The Rise and Fall of Lucius the Great

Lucius was not crazy enough to promote his social favorites to positions of authority. The real work was always left to serious men, and for that alone Lucius does not make the list of the worst emperors of all time. In 166 or early 167, a confederation of tribes invaded Pannonia, but they were repulsed by a collection of local auxiliaries led by the Governor Marcus Basses. Back in Rome, Marcus and Lucius watched these events unfold with an alarm magnified by the fact that the city and the legionary camps of the empire were being crippled by the Antonine Plague.