Gaius Avidius Casius was the one who rebelled against one of the Five Good Emperors, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, and why did he do this despite being second only to the emperor at the time?
This time I would like to think about that area.
The best educated Greek born in Syria
Casius was born in the town of Kyros in what is now Syria, about 100 km from Syria's capital, Antioch.
Born as the son of Gaius Avidius Heliodolus, who was promoted under the heavy duty of Emperor Hadrian and became the Secretary of Egypt during the time of Antoninus Pius, it can be said that he was a very fortunate birth.
Egypt was the Roman emperor's territory at the time, and even Senators could not enter without the emperor's permission. It is a famous story that Germanicus got angry at Egypt when he was Emperor Tiberius.
The secretary there also means that he has gained tremendous trust from the emperor.
In fact, Casius is taught by Herodius Attics, who was also a tutor of Emperor Aurelius, and Cornelius Front, who was a first-class philosopher at the time.
He is ten years younger than Emperor Aurelius, and is an elite elite educated in Alexandria, Egypt during his childhood and in Rome during his youth.
Emperor Aurelius has a great deal of trust, and he is the first to dispatch Casius to the Parthian Empire, which occurred early in the coronation.
Parthia has a tradition of giving a sneak peek to Rome every time the Roman emperor reigns, and successive Roman emperors have avoided this by placing a pro-Roman king in Armenia.
Perhaps Emperor Aurelius was licked, Parthian this time was attacking Armenia quite bullishly.
Due to his military talent, Casius greatly defeated Rome's nemesis Parthian Empire, was appointed governor of the Syrian province, which is the most important base of the Roman Empire, and was also appointed as the consul of Rome's homeland.
It must have been a career advancement course that everyone envied.
In 172, a riot broke out in Egypt, probably because Emperor Aurelius was licked again.
Since the Syrian governor has no authority to enter Egypt, Emperor Aurelius gave Casius the eastern military power to put down the riot. Casius's excellence is known because this is also resolved in a blink of an eye.
Rebellion against Emperor Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus is said to be the Five Good Emperors and is evaluated as a master in posterity.
Most of the reasons for his evaluation are due to the goodness of the book "Self-reflection", but his political ability is not necessarily praised.
In 175, Casius declared himself an emperor.
A rebellion against Rome.
The reason why Cassius took such an action has been debated since ancient times.
The most influential is the false alarm that Emperor Aurelius died.
However, even so, it is close to an outrage without being nominated as a successor. Rather, it is an outrage.
Whether or not there was a false alarm is a matter of course.
In any case, it is a historical fact that the rebellion against Rome was made.
It is often said that the relatives of Emperor Aurelius were exhausted.
As history shows, Aurelius had appointed his son Commodus as his successor. Commodus was one of the worst people in Roman history.
5 No one is directly connected to the blood of the Five Good Emperors. Generations are adopted. He adopted an excellent person.
But only Aurelius did not do that.
In addition, Casius wrote in a letter that corruption in Rome, which was 10,000 yen at that time, could not be tolerated.
"Do you know? One of the secretaries of the Guards Corps, which our great philosopher (probably Aurelius) has a great deal of trust in, took office three days before his appointment. The fact that you got rich right away. Do you know how you did it?
I want to know. If there is a way to do it without rolling it up from the people of the province.
In the end, Casius was murdered by someone close to him.
The name of the person does not remain just to say that he is the captain of the 100-member squad.
I don't know the reason for the Casius rebellion. No matter how strong he was, he might have been indignant at the top, or he might have been drowned in excessive power. Or he may have been seriously worried about the future of the Roman Empire, even if he tried to correct it with a sense of justice.
The reign of Emperor Aurelius was not as peaceful and ideal as Edward Gibbon said.
The plague was widespread, food was scarce due to poor crops, and human hearts were devastated.
Casius himself was an excellent person, but at the time of inviting the separation of such an excellent person, it would be unreasonable to call Emperor Aurelius a master.
It's something that wasn't seen in the days of Trajan.