Titns Anrelins Fulvius Antoninus Pius, a Roman emperor, born near Rome, Sept. 19, A. D. 86, began to reign in 188, died in 161. He was descended from a respectable provincial family of Nemausus (Nimes) in Gaul. He rose during the reign of Hadrian to the administration of Asia, and afterward to the management of one of the four regions of Italy, and was selected by Hadrian as his successor, wholly on account of his fitness for the dangerous eminence. His reign was eminently happy and prosperous, and so peaceful that it passed away leaving no striking mark upon the page of history. He made no effort to advance the limits of the empire, but by his firmness and wisdom deterred the barbarians on his frontiers from disturbing the peace of the realm. The Germans, the Dacians, the Mauritanians, the Greeks, the Egyptians, all exhibited at times some tendency to give trouble; but their aggressions were easily frustrated by military demonstrations. The only commotion of any real consequence was that of the Brigantes in the northern part of Yorkshire, who repeatedly invaded the central parts of the British province, but were severely defeated by the legate Lollius Urbicus (141), who built a strong rampart of turf and stone, the ruins of which can be still traced, and are to this day known as the wall of Antoninus, from the mouth of the Esk to that of the Tweed, some distance to the north of that of Hadrian, which had been erected to prevent the incursions of the Caledonians, from the mouth of the Tyne to that of the Solway. The Parthians gave up their hostile views against Armenia, owing solely to his remonstrances; the Scythians submitted their disputes to his arbitration; and the barbarians on the upper Danube received a king of his appointment.

At home he promoted literature and education, and made up for the losses of citizens through public calamities out of his private purse. He was fond of country life, and passed much of his time at his Campanian villas, never after his accession appearing at the head of his armies, and refusing to travel in his provinces, in order that they might not be subjected to the expenses of a royal progress. He died in the 75th year of his age. His reign of peace and order, and his observance of religious rites, procured for him the title of the second Numa, while he owed his surname Pius to the zeal with which he advocated in the senate the granting of divine honors to his paternal predecessor. He tolerated and protected the Christians, and received with favor the first apology for the Christian religion, addressed to him by Justin Martyr. By his wife Faustina he had two sons, both of whom died before their father, and two daughters. One of the latter, a second Faustina, inherited both the beauty and the profligacy of her mother; she was married to Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.