Caerellius Priscus

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Caerellius Priscus ( praenomen unknown) was a high-ranking Roman civil servant and military leader in the 2nd century AD.

Life

Caerellius Priscus served under Emperor Marcus Aurelius in the provinces of Thrace , Moesia , Raetia and Germania superior . Presumably between 177 and 182 he was a legate in Britain .

Against the background of the military threat from insurgent Caledonian tribes, the Roman troops in Britain rebelled at the beginning of the sole rule of Emperor Commodus . The Praetorian Prefect Tigidius Perennis dispatched Ulpius Marcellus as the new governor around 182 , who proceeded with punitive expeditions against the rebels in the area north of Hadrian's Wall . For unclear motives, however, mutinous soldiers proclaimed a legate Priscus, who could have been Caerellius Priscus, as emperor . Although the pretender refused the dignity of emperor, Perennis took the usurpation attempt as an opportunity to remove the senatorial legates from their offices and replace them with knightly prefects . After the fall of Perennis (185), the future emperor Pertinax was charged with the final suppression of the unrest in Britain.

The further fate of Caerellius Priscus is unknown. He had a wife Modestiana , a daughter Germanilla and a son Marcianus , who are named on an altar discovered in Mogontiacum . Marcianus is identified with a C (a) erellius Macrinus , who was executed in 197 on the orders of the emperor Septimius Severus , presumably because he had supported his rival Clodius Albinus .

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literature

Remarks

  1. Birley, Making Emperors , dates the usurpation attempt in 184.
  2. Von Saldern, on the other hand, identifies Priscus with Titus Caunius Priscus , probably legate of the Legio III Augusta in Numidia in 186 (cf. CIL 8, 2583 = EDH 31510 ).
  3. CIL 13, 6806 ( figure ).
  4. Historia Augusta , Severus 13.6 ; see. Watts, Boudiccas Heirs , p. 31.