Top 10 Roman Emperors: Antoninus Pius, The “Working From Home” Emperor
#8: Antoninus Pius – 86 – 161 AD (ruled 138-161)
Working from home has been the cool thing to do during the COVID-19 era. But let’s not pretend it’s a new thing, because Antoninus Pius did it before it was cool.
That’s silly, you might say, how can someone work from home in Ancient Rome? Antoninus was about 1900 years away from the invention of the internet!
Well, Antoninus ruled the Roman Empire from the comfort of his palace; in his 20+ years as emperor, he never left Italy, and successfully ruled Rome during its Golden Age.
Antoninus was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors, and the first of these that shows up on this list. The Five Good Emperors, also known as the Nerva-Antonine Dynasty, are a line of successful emperors that ruled from 96-180.
For the most part, the Five Good Emperors were either related by blood or through political marriages. Each was adopted as a son by the sitting emperor to inherit the throne.
Sound like nepotism? Well it’s not, actually. Each of these emperors adopted a highly qualified individual from within his ranks. Sensible, right? Shouldn’t the most qualified person run state affairs? Looking at you, America.
Adopted Into Being a GOAT
Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius was born in modern-day Lanuvio, Italy (a town a few miles south of Rome) to a family of senatorial rank. His grandfather achieved elite status serving under Vespasian when he campaigned for the throne during the Year of the Four Emperors in 69 AD.
Hadrian (ruled 117-138), Antoninus’s predecessor, adopted Antoninus as a son in 138 after gaining an excellent reputation in high-ranking public office positions. Hadrian’s health had been in decline, and as a result was very unpredictable and attempted suicide many times. Antoninus stopped him from killing himself on many occasions. Eventually, Hadrian gave up and left Rome for his private villa in modern-day Naples to live out the rest of his life indulging in food and drink. #RetirementGoals
Antoninus was at Hadrian’s side on his deathbed. When Hadrian died, Antoninus pardoned everyone whom Hadrian had sentenced to death. Hadrian wasn’t mentally all there his last few years on the throne and gave out unjust death sentences to many.
One of the people he pardoned was the Roman rapper named Lil’ Caesar. He was vital to Roman pop culture. That’s probably where Trump got the idea to pardon Lil’ Wayne. Wow, Roman traditions really do live in the modern day!
Putting In That Work, From Home
During Antoninus’s reign, there were hardly any revolts to put down and very few disturbances from outside invaders. Rome’s top generals commanded the army on behalf of Antoninus; some historians say that Antoninus never commanded an army in his life! So with this in mind, can you blame him for never leaving his palace? Boy was living that good life!
Despite this, Antoninus was no slouch, because even though he didn’t visit every single province like Hadrian did, he was always hard at work in Rome and ran the empire from the capital. How did he do this? He hosted various Zoom calls with his provincial governors to discuss business…
No, actually, he communicated effectively through letters with his various provincial governors. You know how some work meetings can just be e-mails? Yeah, Antoninus would send you a letter rather than a Zoom invite. What a guy!
Early on in his reign, he sent a military command to Britain to push north towards Scotland, effectively expanding the territory that Rome already had on the island. The cost of maintaining the acquired land didn’t produce many benefits though, so historians question why Antoninus pushed for this conquest in the first place.
Many believe he ordered this campaign to get a quick military “victory” early in his reign and prove his legitimacy. He made sure to publicize this “victory” across the empire, as coins minted around this time mention a military victory in Britannia. You could say, then, that Antoninus “conquered” Britain just to flex for the ancient ‘Gram.
Administratively, Antoninus continued to be effective in the highest office of Rome. He built aqueducts across the empire which gave citizens better access to free drinking water. He also built numerous temples and public buildings, improved upon the bridges and roads across the empire, and promoted the arts and sciences.
Despite all of his projects, he still left a pretty THICC treasury for his successors. This is quite the accomplishment when you add that Antoninus halted taxation in provinces that were victims of disasters, such as fires that scorched Rome and earthquakes that devastated Greek cities. Greek-speaking citizens of the empire were very fond of Antoninus because of this. So sure Rome didn’t send any stimulus checks during crisis, but I don’t have to pay taxes? @US Government you taking notes?
Finally, Antoninus greatly influenced Roman Law. His main focus in applying Roman Law was to make sure everyone was treated humanely; slaves were afforded more rights under the eyes of the law and the concept of “innocent until proven guilty” made one of its first appearances in a law code.
So no, the US did NOT invent this concept with the 11th Amendment to its Constitution. Chalk up another L to American Exceptionalism.
Passing the Torch to Another GOAT
Throughout the duration of Antoninus’s reign, the Roman people knew that Marcus Aurelius would be his successor. Marcus was like the LeBron James of Rome, everyone knew his potential and how great he’d be. “Is he on this list?” you might ask. Well, I guess I can give you a spoiler and say yes, I will be posting about him soon.
Marcus had so much potential, that apparently Hadrian had wanted him to be his successor. But at the time, Marcus was only 17 years old, too young to be given that much power. The worst Roman Emperors up to this point, Caligula and Nero, had been given the throne at a young age.
The intention was for Antoninus to be a transitional emperor; he would groom Marcus for the throne so that he wasn’t inexperienced when Antoninus died.
But Antoninus ended up living forever by ancient standards. As he grew senile, Marcus began to take more imperial responsibilities. Antoninus died of natural causes at the age of 75, obviously a rare feat back in that day. He achieved the second-longest reign (at that point in time) by a Roman Emperor, just shy of 23 years.
To use a sports analogy, Antoninus was to Rome what Steve Kerr was to the Golden State Warriors during their championship runs. Antoninus ruled during Rome’s Golden Age, and the Warriors assembled arguably the best team in NBA history when Kerr was their coach.
This isn’t to discredit both of them. Antoninus played a key role in keeping the empire stable, while Kerr had to put all the pieces together to actually win those championships. Running a superpower effectively certainly deserves a lot of props!
The typical Roman Emperor on this list would be one that has commanded an army and thus has traveled to different parts of the empire. If not, then some emperors, like Antoninus’s predecessor Hadrian, will travel to various parts of the empire to show their face and show the locals that their emperor really does care about them.
Antoninus didn’t do any of this. When he took over the throne, the empire was at its peak. He can thank his predecessors, Trajan (ruled 98-117) and Hadrian for leaving the empire in peak shape.
So Antoninus did what anyone would’ve done in his situation: work from home! While some may call his reign “boring” for the lack of action, there’s a lot he deserves credit for. Even during good times, an emperor’s odds of getting overthrown may be low, but they’re never zero. Lasting over 20 years in such an insecure position and keeping the empire running like a well-oiled machine deserves a ton of credit.
More importantly, as Marcus Aurelius took over the throne, Antoninus left the empire in a strong position to deal with the hardships that the empire would face over the next 20 years.
