During Marcus Aurelius' Parthian War (161-166), Fronto initially commanded the legion "I Minervia", which in 162 he personally led on the long march to the Eastern front from its permanent base at Bonna on the river Rhine in Germania Superior. During the course of this war, he won from the nominal commander-in-chief of the campaign, co-emperor Lucius Aurelius Verus, a string of the army's most prestigious awards for valour: the "corona muralis" ("mural crown" - a crown made of gold, in the shape of a wall with turrets for the first man to scale an enemy-held city wall: rarely awarded, since such a man hardly ever survived), "corona vallaris" ("rampart crown"), "corona aurea" ("golden crown"), and four "hastae purae" (miniature gold spears); in addition, he was accorded 4 "vexilla" (honorific commander's standards, embroidered in gold thread). In 163, Fronto was promoted to field-marshal rank ("legatus Augusti pro praetore"--i.e., governor of an imperial province), in command of Roman forces in the Eastern provinces of Armenia, Osrhoene and Anthemusia.