Faustus Cornelius Sulla Felix

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The military diploma of 52 AD

Faustus Cornelius Sulla Felix (* around 22?; † 62 ) was a Roman politician and senator of the first century AD.

On his father's side, he was descended from the dictator Sulla , the son of Cornelius Sulla Felix and brother of Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix . His mother was Domitia Lepida , a granddaughter of Octavia and Mark Antony . Thus he was a member of the Julio-Claudian imperial family. As a half-brother of Valeria Messalina (she was his mother's daughter from his first marriage to Marcus Valerius Messala Barbatus ) he was also brother-in-law of Emperor Claudius .

In 47 his half-sister arranged his marriage to Claudius' daughter Antonia from the short marriage to Aelia Paetina . Cassius Dio writes that Messalina had Antonia's first husband murdered for this purpose. He also emphasizes that Claudius would have made a good decision not to have the birth of Sulla and Antonia's son celebrated in public.

Like his father he was frater arvalis and in 52 he was consul with Lucius Salvius Otho Titianus ; his consulate is u. A. attested by a military diploma dated December 11, 52.

As a close relative and son-in-law of Claudius, Nero saw Sulla as a competitor in the occupation of the imperial throne. As early as 56 an indictment was made against Burrus that he had conspired against Nero together with the freed Pallas in order to make Sulla emperor in his place. It was evidently based on malicious slander and therefore had no consequence. Two years later, Nero had an assassination attempt faked, which he attached to Sulla because he considered Sulla's "apathetic character" to be a cunning disguise of his ambitions for the throne. Sulla was exiled to Massilia . Although the Stoic Sulla lived modestly in exile, Nero continued to see him as a threat and had him murdered in 62. It was only after his murder, which Nero kept secret in Rome, that the emperor urged that he and Rubellius Plautus, who was also murdered, be expelled from the Senate because they represented a danger to the state. Sulla's wife was also murdered by Nero because she refused to marry Nero after Poppaea's death in 65.

Web links

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literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cassius Dio 61, 39, 6
  2. ^ Cassius Dio 61, 30, 6
  3. ^ Military diploma of the year 52 ( CIL 16, 1 ).
  4. ↑ Tacitus, Annals 13:23
  5. ↑ Tacitus, Annals 13.47
  6. ^ Tacitus, Annalen , 14, 57
  7. ↑ Tacitus, Annalen , 14, 59
  8. ↑ Suetonius, Nero 35.4.
personal data
SURNAME Cornelius Sulla Felix, Faustus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sulla Felix, Faustus Cornelius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION roman consul 52
DATE OF BIRTH unsure: at 22
DATE OF DEATH 62