Lucius Acilius Strabo

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Lucius Acilius Strabo was a Roman politician and senator from the gens Acilia .

Activity as envoy in Cyrene

He was sent to the province of Cyrene by Emperor Claudius , although it is not entirely certain whether he did so after exercising the praetur as a regular propraetor or whether he was given promagistral authority specifically for this assignment . The territory of Cyrene was at the beginning of the 1st century BC. Fell to the Roman Empire when King Ptolemy Apion , who came from the Ptolemy family, died childless and bequeathed his kingdom to Rome in his will. Initially, this had only taken over the crown property, while the cities until the establishment of a province in 74 BC. Were left to themselves. In the decades since then, however, the residents had taken over large parts of the extensive state (formerly royal) possessions and now invoked the customary law on the basis of which they were entitled to the lands. It is known from various inscriptions that Acilius Strabo restored state property and denied the natives the territories that had been illegally appropriated up to then:

“[Nero Claudius] / [divi Claudi f (ilius)] Germanici Cae / saris nep (os) [Ti (beri) Caes (aris)] / Aug (usti) pron (epos) div [i] Aug (usti) ab (epos) Caes [ar] / Aug (ustus) Germani [cus] / Imp (erator) per L (ucium) Acil [ium] / Strabonem l [egatum] / suum fines [oc] / cupatos a priv [atis] / p (opulo) R (omano) restituit {t} // [”

"The emperor Nero Claudius Germanicus , son of the deified Claudius , grandson of Caesar Germanicus , great-grandson of the emperor Tiberius , great-great-grandson of the deified emperor Augustus , through Lucius Acilius Strabo, his envoy, restored the territories occupied by private individuals to the Roman people."

- Inscription from Apollonia ( AE 1995, 1633 ); various other inscriptions with similar content were found

The inhabitants of Cyrenes, dissatisfied with Strabo's decisions, turned to Rome with a complaint, as the writer Tacitus reports in his Annales . The Senate declared that it did not know anything about the dispatch of Lucius Acilius Strabo and accordingly passed the request on to the meanwhile reigning Emperor Nero in 59 . His decision was as follows:

"Nero, probata Strabonis sententia, se nihilo minus subvenire sociis et usurpata concedere scripsit."

"Nero approved of Strabo's decision, but wrote that he nonetheless wanted to help the allies and leave what they had appropriated to them."

- Tacitus : Annales 14,18,3

This decision is counted among the wise political actions that Tacitus - despite his fundamental criticism of Nero - describes.

Suffect consulate

A mostly Greek-language inscription is known from Naples , which was issued on September 14 and names a Lucius Acilius Strabo (Λουκίος Ἀκείλιος Στράβων) and a Sextus Neranius Capito (Σέξτος Νερνωωος Καπίτως) as the acting consuls . Due to the naming of a local magistrate who was already otherwise known , it was dated to the year 71. In 1997, however, a fragment of a list of Roman consuls ( fasti ), the so-called Fasti Septempedani, became known in the ancient city of Septempeda (today's San Severino Marche ) . Based on the safely dated consulates contained therein, it can be inferred that the officials mentioned cover the period from 78 to 82. For the sixth nundinium of the year 80, a Lucius Acilius Strabo is again named as a suffect consul in the Fasti Septempedani . From his counterpart only the last two letters "[...] to" have been preserved, which suggests an addition to "Sextus Neranius Capito".

Before the Fasti Septempedani became known, it was generally accepted in research that the ambassador of Claudius and Nero held the consulate more than a decade after this mission, namely in the year 71, as can be deduced from the Neapolitan inscription. Since the new consul list from Septempeda was found, the source situation has become more complex: the previously unknown consulate in 80 is now practically irrefutable attested. This official, however, is more likely to be the legate's son from the Claudian / Neronian times, considering the time lag between the 1950s and the year 80. The research does not explicitly confirm whether this means that the consulate should be deleted from the year 71 and the corresponding inscription from Naples should be re-dated, as the editor of the new find in the Année Épigraphique suspected. If this were not the case, there would have been two officials with the same name, the first (71) possibly the envoy of Emperor Claudius in his later years and the second (80) his son.

Lieutenancy

By a Roman votive altar that near the Orbachsmühle in the ancient quarries in Brohltal was found a Acilius Strabo is occupied as a minister of a Germanic province. Although the site is located on the territory of the province of Germania superior (Upper Germany), the well-known inscriptions from the Brohl valley all refer to units of the Lower Germanic army. It can therefore be assumed that Acilius Strabo was also active in this province.

"Herculi Sax {s} ano / sacrum Iulius Vi / ctor <pro se et co / m (m) ilitones si / ngulares pedite / s Acili Strabonis / leg (ati) Aug (usti) v (otum) s (olverunt) l (ibentes) m (erito) "

“Consecrated to Hercules Saxanus by the centurion Iulius Victor for himself and his comrades, the selected foot troops [= bodyguards] of the legatus Augusti [literally: imperial envoy] Acilius Strabo. They gladly redeemed the vow and paid a fee. "

- CIL XIII, 7709

In this text, Lucius Acilius Strabo appears as legatus Augusti ("imperial envoy"), which would not be the usual official designation for the governor of a Roman inscription - such a name would normally be legatus Augusti pro praetore (roughly translatable as "imperial envoy with praetorical authority" ) has been designated. Nevertheless, older research assumed that the inscription from the Brohl valley meant a provincial governor because there his personal bodyguard ( pedites singulares ) is mentioned. Such a special force was considered a privilege of the highest official of a Roman province. In the meantime, however, an inscription has become known which makes it clear that the legate of a legion could also have a group of pedites singulares under them.

