The Romans repulse the Chatti and Chauci…

The Tiber floods over its banks in the spring of 162, destroying much of Rome, drowning many animals, and leaving the city in famine.

Marcus and Lucius give the crisis their personal attention.

In other times of famine, the emperors are said to have provided for the Italian communities out of the Roman granaries.

Fronto's letters continue through Marcus' early reign.

Fronto feels that, because of Marcus' prominence and public duties, lessons are more important now than they had ever been before.

Fronto again reminds his pupil of the tension between his role and his philosophic pretensions.

The early days of Marcus' reign are the happiest of Fronto's life: his pupil is beloved by the people of Rome, an excellent emperor, a fond pupil, and, perhaps most importantly, as eloquent as could be wished.

Marcus had displayed rhetorical skill in his speech to the senate after an earthquake at Cyzicus.

It had conveyed the drama of the disaster, and the senate had been awed.

Fronto is hugely pleased.

Over the winter of 161–62, as more bad news arrives—a rebellion is brewing in Syria—it is decided that Lucius should direct the Parthian war in person.

He is stronger and healthier than Marcus, the argument goes, more suited to military activity.

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

Whatever the case, the senate gives its assent, and Lucius leaves.

Marcus will remain in Rome.

Furius Victorinus, one of the two praetorian prefects, is sent with Lucius, as are a pair of senators, M. Pontius Laelianus Larcius Sabinus and M. Iallius Bassus, and part of the Praetorian Guard.

Victorinus had previously served as procurator of Galatia, giving him some experience with eastern affairs.

Moreover, he is far more qualified than his praetorian partner, Cornelius Repentinus, who is said to owe his office to the influence of Pius' mistress Galeria Lysistrate.

Repentius has the rank of a senator, but no real access to senatorial circles—his is merely a decorative title.

Since a prefect has to accompany the Guard, Victorinus is the clear choice.

Laelianus had been governor of both Pannonias and governor of Syria in 153; hence he has firsthand knowledge of the eastern army and military strategy on the frontiers.

He is made comes Augustorum ("companion of the emperors") for his service.

Laelianus is, in the words of Fronto, "a serious man and an old-fashioned disciplinarian".

Bassus had been governor of Lower Moesia, and is also made comes.Lucius selects his favorite freedmen, including Geminus, Agaclytus, Coedes, Eclectus, and Nicomedes, who gives up his duties as praefectus vehiculorum to run the commissariat of the expeditionary force.

The fleet of Misenum is charged with transporting the emperor and general communications and transport.

Lucius leaves in the summer of 162 to take a ship from Brundisium; Marcus follows him as far as Capua.

Lucius feasts himself in the country houses along his route, and hunts at Apulia.

He falls ill at Canosa, probably afflicted with a mild stroke, and takes to bed.

Marcus makes prayers to the gods for his safety in front of the senate, and hurries south to see him.

Fronto is upset at the news, but is reassured when Lucius sends him a letter describing his treatment and recovery.

In his reply, Fronto urges his pupil to moderate his desires, and recommends a few days of quiet bedrest.

Lucius is better after three days' fasting and a bloodletting.

It was probably only a mild stroke.

Co-emperor Lucius Verus continues eastward via Corinth and Athens in the summer of 162, accompanied by musicians and singers as if in a royal progress.

He stays with Herodes Atticus at Athens and joins the Eleusinian Mysteries.

During sacrifice, a falling star is observed in the sky, shooting west to east.

Co-emperor Lucius Verus stops in Ephesus, where he is attested at the estate of the local aristocrat Vedius Antoninus, and makes an unexpected stopover at Erythrae, where an elegiac poem in the voice of the local sibyl alludes to his visit.

Verus’ journey continues by ship through the Aegean and the southern coasts of Asia Minor, lingering in the famed pleasure resorts of Pamphylia and Cilicia, before arriving in Antioch.

It is not known how long Verus' journey east took; he might not have arrived in Antioch until after 162.

Statius Priscus, meanwhile, must have already arrived in Cappadocia; he will earn fame in 163 for successful generalship.

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

He takes up a mistress named Panthea, from Smyrna.

The biographer calls her a "lowborn girlfriend", but she is probably closer to Lucian's "woman of perfect beauty", more beautiful than any of Phidias and Praxiteles' statues.

Polite, caring, humble, she sings to the lyre perfectly and speaks clear Ionic Greek, spiced with Attic wit.

Panthea reads Lucian's first draft, and criticizes him for flattery.

He had compared her to a goddess, which frightens her—she does not want to become the next Cassiopeia.

She has power, too: she makes Lucius shave his beard for her.

Critics declaim Lucius' luxurious lifestyle.

