Gaius Vibius Marsus

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Gaius Vibius Marsus was a Roman suffect consul (17 AD) and governor of Syria (42-44 AD).

Life

Fasting tablets testify that the highly educated Vibius Marsus held the suffect consulate in the second half of AD 17 (together with Gaius Voluseius Proculus ). It is not known whether he held this office until the end of the year. In the autumn of 17 AD he is more likely to have accompanied Germanicus on his mission to the Orient as a praetoric legate . Germanicus got into a dispute with the Syrian governor Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso and accused him of poisoning after he fell ill. Vibius Marsus witnessed the death of Germanicus in October 19 AD in Antioch (Syria). He then renounced the governor post of Syria, which had become vacant after the departure of Calpurnius Piso , in favor of the elder Gnaeus Sentius Saturninus , but went back to Rome with the wife of the deceased, Agrippina the Elder . On the way home they met Calpurnius Piso on the coast of Asia Minor , whom Vibius Marsus instructed to go to Rome to defend himself.

Vibius Marsus then probably stayed in the capital. In any case, there is evidence that in AD 26 he submitted the motion, which was then also approved by the Senate , to provide the governor of the province of Asia , Manius Aemilius Lepidus , with an extraordinary legate responsible for building a temple for Emperor Tiberius and Livia . After that, Vibius Marsus acted as proconsul of Africa from AD 26 to 29 or AD 27 to 30 .

Towards the end of the reign of Tiberius (early 37 AD) the Praetorian prefect Quintus Naevius Sutorius Macro accused him in one of his numerous capital trials of having known about the adultery of Albucilla , the widow of Satrius Secundus . This was only a pretended charge, while political disputes may have been the real cause of the charges. Because the emperor's death was foreseeable, Vibius Marsus feigned suicide intentions by voluntarily starving, and with the soon-to-be passing of Tiberius he was able to escape the danger.

42 n. Chr. Vibius followed Marsus order of the Emperor Claudius the Publius Petronius as governor of Syria. This province was familiar to him through his earlier accompaniment of Germanicus on his Asia trip and here he emphatically asserted the Roman influence. After the re-establishment of Judea in the dimensions of the kingdom of Herod the Great , which Herod Agrippa I had achieved through his good agreement with the emperor, the Jewish king had the city walls of Jerusalem expanded and reinforced. The Syrian governor suspiciously informed the emperor of this observation, who thereupon ordered a construction freeze. When Agrippa I (probably still 42 AD) invited the neighboring kings Herod of Chalkis , Polemon II of Pontus, Kotys of Lesser Armenia, Antiochus IV of Commagene and Sampsigeramos of Emesa to Tiberias in Galilee , who were dependent on Rome , he appreciated Vibius Marsus surprisingly arrived there, the good relations of so many princes as not in the interest of Rome and sent messengers to the royal guests to have them return to their homeland. This had to further cloud his relationship with the Jewish king, who several times unsuccessfully asked the emperor by letter to send a new Syrian governor. When the Parthian king Vardanes threatened to attack the kingdom of the aforementioned Kotys (around 43 AD), the energetic Vibius Marsus and his legions came to the rescue. After the death of Agrippa I (44 AD), Claudius is said to have replaced Vibius Marsus with Gaius Cassius Longinus in his honor .

As one can see from an inscription on the tomb of the Plautier near Tibur , the wife of Vibius Marsus was a Laelia. This marriage resulted in a daughter named Vibia, who married Publius Plautius Pulcher . His sister Plautia Urgulanilla was the first wife of Emperor Claudius.

literature

Remarks

  1. ^ Tacitus , Annals 6, 47, 2
  2. ↑ CIL X 6639 (Fasti Antiates); Attilio Degrassi : Inscriptiones Italiae XIII 1 p. 185 (Fasti Ostiensis)
  3. ^ Tacitus, Annalen 2, 74, 1
  4. ↑ Tacitus, Annalen 2, 79, 1
  5. ↑ Tacitus, Annalen 4, 56, 3
  6. ↑ CIL 8, 10568 (inscription of a bridge over the Wed Bedja river from the year 29/30 AD); CIL 8, 22786 ak (inscriptions of pointed stones ( cippi ) from the year 29/30 AD); Cohen I² p. 209, nos. 232–250 (coin finds from the entire reign of Vibius Panza in Africa)
  7. ↑ Tacitus, Annals 6, 47, 2; 6, 48, 1
  8. ^ Josephus , Jüdische Antiquities 19, 316
  9. ↑ Josephus, Jüdische Antiquities 19, 326; Jewish War 2, 218; 5, 152
  10. ↑ Josephus, Jüdische Antiquities 19, 338-342; 20, 1
  11. ^ Tacitus, Annals 11, 10, 1
  12. ^ Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 20, 1
  13. ↑ CIL 14, 3607 .
personal data
SURNAME Vibius Marsus, Gaius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman suffect consul and governor of Syria
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH after 44