41 Facts About Lucius Verus

Lucius Aurelius Verus was Roman emperor from 161 until his death in 169, alongside his adoptive brother Marcus Aurelius.

Lucius Verus was deified by the Roman Senate as the Divine Verus.

Lucius Verus was reported to have been an excellent student, fond of writing poetry and delivering speeches.

Lucius Verus started his political career as a quaestor in 153, became consul in 154, and in 161 was consul again with Marcus Aurelius.

Lucius Verus had been consul once more than Lucius, he had shared in Pius' administration, and he alone was Pontifex maximus.

Lucius Verus addressed the assembled troops, which then acclaimed the pair as imperatores.

Marcus and Lucius Verus proved popular with the people of Rome, who strongly approved of their civiliter behavior.

Lucius Verus sent a note to the imperial freedman Charilas, asking if he could call on the emperors.

Lucius Verus was less esteemed by his tutor than his brother, as his interests were on a lower level.

Lucius Verus asked Fronto to adjudicate in a dispute he and his friend Calpurnius were having on the relative merits of two actors.

Lucius Verus's daughters were in Rome, with their great-great-aunt Matidia Minor; Marcus thought the evening air of the country was too cold for them.

Lucius Verus was stronger and healthier than Marcus, the argument went, more suited to military activity.

Lucius Verus's biographer suggests ulterior motives: to restrain Lucius Verus's debaucheries, to make him thrifty, to reform his morals by the terror of war, to realize that he was an emperor.

Lucius Verus selected his favorite freedmen, including Geminus, Agaclytus, Coedes, Eclectus, and Nicomedes, who gave up his duties as praefectus vehiculorum to run the commissariat of the expeditionary force.

Lucius Verus left in the summer of 162 to take a ship from Brundisium; Marcus followed him as far as Capua.

Lucius Verus feasted himself in the country houses along his route, and hunted at Apulia.

Lucius Verus fell ill at Canosa, probably afflicted with a mild stroke, and took to bed.

Fronto was upset at the news, but was reassured when Lucius Verus sent him a letter describing his treatment and recovery.

Lucius Verus was better after three days' fasting and a bloodletting.

Lucius Verus continued eastward via Corinth and Athens, accompanied by musicians and singers as if in a royal progress.

Lucius Verus stopped in Ephesus, where he is attested at the estate of the local aristocrat Publius Vedius Antoninus, and made an unexpected stopover at Erythrae.

Lucius Verus spent most of the campaign in Antioch, though he wintered at Laodicea and summered at Daphne, a resort just outside Antioch.

Lucius Verus took up a mistress named Panthea, from Smyrna.

Lucius Verus had taken to gambling, they said; he would "dice the whole night through".

Lucius Verus made a special request for dispatches from Rome, to keep him updated on how his chariot teams were doing.

Lucius Verus brought a golden statue of the Greens' horse Volucer around with him, as a token of his team spirit.

Fronto wrote that Lucius Verus was on foot at the head of his army as often as on horseback.

Lucius Verus personally inspected soldiers in the field and at camp, including the sick bay.

Lucius Verus sent Fronto few messages at the beginning of the war.

Lucius Verus sent Fronto a letter apologizing for his silence.

Lucius Verus did not want Fronto to suffer the anxieties that had kept him up day and night.

Lucius Verus needed to make extensive imports into Antioch, so he opened a sailing route up the Orontes.

When Lucius Verus was hailed as imperator again Marcus did not hesitate to take the Imperator II with him.

Lucius Verus's coinage resumed, too: 'Ma'nu the king' or Antonine dynasts on the obverse, and 'King Mannos, friend of Romans' on the reverse.

Lucius Verus took the title Parthicus Maximus, and he and Marcus were hailed as imperatores again, earning the title 'imp.

Lucius Verus was probably the first senator in his family.

Martius Lucius Verus was a westerner, whose patria was perhaps Tolosa in Gallia Narbonensis.

Lucius Verus had a tavern built in his house, probably at Acquatraversa, where he celebrated parties with his friends until dawn.

Lucius Verus enjoyed roaming around the city among the population, without acknowledging his identity.

Marcus Aurelius disapproved of his conduct but, since Lucius Verus continued to perform his official tasks with efficiency, there was little that he could do.

Lucius Verus accompanied the body to Rome, where he offered games to honour his memory.