The returning Roman army carries with them…

A force of six thousand Langobardi and Lacringi had invaded Pannonia in late 166 or early 167.

Local forces (vexillations of the Legio I Adiutrix commanded by Candidus and the Ala I Ulpia Contariorum commanded by Vindex) had defeated the invasion with relative ease, but they mark the beginning of what is to come.

In their aftermath, the military governor of Pannonia, Marcus Iallius Bassus, initiates negotiations with eleven tribes.

The Marcomannic king Ballomar (r. 166 –178), a Roman client, acts in these negotiations as a mediator.

In the event, a truce is agreed upon and the tribes withdraw from Roman territory, but no permanent agreement is reached.

Vandals (Astingi and Lacringi) and the Sarmatian Iazyges invade Dacia, and succeed in killing its governor, Calpurnius Proculus.

To counter them, Legio V Macedonica, a veteran of the Parthian campaign, is moved from Moesia Inferior to Dacia Superior, closer to the enemy.

Only a punitive expedition can be launched against Germanic invaders in 167 due to the situation in the East.

As plague is ravaging the empire during this time, Marcus Aurelius is unable to do more, and the punitive expedition he is planning to lead in person is postponed until 168.

Emperor Huan dies in 168 without a male heir.

Empress Dou, jealous of how Huan had favored Consort Tian, has her immediately put to death.

She surveys the members of the imperial clan, and decides on the twelve-year-old Liu Hong, the Marquess of Jieduting, who then ascends the throne as Emperor Ling.

The empress dowager's father Dou Wu and Chen become the most important officials in the imperial government, and they seek to purge the government of eunuch influences.

Later in 168, they even propose to exterminate all of the powerful eunuchs, a proposal that Empress Dowager Dou rejects.

However, word of the plot is leaked, and the eunuchs, after kidnapping the empress dowager and taking the young emperor into custody (after persuading him that it was for his own protection) arrest and execute Chen.

Dou Wu resists, but is eventually defeated, and commits suicide.

The Dou clan is slaughtered.

The powerful eunuchs, led by Cao Jie and Wang Fu, became the most powerful individuals in the imperial government.

Marcus Aurelius makes the Dacian provinces a single military region in about 168.

The limits of Roman territory are probably never clearly defined, but the Romans have benefited both militarily and materially from the occupation.

Marcus Aurelius, like many emperors, spends most of his time addressing matters of law such as petitions and hearing disputes.

Marcus takes great care in the theory and practice of legislation.

He shows marked interest in three areas of the law: the manumission of slaves, the guardianship of orphans and minors, and the choice of city councilors (decuriones).

He revalues the denarius in 168, increasing the silver purity from seventy-nine percent to eighty-two percent—the actual silver weight increasing from 2.57 grams to 2.67 grams.

Marcus and Lucius Verus set forth from Rome in the spring of 168; …

…the coemperors establish their headquarters at Aquileia.

Supervising a reorganization of the defenses of Italy and the Illyricum, Marcus and Lucius raise two new legions, Legio II Italica and Legio III Italica, and cross the Alps into Pannonia.

The Marcomanni and the Victohali have crossed the Danube into the province, but, at least according to the Historia Augusta, the approach of the imperial army to Carnuntum is apparently sufficient to persuade them to withdraw and offer assurances of good conduct.

The Greek physician and writer Galen had traveled from Rome to his home in Asia Minor in 166, during the epidemic, and returns to Rome in 168 when summoned by the two Augusti—the co-emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus; he is present at the outbreak among troops stationed at Aquiléia in the winter of 168/69.

Galen briefly records observations and a description of the epidemic in the treatise Methodus Medendi, and his other references to it are scattered among his voluminous writings.

He describes the plague as "great" and of long duration and mentions fever, diarrhea, and pharyngitis, as well as a skin eruption, sometimes dry and sometimes pustular, appearing on the ninth day of the illness.

The information provided by Galen does not clearly define the nature of the disease, but scholars have generally preferred to diagnose it as smallpox.

Historian William McNeill will assert that the Antonine Plague and the later Plague of Cyprian (251–ca. 270) were outbreaks of two different diseases, one of smallpox and one of measles, not necessarily in that order.

he severe devastation to the European population from the two plagues may indicate that people had no previous exposure to either disease, which brought immunity to survivors.

Other historians believe that both outbreaks involved smallpox.

The latter view is bolstered by molecular estimates that place the evolution of measles sometime after CE 500.

Emperor Ling, after the destruction of the Dou clan, honors his mother Consort Dong as an empress dowager in 169, but continues to also honor Empress Dowager Dou (now placed under house arrest by the eunuchs) as an empress dowager.

Members of the Dong clan begin to enter government, but do not have substantial influence.

Later this year, the eunuchs persuade Emperor Ling that the "partisans" (i.e., Confucian officials and Academy students who support them) are plotting against him, and a large number of partisans are arrested and killed; the others have their civil liberties stripped completely, in what later is known as the second Disaster of Partisan Prohibitions.