A N T O T I N U S. 263 account of his ill (late of i ' ins lur- < f . fl vigorous conftitution, ar : ..... tiguesofwar. Tin- :.. k u;" n him th Antoninus, which he _uvc hluwile to Vrrui . betrothed his daughter Lucilla to him. Tin- : vent aftciw<uds to the camp, wln-n.-, alu-i i. .: performed the funeral nus of Pius, they pronou'. i them a panegyric to his memory. 'I lny discharged i, vernnK-in in a very amicable mai tier. It is laid, tint Nmn;-. after Antoninus hud performed the apotht Pius, tions were prefenttd to him by the p.i r y.i pried*, pruloloph'- and uovcrnors of province*, in o r '.a u> excite him f cute the Chriftians, which he rejected with indignation ; ^nd inteipofld his authority to their protection, by a letter to the common aliembly of Ai;a, nun i;cid a: h|.i:f- fus [B], The hjppinels which the empire began to enjoy under thefc two emperors, was interrupted in 162 by a d,t. t .d- ful inundation of the Tiber, which deftroyed a vail number Tii'm of cattle, and occaii(-ned a famine at Rome. This calamity ' 579- was followtd by the Parthian war -, and at the fame tu::e the Catti ravaged Germany ar.d Rhxda. Lucius *erus went in perfon to oppofe the Parthians, and Antoninus continued at Rome, whete his preience was neceflary. Duiing this war with the Parthians, about 163 or 164, An- toninus fent his daughter Lucilla to Ver- fh< having been betrothed to him in marriaj/-, and a'tcul d lit i as far Brundufium: he intended to have conduced, her to Syria; but it having been infmuated by feme perfuns, that hi*dcfigfl of going into the Eaft was to claim the honour ot havii.g id. r linilhed the Parthian war, he returned to Rome. TheRu-* mans havin^ gained a victory over the Paiihi.n.i-, who vi.'t O O * obliged to abandon Melopotamia, the two epnperori triumpl over them at Rome in 166, and v. - ere honoured with tle title of Fathers of their Country. This year was fatal, on ac- count of a terrible peftilence which f'pread iilelf over t whole world, and a famine alfo under which Rome laboured it was likewife in this year that the Marcomanni, and mn other people of Germany, took up arms again ft the Ro but the two emperors having marched in perion againO obliged the Germans to fue for peace. The war, how<ir, was renewed the year following, and the two cmpcfM - nurcb- [B] Eufcbius has preferved this 1- hfrea? it wa< wio'f : ter, Hift. Ecclef. lib. iv. cap. 13. but he tcnir.'ji-, - '.' J'alicly alcribcs it to Antoninus Pius bit aaBOtMiwioath*plf. S 4 "
