M. Annius Verus the younger is a figure of whom the historical sources tell very little. Partly this is an accident of preservation (he died before reaching the consulate or any noticeable political weight), partly the inevitable consequence of the biography itself: he died young, left no political footprint, and in the principal source for his family — Marcus's own Meditations — is mentioned only in 01-02, in an exceedingly mediated formula.

The name. The full name is M. Annius Verus, like that of the grandfather and (initially) that of Marcus himself. This threefold homonymy of father, son, and grandson across three generations is standard practice in Roman patrician families, but in the case of the Annii it generates a chronic confusion: "M. Annius Verus," without further qualification, requires context to indicate which of the three is meant. In modern scholarship the convention is to distinguish: the elder (the grandfather, thrice consul) — the younger (the father, praetor) — Marcus Aurelius (the son, emperor). The praenomen of the father — Marcus — is accepted unanimously by modern prosopography (PIR² A 696; Birley 2000, ch. 2). Rogovin's note in 01-02 gives "Publius Annius Verus"; the variant is at variance with the modern consensus, and its source in Rogovin has not been established.

Career. He reached the praetorship and went no further — he died before he could be elected to the consulate. On the accepted reconstruction (Birley), praetor c. 124 CE, dead in the same or the following year. This is the whole of what is known of his cursus honorum.

Family. His wife was Domitia Lucilla Minor, daughter of Calvisius Tullus Ruso (consul 109 CE) and heiress of an enormous fortune, including the famous tile-works near Rome — the figlinae by the Via Tiburtina (this fortune Marcus would in due course inherit; see 01-03). The children of this marriage were Marcus (the future emperor, born 26 April 121 CE) and Annia Cornificia Faustina (Marcus's younger sister). The sister of Verus the younger himself was Annia Galeria Faustina (Faustina the Elder), who married the future emperor Antoninus Pius around 110–115 CE. Through this sister the house of the Annii came into blood relation with the ruling dynasty already before that fact became politically decisive: when Hadrian, in 138, adopted Antoninus, the latter in turn, at Hadrian's behest, adopted Marcus (then seventeen), and the matrimonial connection turned into dynastic succession.

Death. He died around 124 CE. Marcus was about three years old. The precise cause and circumstances are unknown.

• 01-02 — the only direct mention, in the mediated formula "παρὰ τῆς δόξης καὶ μνήμης τῆς περὶ τοῦ γεννήσαντος."
• 01-17 — in the closing paragraph of thanksgiving Marcus mentions "that my father was of such a kind as to strip away from me all conceit about my lineage" (καί ὅτι ὁ πατήρ μου τοιοῦτος, οἷος ἀφαιρεθῆναι μέλλει πᾶσαν οἴησιν τὴν περὶ τοῦ γένους); commentators differ over whether this refers to the biological father or to Antoninus Pius — the majority of modern commentators (Brunt, Hard, Farquharson) lean toward Antoninus Pius, since Marcus did not remember the biological father.

• SHA Marcus 1.5 — the only direct report of the father's death ("patre orbatus est primum, dum praetorem ageret" — "he was bereaved of his father first, while he was still a praetor").
• PIR² A 696 — the standard prosopographical entry (separate from no. 695 — the grandfather).
• A. Birley, Marcus Aurelius: A Biography, rev. ed., Routledge, 2000 — ch. 2 ("The Family"), pp. 28–32; an account of what can be reconstructed of the father's figure.
• P. Brunt, "Marcus Aurelius in his Meditations", JRS 64 (1974), 1–20 — the chapter on Book I as a historical source; in particular, on the role of family memory in shaping ethical characterisation.
• R. Syme, "Marriage Ages for Roman Senators", Historia 36 (1987), 318–332 — for the reconstruction of the marital chronology of the Annii.
• M. van Ackeren, Die Philosophie Marc Aurels, Walter de Gruyter, 2011, vol. 1, ch. 1 — the current German standard on the biographical context.