Marcus Aurelius: The Son-in-Law of Publius Negrinus

Hadrian was concerned about his legacy, and the choice of Lucius may have been an olive branch to the senate. Marcus Aeneas Verus had caught the emperor's attention early as an unusually serious and intelligent boy. Hadrian seems to have been setting things up so that when the perpetually ill Lucius Caesar inevitably succumbed to one of his many ailments, power would transfer naturally to his new son-in-law Marcus.