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searching for an heir. Young, well educated and popular, Aelius was made consul in 136 and 137 and was
officially adopted as Hadrian's heir in 136, assuming the name Lucius Aelius Caesar. The emperor ordered
the deaths of his own brother-in-law, Julius Servianus, and his grandson, because they could be considered
rivals to the throne. Aelius' daughter Fabia was then married to the future emperor, Marcus Aurelius.
Aelius subsequently served on the Danube and returned to Rome during the winter of 137. In January 138,
he suddenly became ill and died. His son was Lucius Verus.
¤ AEMILIAN (Marcus Aemilius Aemilianus) (d. 253 A.D.) Roman emperor who, like others in the long
line of 3rd-century political figures, rose up to seize the throne and then was slain by a stronger general.
Aemilian began his career as the governor of Moesia Inferior, assuming command there in 252 in the
reign of Trebonianus Gallus. In the spring of 253, when Kniva, the chief of the Goths, demanded that the
Roman tributes be increased, Aemilian launched a terrible and highly successful assault on the Gothic
tribes along the Danube. Elated by Aemilian's victory and aware of the fact that the emperors offered
more bounties than governors, his troops declared him emperor. Aemilian then marched to Italy, easily
overcame Trebonianus Gallus, who was promptly murdered by his own soldiers, and was proclaimed
emperor of Rome by the Senate. VALERIAN, the general of the Rhine legions, marched into Italy almost
immediately, and Aemilian fell victim to his own men, who feared defeat at Valerian's hands and thus
removed their own usurper.
¤ AERARIUM Also called the aerarium Saturni, the public or state treasury of Rome derived from aes,
"bronze." Under the Republic, the control of the aerarium was one of the bulwarks of the SENATE. During
the Empire, however, the aerarium came to represent both the extent and state of imperial
finances and the degree to which the Roman bureaucracy was able to function.
Sources of income for the state treasury were varied. The tribunii aerarii collected and deposited
payments made by the tribes, allowing few exceptions. There was even a 5% tax on emancipations, and all
surplus funds of a region were handed over to the central bureau. This allowed each emperor to
inform the people of the provinces that all monies spent on their defense had come originally from the
provinces themselves. Equally, the aerarium served as a general resource for the Empire as a whole; money
could be drawn from it and used anywhere in the Roman world, wherever it was needed. The aerarium,
while substantial, was never enough to cover the mammoth expense of maintaining an empire, and
Augustus was forced to use his own sizable sums to finance many projects.
Control over the money under the Republic fell to the quaestors, but Caesar, who seized the aerarium for
himself in 49 B.C., placed two AEDILES (administrators) in charge. Augustus at first handed the
aerarium over to two praefecti, but in 23 B.C. decided that two praetors were better; each was drawn by
lot. The danger of incompetence in the face of a growing bureaucratic system was alleviated by Nero,