelius,Louvre, Paris | |||||||||
| Born | 13 January 101 | ||||||||
| Died | 1 January 138 (aged 36) | ||||||||
| Spouse | Avidia | ||||||||
| Issue | Lucius Verus Ceionia Fabia Ceionia Plautia | ||||||||
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| Father | Lucius Ceionius Commodus Hadrian (adoptive) | ||||||||
| Mother | Plautia | ||||||||
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.png) Aureus of Lucius Aelius Caesar | ||||||||||||||
| Nerva–Antonine dynasty (AD 96–192) | ||||||||||||||
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Lucius Aelius Caesar (13 January 101 – 1 January 138) was the father of EmperorLucius Verus. In 136, he was adopted by the reigning emperorHadrian and namedheir to the throne. He died before Hadrian and thus never became emperor. After Lucius' death, he was replaced byAntoninus Pius, who succeeded Hadrian the same year.
Aelius was bornLucius Ceionius Commodus, and becameLucius Aelius Caesar upon his adoption as Hadrian's heir. He is sometimes referred to asLucius Aelius Verus, though this name is not attested outside theHistoria Augusta, where it probably was originally the result of a manuscript error. The young Lucius Ceionius Commodus was of thegensCeionia. His father, also namedLucius Ceionius Commodus (theHistoria Augusta adds the cognomen Verus), was consul in 106 and his paternal grandfather, also of the same name, was consul in 78. His paternal ancestors were fromEtruria, and were of consular rank. His mother is surmised to have been an undocumented Roman woman namedPlautia.[1] TheHistoria Augusta states that his maternal grandfather and his maternal ancestors were of consular rank.
Before 130, the younger Lucius Commodus marriedAvidia, a well-connected Roman noblewoman who was the daughter of the senatorGaius Avidius Nigrinus. Avidia bore Lucius at least one son and two daughters, who were:
For a long time, the emperorHadrian had considered his brother-in-lawLucius Julius Ursus Servianus as his unofficial successor. As Hadrian's reign drew to a close, however, he changed his mind. Although the emperor certainly thought Servianus capable of ruling as an emperor after Hadrian's own death, Servianus, by now in his nineties, was clearly too old for the position. Hadrian's attentions turned to Servianus' grandson, Lucius Pedanius Fuscus Salinator. Hadrian promoted the young Salinator, his great-nephew, gave him special status in his court, and groomed him as his heir.
However, in the summer of 136, Hadrian almost died from a haemorrhage. Convalescent inhis villa atTivoli, he decided to change his mind, and selected Lucius Ceionius Commodus as his new successor,adopting him as his son.[2] The selection was doneinvitis omnibus, "against the wishes of everyone";[3] in particular, Servianus and the young Salinator became very angry at Hadrian and wished to challenge him over the adoption. Even today, the rationale for Hadrian's sudden switch is still unclear.[4][5] It is possible Salinator went so far as to attempt a coup against Hadrian in which Servianus was implicated. In order to avoid any potential conflict in the succession, Hadrian ordered the deaths of Salinator and Servianus.[6]
After a year's stationing on the Danube frontier, Aelius returned to Rome to make an address to the senate on the first day of 138. The night before the speech, however, he grew ill, and died of a haemorrhage late the next day.[7][8][notes 1] On 24 January 138, Hadrian selectedTitus Aurelius Antoninus as his new successor.[11][8]
After a few days' consideration, Antoninus accepted. He was adopted on 25 February 138. As part of Hadrian's terms, Antoninus adopted both Lucius Aelius's son, Lucius Ceionius Commodus, and Hadrian's great-nephew by marriage, Marcus Annius Verus. Marcus became "Marcus Aelius Aurelius Verus" (laterMarcus Aurelius Antoninus); and Lucius became "Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus" (laterLucius Aurelius Verus).[notes 2] At Hadrian's request, Antoninus' daughter Faustina was betrothed to Lucius.[12]
Marcus Aurelius later co-ruled with Lucius Verus as joint Roman Emperors, until Lucius Verus died in 169, after which Aurelius was sole ruler until his own death in 180.
In hisHistory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,Edward Gibbon tells of Aelius's brief time as Hadrian's successor-designate in these terms:
After revolving in his mind several men of distinguished merit, whom he esteemed and hated, [Hadrian] adopted Ælius Verus a gay and voluptuous nobleman, recommended by uncommon beauty to the lover ofAntinous. But whilst Hadrian was delighting himself with his own applause, and the acclamations of the soldiers, whose consent had been secured by an immense donative, the new Cæsar was ravished from his embraces by an untimely death.[13]
The major sources for the life of Aelius are patchy and frequently unreliable. The most important group of sources, the biographies contained in theHistoria Augusta, claim to be written by a group of authors at the turn of the 4th century, but are in fact written by a single author (referred to here as "the biographer") from the later 4th century (c. 395).[14]
The later biographies and the biographies of subordinate emperors and usurpers are a tissue of lies and fiction, but the earlier biographies, derived primarily from now-lost earlier sources (Marius Maximus or Ignotus), are much more accurate.[14] For Aelius, the biographies ofHadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus and Lucius Verus are largely reliable, but that of Avidius Cassius, and even Lucius Aelius' own, is full of fiction.[15]
Some other literary sources provide specific detail: the writings of the physicianGalen on the habits of the Antonine elite, the orations ofAelius Aristides on the temper of the times, and the constitutions preserved in theDigest andCodex Justinianus on Marcus' legal work.Inscriptions andcoin finds supplement the literary sources.[16]
Nerva–Antonine family tree | |
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| Notes: Except where otherwise noted, the notes below indicate that an individual's parentage is as shown in the above family tree.
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References:
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All citations to theHistoria Augusta are to individual biographies, and are marked with a "HA". Citations to the works ofFronto are cross-referenced to C.R. Haines' Loeb edition.
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| Preceded by | Roman caesar 136–137 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded byas suffect consuls | Roman consul 136 withSex. Vettulenus Civica Pompeianus | Succeeded byas ordinary consuls |
| Preceded by Lucius Ceionius Commodus, as ordinary consulsSex. Vettulenus Civica Pompeianus | Roman consul 137 withP. Coelius Balbinus Vibullius Pius | Succeeded byas ordinary consuls |
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