Gaius Septicius Clarus

Gaius Septicius Clarus was a Roman knight and praefectus praetorio under the Emperor Hadrian . The first book of the letters of Pliny the Younger and the emperor's biographies (De vita Caesarum) were dedicated to Suetons to Clarus .

Life

The life data of Septicius Clarus are largely unknown. Little information about his career can be found in the Historia Augusta and the letters of Pliny. Probably soon after Hadrian's accession to the throne, possibly in AD 118, he was appointed Praetorian Prefect. His counterpart was Quintus Marcius Turbo . In 122 he lost the office, just as Suetonius probably lost the office of head of the imperial chancellery ( from epistulis ) in the same year . The background was that Septicius and Suetonius, who probably owed the former court office to him, are said to have violated the etiquette of the imperial court towards the empress Sabina during the emperor's absence in Britain .

Septicius is considered a friend and patron of the writers Suetonius and Pliny. Suetonius dedicated his main work, the Kaiserbiographien, to him. In the letter of dedication to his collection of letters, Pliny confesses that Septicius had encouraged him to collect and publish it. Septicius continues to appear as the addressee of several letters. Pliny also reports that he was the uncle of Sextus Erucius Clarus . A grave inscription from Ostia probably names the son of a slave of Septicius, who had taken his gentile name after his release .

literature

• Werner Eck : Septicius. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 11, Metzler, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-476-01481-9 , column 429.
• Adolf Schulten : Septicius. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II A, 2, Stuttgart 1923, Sp. 1557 f.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Historia Augusta, Hadrian 9.5.
2. ↑ Historia Augusta, Hadrian 11.3 and 15.2.
3. ↑ Pliny, epistulae 1,1.
4. ↑ Pliny, epistulae 1.15, 7.28 and 8.1.
5. ↑ Pliny, epistulae 2.9.
6. ↑ CIL 14, 1594 .