Marcus's paternal family was of Roman Italo-Hispanic origins. His father was Marcus Annius Verus (III). The gens Annia was of Italian origins (with legendary claims of descendance from Numa Pompilius) and a branch of it moved to Ucubi, a small town south east of Córdoba in Iberian Baetica. This branch of the Aurelii based in Roman Spain, the "Annii Veri", rose to prominence in Rome in the late 1st century AD. Marcus's great-grandfather Marcus Annius Verus (I) was a senator and (according to the "Historia Augusta") ex-praetor; his grandfather Marcus Annius Verus (II) was made patrician in 73–74. Through his grandmother Rupilia, Marcus was a member of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty; the emperor Trajan's sororal niece Salonia Matidia was the mother of Rupilia and her half-sister, Hadrian's wife Sabina.