Auranltis. See Hauran.
Aura'nus (Avpavoc.), given as the name of the leader in the riots at Jerusalem against Lysimachus (2 Mace, iv, 40), where he is described as '"a man far gone in years, and no less in folly." Other MSS., however (followed by the Vulg.), read Tupavvog, Tij- rannus, which may be takeii either as a proper name or appellative, q. d. ringleader,
Aurelius, Marcus Annius Verus Antoninus, Roman emperor from 161 to 180, was born in 121, and at the age of eighteen adopted by the Emperor Anto- ninus Pius, whom he succeeded, in 161, on the throne. He was educated by Sextus of Chasronea, a grandson of Plutarch, and became early in life an ardent ad- mirer and adherent of the Stoic philosophy. On his accession to the throne he magnanimously shared the government with his adopted brother Verus. Shortly after a war broke out with the Parthians, which was victoriously terminated hy the generals of Verus. Both emperors held a triumph, and assumed the title Parthicus. A more dangerous war broke out on the northern frontier of the empire, with a number of Gor- man tribes, as the Marcomanni, Alani, and many oth- ers. It was carried on, with many vicissitudes, until 169, when the barbarians sued for peace. In the same year Verus died. Soon the war was renewed ; and in the course of it, in 174, a celebrated victory was gain- ed by Marcus Aurelius over the Quadri in consequence of a sudden thunder-storm, by which the Romans, who greatly suffered from want of water, were saved from apparently imminent defeat. The emperor ascribed
the victorj' to Jupiter Tonans ; but the twelfth legion, I composed largely of Christians, ascribed it to their J prayers. The statement of Eusebius, that the emperor gave to this legion the name Legio Fulminatrix (Thun- ! dering Legion), and threatened penalties on such as 1 accused Christians merely on account of their religion, is generally rejected as inaccurate (Eusebius, Ch. Hist. \ v, 5). See Lardner, Works, vii, 178-198. Avidius j Cassius rebelled against Aurelius, but was murdered I by his own adherents. Aurelius pardoned the rebels, j revisited Rome in 176, celebrated his victories by a tri- umph, and soon after inarched again, with his son I Commodus, against the Marcomanni ; but before the conclusion of the war he died at Vindobona (now Vi- enna), in 180. Aurelius was one of the best emperors the Roman Empire ever had; truthful, just, severe against himself, but mild toward all other men ; and his life, in the main, corresponded to his philosophical principles. The only blot in his reign is the persecu- tion of Christians. The first persecution during his j reign seems to have occurred at Lingona in 167, and in it Polycarp, the last surviving disciple of the apostle John, lost his life. In 177, the Christians of Gaul, ! especially the churches of Lyons and Vienna, were subjected to a cruel persecution, in which a great many Christians fell, and among them Pothinus, bish- op of Lyons. See Persecutions. The philosophical emperor acted logically in persecuting the Christians, | who disobeyed the laws of Rome, while he held it his duty to uphold those laws. He believed that the new religion was a superstition, and that it was dan- gerous to the state. This was enough for him. Au- relius wrote a work (in Greek) entitled T« eig tcwrov (Meditations), from the composition of which he has re- ceived the title of " Philosopher." There are editions I of it by Casaubonus (London, 1643), Gataker (Cambr. 1 1654), Schulz (Schlesw. 1802), and Koraes (Par. 1816). It has been translated into the languages of all civilized nations, and even into Persian by Hammer (Vienna, j 1831). A new English version by G. Long appeared | in 1863 (London). — Smith's Diet, of Class. Biog. s. v. ; Neander, Ch. Hist, i, 105-115 ; Lardner, Works, 1. c. ; Neander, On Greek Ethics, Bihlioiheca Sacra, x, 476 sq.
j Aureola or Aureole (gold-colored), the crown | of rays designed to represent flame, put by the old
painters around the figures of saints, investing the I whole body, as the nimbus (q. v.) does the head. Its
form is generally ovoidal. — Didron, Chr. Iconography,
107 sq.
Auricular Confession, the confession of sin into the ear of the priest, whicfi, as part of penance, is one of the sacraments of the Romish Church.
1. Before the time of Leo the Great (fifth century) it had been the custom for the more grievous offendv ers to make confession of their sins publicly, in the face of the congregation, or, at least, for the minis- ters occasionally to proclaim before the whole assem- bly the nature of the confessions which they had re- ceived. This public act, called exomologesis, included not only public confession, but public mortification in sackcloth and ashes ; and, as such, was entirely differ- ent from auricular confession, which was wholly un- known to the ancient Church (see the authorities in Bingham. Grig. Eccl. bk. xviii, ch. iii; Daille, De Con- fess. Auricular, iv, 25). As for the Eastern Church, Sozomen, in his account of the confessional, says that the public confession in the presence of all the people, which formerly obtained, having been found grievous QPoqtikov ibe i i'koc), a well-bred, silent, and prudent pres- bj'ter was set in charge of it; thus plainly denoting the change from public, to auricular confessions. It was this penitential presbyter whose office was abol- ished by Nectarius in the fourth century, on account of a rape conrmitted on a female penitent by the priest (Sozom. Hist. Bed. vii, 16; Socrat. Hist Bed. v, 19). Pope Leo discouraged the ancient practice of public