He has taken to gambling and enjoys the company of actors.

He makes a special request for dispatches from Rome, to keep him updated on how his chariot teams are doing.

He brings a golden statue of the Greens' horse Volucer around with him, as a token of his team spirit.

Fronto defends his pupil against some of these claims: the Roman people need Lucius' bread and circuses to keep them in check.

This, at least, is how the biographer has it.

The whole section of the vita dealing with Lucius' debaucheries (HA Verus 4.4–6.6) is an insertion into a narrative otherwise entirely cribbed from an earlier source.

Some few passages seem genuine; others take and elaborate something from the original.

The rest is by the biographer himself, relying on nothing better than his own imagination.

Lucius faces a heavy task.

Fronto describes the scene in terms recalling Corbulo's arrival one hundred years before.

The Syrian soldiers, having turned soft during the east's long peace, spend more time at the city's open-air bars than in their quarters.

Under Lucius, training is stepped up.

Pontius Laelianus orders that their saddles be stripped of their padding.

Gambling and drinking are sternly policed.

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

He personally inspects soldiers in the field and at camp, including the sick bay.

Lucius sends Fronto few messages at the beginning of the war, but does send Fronto a letter apologizing for his silence.

He will not detail plans that could change within a day, he writes.

Moreover, there is little thus far to show for his work.

Lucius does not want Fronto to suffer the anxieties that have kept him up day and night.

One reason for Lucius' reticence may have been the collapse of Parthian negotiations after the Roman conquest of Armenia.

Lucius' presentation of terms is seen as cowardice.

The Parthians are not in the mood for peace.

Lucius needs to make extensive imports into Antioch, so he opens a sailing route up the Orontes.

Because the river breaks across a cliff before reaching the city, Lucius orders that a new canal be dug.

After the project is completed, the Orontes' old riverbed dries up, exposing massive bones—the bones of a giant.

Pausanias says they were from a beast "more than eleven cubits" tall; Philostratus says the it was "thirty cubits" tall.

The oracle at Claros declares that they are the bones of the river's spirit.

The marble triumphal arch of Marcus Aurelius is erected in 163 in what soon becomes known as the Regio Tripolitana, meaning "region of the three cities", namely Oea (i.e., modern Tripoli), Sabratha and Leptis Magna.

The legions I Minervia and V Macedonica, under the legates M. Claudius Fronto and P. Martius Verus, serve under Statius Priscus in Armenia, earning success for Roman arms during the campaign season of 163, including the capture of the Armenian capital Artaxata.

Verus takes the title Armeniacus, despite having never seen combat, at the end of the year; Marcus declines to accept the title until the following year.

When Lucius is hailed as imperator again, however, Marcus does not hesitate to take the title Imperator II with him.

The army of Syria is reinforced by II Adiutrix and Danubian legions under X Gemina's legate Geminius Marcianus.

The Parthians, while  Statius Priscus is occupied in Armenia in 163, intervene in Osroene, a Roman client in upper Mesopotamia, just east of Syria, with its capital at Edessa.

They depose the country's leader, Mannus, and replace him with their own nominee, who will remain in office until 165. (The Edessene coinage record actually begins at this point, with issues showing Vologases IV on the obverse and "Wael the king" (Syriac: W'L MLK') on the reverse.)

In response, Roman forces are moved downstream, to cross the Euphrates at a more southerly point.

On the evidence of Lucian, the Parthians still hold the southern, Roman bank of the Euphrates (in Syria) as late as 163 (he refers to a battle at Sura, which is on the southern side of the river).

Before the end of the year, however, Roman forces have moved north to occupy Dausara and Nicephorium on the northern, Parthian bank.

Soon after the conquest of the north bank of the Euphrates, other Roman forces move on Osroene from Armenia, taking Anthemusia, a town southwest of Edessa.

Occupied Armenia is reconstructed on Roman terms.

A new capital, Kaine Polis ("New City" in Greek), replaces Artaxata in 164.

Detachments from Cappadocian legions are attested at Echmiadzin, beneath the southern face of Mount Ararat, four hundred kilometers east of Satala.

It would have meant a march of twenty days or more, through mountainous terrain, from the Roman border.

A new king is installed: a Roman senator of consular rank and Arsacid descent, C. Iulius Sohaemus.

He may not even have been crowned in Armenia; the ceremony may have taken place in Antioch, or even Ephesus.

Sohaemus is hailed on the imperial coinage of 164 under the legend Rex armeniis Datus: Verus sits on a throne with his staff while Sohamenus stands before him, saluting the emperor.

There is little movement in 164; most of the year is spent on preparations for a renewed assault on Parthian territory.