Arve, and welcome to Emperors of Rome, a podcast about the rulers of the ancient Roman Empire.

I'm your host Matt Smith and with me today is Dr.

Rianna Evans, a senior lecturer in ancient Mediterranean studies at Latrobe University.

This is episode LX I, I, I, I, from a kingdom of gold.

Marcus Aurelius faced many threats to Rome during his time as emperor and spent more time at war than he did at peace.

Unlike most emperors though,

succession was never an issue

as he had a legitimate son, Commodus,

ready to take his place should anything happen.

He's Rianna Nevins. So in 178 we get another

section of the Marco Manic Wars, this event that really crops up for Marcus Aurelius

again and again and again. He never seems to be able to put it to bed.

These Germanic peoples, he thinks he's done with them, he's been out of Rome for a good few years

when he returns to Rome he realizes he's got to deal with them again.

And what Diyo tells us is he responded in an interesting way, and this is a quote,

when the Scythian situation by Scythian he just means

northern once more demanded his attention it caused him to give his son a wife

Crispina sooner than he wished that That's Diobeke 72-33. So we've got a young

Commodus at this point getting married sooner than he normally would have. Yeah well

Commodus was born in 161, so he's 16 at this point, which would be perfectly reasonable

and even earlier for a woman to get married, but for sons, they might wait a little bit so this is

unusual and it indicates that Marcus is anxious about the future and I think we

...