Editing Marcus Aurelius (section)

===Death and succession (180)===
[[File:Delacroix-Marc Aurèle-MBA-Lyon.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Last Words of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius]]'' (1844) by [[Eugène Delacroix]]|alt=Painting that depicts Marcus on his deathbed and his son Commodus, surrounded by the emperor's philosopher friends]]
Marcus Aurelius died at the age of 58 on 17 March 180<ref>Dio [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/72*.html 72.33.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408220149/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/72%2A.html |date=8 April 2023 }}</ref> of unknown causes in his military quarters either in the city of [[Vindobona]] (province of [[Pannonia Superior]], today [[Vienna]]) or near [[Sirmium]] (province of [[Pannonia Inferior]], modern [[Sremska Mitrovica]]).{{refn|Vindobona as Marc Aurel's death place is mentioned by [[Aurelius Victor]] in his ''De Caesaribus'' (16.14), Sirmium on the other hand in [[Tertullian]]'s ''Apologeticum'' (25)|group=note}} He was immediately deified and [[Cremation|his ashes]] were returned to Rome, where they rested in Hadrian's [[mausoleum]] (modern [[Castel Sant'Angelo]]) until the [[Visigoth]] [[Sack of Rome (410)|sack of the city]] in 410. His campaigns against Germans and Sarmatians were also commemorated by a [[Column of Marcus Aurelius|column]] and a [[temple of Marcus Aurelius|temple]] built in Rome.<ref name='Kleiner2016'>Kleiner, p. 230.</ref> Some scholars consider his death to be the end of the ''[[Pax Romana]]''.<ref name='Merrony2017'>Merrony, p. 85.</ref>

[[File:Aurelius180AD.png|thumb|upright=1.6|The [[Roman Empire]] at the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180, represented in purple. His annexation of lands of the Marcomanni and the Jazyges – perhaps to be provincially called [[Marcomannia]] and Sarmatia<ref>Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 253.</ref> – was cut short in 175 by the revolt of [[Avidius Cassius]] and by his death.<ref>Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 183.</ref> The light pink territory represents Roman dependencies: [[Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity)|Armenia]], [[Colchis]], [[Kingdom of Iberia|Iberia]], and [[Caucasian Albania|Albania]].|alt=Expanse of the Roman Empire during Marcus Aurelius's reign]]
Marcus was succeeded by his son [[Commodus]], whom he had named Caesar in 166 and with whom he had jointly ruled since 177.<ref name='Birley186–91'>Birley, 'Hadrian to the Antonines', pp. 186–191.</ref> Biological sons of the emperor, if there were any, were considered heirs;<ref>Kemezis, p. 45.</ref> however, it was only the second time that a "non-adoptive" son had succeeded his father, the only other having been a century earlier when [[Vespasian]] was succeeded by his son [[Titus]]. Historians have criticised the succession to Commodus, citing Commodus' erratic behaviour and lack of political and military acumen.<ref name='Birley186–91'/> At the end of his history of Marcus's reign, Cassius Dio wrote an [[encomium]] to the emperor, and described the transition to Commodus in his own lifetime with sorrow:<ref name="Tr. Cary, ad loc">Tr. Cary, ''ad loc''.</ref>

<blockquote>[Marcus] did not meet with the good fortune that he deserved, for he was not strong in body and was involved in a multitude of troubles throughout practically his entire reign. But for my part, I admire him all the more for this very reason, that amid unusual and extraordinary difficulties he both survived himself and preserved the empire. Just one thing prevented him from being completely happy, namely, that after rearing and educating his son in the best possible way he was vastly disappointed in him. This matter must be our next topic; for our history now descends from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust, as affairs did for the Romans of that day.
:–Dio lxxi. 36.3–4<ref name="Tr. Cary, ad loc"/></blockquote>

Dio adds that from Marcus's first days as counsellor to Antoninus to his final days as emperor of Rome, "he remained the same [person] and did not change in the least."<ref>Dio lxxii. 36, 72.34</ref>

[[Michael Grant (classicist)|Michael Grant]], in ''The Climax of Rome'', writes of Commodus:<ref name='Grant2011'/>

<blockquote>The youth turned out to be very erratic, or at least so anti-traditional that disaster was inevitable. But whether or not Marcus ought to have known this to be so, the rejections of his son's claims in favour of someone else would almost certainly have involved one of the civil wars which were to proliferate so disastrously around future successions.<ref name='Grant2011'>Grant, ''The Climax Of Rome'', p. 15.</ref></blockquote>