Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (son-in-law of Claudius)

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Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (* shortly before AD 26; † late 46 or early 47 AD) was a son-in-law of the Roman emperor Claudius and, probably at the instigation of Claudius' wife Valeria Messalina , came down with his parents about life.

Life

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus was a son of the consul of 27 AD, Marcus Licinius Crassus Frugi , and his wife Scribonia. He was probably the eldest son of his parents and had several siblings, including the later consul of 64 named after his father, Marcus Licinius Crassus Frugi , as well as Licinius Crassus Scribonianus and Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi Licinianus . Pompeius Magnus got its name after the famous triumvir of the same name , to whom his mother Scribonia traced back, just as his father had the habit of presenting the entire princely pedigree in the names of his children.

Due to his name, which could be understood as a dangerous program, Pompeius Magnus almost was killed on Caligula's orders, but his youth saved him from ruin: the emperor contented himself with giving the boy his cognomen Magnus (= "the great") was no longer allowed to lead. Under Caligula's successor Claudius, however, Pompeius Magnus, like his parents, received great support. He was allowed to use his nickname again and was married to his daughter Antonia in the first year of the new emperor's reign (41 AD) . Claudius also granted him the prerogative of imperial princes to apply for state offices five years before the legally prescribed age. After the successful campaign against Britain (43 AD), in which Pompey's father Crassus Frugi had participated as comes Augusti , the emperor sent his two sons-in-law Pompeius Magnus and Lucius Junius Silanus , who was engaged to Claudius' daughter Octavia , to the Delivery of the news of victory to Rome ahead. Pompey Magnus was now quaestor of Claudius, pontiff and frater Arvalis and represented the emperor in 45 AD with Junius Silanus at a congiary .

So if Pompey Magnus and his family were so far showered with honors and privileges by Claudius, they suddenly fell at the end of 46 or beginning of 47 AD. The full details of this event are unknown, as the book of Tacitus ' annals in which it was depicted has been lost. According to a less likely version, the fall allegedly occurred because Pompey Magnus was homosexual and was surprised in bed with another youth. Rather, the Empress Valeria Messalina may have been the author of Pompey's downfall, as she viewed him as a dangerous rival for the successor to her own son Britannicus . How Pompey Magnus was killed is not known, nor is the circumstances of the death of his parents, who also died at the time. He was buried in the family grave of a branch of the Licinians at Porta Salaria .

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Cassius Dio 60, 5, 8f .; Suetonius , Caligula 35, 1; Seneca , Apocolocyntosis 11, 2.
  2. ↑ Cassius Dio 60, 5, 7ff .; Suetonius, Claudius 27, 2.
  3. ^ Cassius Dio 60, 21, 5.
  4. ↑ CIL 6, 31722 .
  5. ^ Cassius Dio 60, 25, 8.
  6. ↑ Cassius Dio 60, 31, 7; Zonaras 11, 9; Suetonius, Claudius 27, 2 and 29, 2; Seneca, Apocolocyntosis 11, 2; 11, 4; 13, 5; among others
  7. ^ Suetonius, Claudius 29, 2.
  8. ↑ Werner Eck , in: Hildegard Temporini-Gräfin Vitzthum (ed.): Die Kaiserinnen Roms , p. 126f.
  9. ↑ grave font CIL 6, 31722 .
personal data
SURNAME Pompey Magnus, Gnaeus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Magnus, Gnaeus Pompey
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Son-in-law of the Roman Emperor Claudius
DATE OF BIRTH before 26
DATE OF DEATH 46 or 47