Gaius Nasennius Marcellus

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Gaius Nasennius Marcellus (full name form Gaius Nasennius C (ai) f (ilius) Marcellus senior ) was a member of the Roman knighthood ( eques ) living in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD . Individual stations in his career are known from the inscription on his tombstone found in Ostia . A highly fragmented honorary inscription, also found in Ostia, contains the identical career path in the parts it contains and therefore also refers to Gaius Nasennius Marcellus.

Life

Nasennius Marcellus probably came from Ostia. His military career consisted of the usual tres militiae for a member of the equestrian order ; in his case it was three consecutive posts as commanders of auxiliary forces . First, as prefect , he took over the management of the Cohors I Apamenorum , which was stationed in the province of Cappadocia . He then became tribune of the Cohors I Italica , which was also stationed in Cappadocia. The conclusion was formed by the command as prefect of the Ala Phrygum , which was stationed in the neighboring province of Syria . The last military office mentioned in the epitaph is the post of praefectus fabrum , i.e. as adjutant to a governor.

Gaius Nasennius Marcellus received his first command possibly through the influence of the Aulus Caesennius Gallus, who was governor in Cappadocia in the early 1980s and who had connections to Ostia. Perhaps Nasennius Marcellus held the post of praefectus fabrum before the rest of his military career (which would actually correspond more to the order of office usual at the time) and thus got in contact with Aulus Caesennius Gallus or another senatorial governor, who later promoted his further career .

After the military posts, the grave inscription lists the civil offices of Gaius Nasennius Marcellus. He was quaestor , aedile and a total of three times duumvir , which represented a kind of mayor's office. From the wording in the inscription it is not clear whether he officiated every time as duumvir quinquennalis (i.e. after five years refilled the vacant positions in the city council) or only during his third term as duumvir . In addition, Nasennius Marcellus was curator operum publicorum et aquarum perpetuus , i.e. for life the commissioner for the public buildings and the water supply of the city. He was a member of the Laurentes Lavinates , a Roman priesthood reserved for knights, in which he also held an office called praetor . At the end of his résumé he is referred to as the patron of his hometown Ostia.

The Fasti Ostienses , an annual list of officials and special events preserved in inscriptions, shows that Nasennius Marcellus 111 was Duumvir ( duumvir quinquennalis III ) for the third time ; there he is attested as the patron saint of his hometown. This means that the rest of his career can be roughly dated, so his military career could have started around the 1980s.

family

Several inscriptions from Ostia document other people with this name who may be descendants of Gaius Nasennius Marcellus senior. A Gaius Nasennius Marcellus was 166 duumvir quinquennalis and 184 curator perpetuus operum publicorum ; possibly he is a grandson. For 181/193 an inscription from the nearby Portus shows a Gaius Nasennius Marcellus as pontifex Volcani et aedium sacrarum ; possibly it is identical to the previous one. A Nasennius Marcellus was the patron saint of Ostia in 189.

Until the fragment of the Fasti Ostienses, in which Gaius Nasennius Marcellus is mentioned, became known, it was not clear whether these inscriptions refer to the same person as on the tombstone from Ostia. Only since this can be roughly dated by the Fasti has it become clear that these are different people who, given the identical names, probably belonged to the same family.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c CIL 14, 171
  2. ↑ CIL 14, 4457
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Paul Holder, Two Commanders, pp. 287–289.
  4. ↑ Jörg Rüpke , Anne Glock: Fasti sacerdotum. The members of the priesthoods and the sacred functional staff of Roman, Greek, Oriental and Judeo-Christian cults in the city of Rome from 300 BC. Chr. To 499 AD. Part 2: Biographies (= Potsdamer Classical Studies . Volume 12.2). Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-515-07456-2 , p. 1165.
  5. ↑ CIL 14, 4148
  6. ↑ CIL 14, 172
  7. ↑ CIL 14, 47
  8. ↑ CIL 14,460
personal data
SURNAME Nasennius Marcellus, Gaius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman officer (imperial era)
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century
DATE OF DEATH 2nd century