The dating of his activity in Germania depends on the interpretation of the sources. If Acilius Strabo actually stayed as governor in Germania, he must have carried out this activity shortly after his consulate. This resulted in older research (which was based on the consulate in 71) dating to the 70s, for Werner Eck, for example, cautiously between 73 and 78 (since Aulus Marius Celsus from 71 to 73 , Gaius Rutilius Gallicus in 78 and 79/80 Decimus Iunius Novius Priscus are attested as governor). Since the consulate became known in the 80s, there has been a tendency towards the 80s (the Prosopographia Imperii Romani, for example, limits the term of office between 81 and 88). However, if Acilius Strabo was not acting as governor, but only as a legion of a legion in Germania, this office would have to be placed shortly before his respective consulate.

All these considerations assume (partly tacitly) that the Acilius Strabo from the inscription in Brohl valley is identical to the consul of 71 or 80. In addition, there is also the possibility of equating him with Lucius Acilius Strabo Clodius, who was probably governor of Numidia in 116 and theoretically could have exercised this office in Germania a few years later. However, this is considered unlikely, since the Roman quarries in Brohl valley were only operated until the first years of the 2nd century and their use ended relatively abruptly in the middle of Trajan's reign. There are no other clues as to the dating of the inscription; more precise classifications of the time of its creation have already been derived from the dates of the governorship of Acilius Strabo, which have been developed elsewhere. The use of this information for the classification of this term of office would therefore represent a circular argument.

The presence of the governor's personal troops (or legionary legates) in the quarries of the Brohl valley is associated either with one of the various renovations of the governor's palace in the Lower German provincial capital Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium or with the reconstruction of a legionary camp on the Rhine.

Origin and other inscribed evidence

There are only indications of the origin and family of Lucius Acilius Strabo: The first relates to Lucius Acilius Strabo Clodius, the aforementioned governor of Numidia. His full name is known from inscriptions and was Lucius Stertinius Quintilianus Acilius Strabo Gaius Curiatius Maternus Clodius Nummus . This form of name (so-called polyonymy , see Roman name ) indicates that he was the adoptive son of Lucius Acilius Strabo, probably the envoy of the 50s and the consul of 71/80. He came from Naples , so that his adoptive father should at least have had a relationship with this city. Several lead pipe inscriptions with the name of Lucius Acilius Strabo were found from 1893 to the west and northwest of Naples in the ancient cities of Cumae and Puteoli, today's Pozzuoli . Also in Cumae a grave altar with an inscription was set up for one of his freedmen.

All of this evidence can suggest that the senator was originally from this region. On the other hand, it is also possible that Strabo - like many noble Romans - only owned a villa there, through whose premises the lead pipes with the owner's inscriptions led and in which the named freedman had worked during his time as a slave.

swell

  • Cornelius Tacitus, Annals. Volume IV: Book 14-16. Explained and provided with an introduction by Erich Koestermann . University Press Carl Winter, Heidelberg 1968, p. 60 f.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Cornelius Tacitus, Annals. Volume IV: Book 14-16. Explained and provided with an introduction by Erich Koestermann . University Press Carl Winter, Heidelberg 1968, p. 60.
  2. ↑ Tilmann Bechert : The provinces of the Roman Empire. Introduction and overview ( Zabern's illustrated books on archeology / Orbis Provinciarum ). Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1999, ISBN 3-8053-2399-9 , pp. 103-106.
  3. ↑ Tacitus , Annales 14,18,2.
  4. ↑ AE 1934, 260 ; AE 1974, 677 ; AE 1974, 682 ; AE 1974, 684 ; AE 1977, 845 (The inscriptions are either written in Greek or bilingual in Greek and Latin. As the linked database only lists Latin inscriptions, the links lead either to an empty or to an incomplete result).
  5. ^ Text and translation after: P. Cornelius Tacitus: Annalen. Latin – German. Edited by Erich Heller, with an introduction by Manfred Fuhrmann . 6th edition, Artemis & Winkler, Mannheim 2010, ISBN 978-3-538-03542-3 , pp. 650 (text) and 651 (translation).
  6. ↑ Jolanda Tresch: The Nero books in the annals of Tacitus. Tradition and achievement (= library of classical antiquity . New series, second row). University Press Carl Winter, Heidelberg 1965, p. 121.
  7. ↑ Inscriptiones Latinae selectae No. 6460 ( text of the inscription online ).
  8. ↑ AE 1998, 419 ; The Fasti Septempedani are published in detail and with a photo in: SM Marengo: Fasti Septempedani. In: Picus. Volume 18, 1998, pp. 63-88, here p. 73 ff.
  9. ↑ PIR² A 82; following the PIR, for example Werner Eck: The governors of the Germanic provinces from 1st to 3rd Century (= epigraphic studies. Volume 14). Rheinland-Verlag on commission from Dr. Rudolf Habelt, Cologne / Bonn 1985, ISBN 3-7927-0807-8 , p. 139.
  10. ↑ AE 1998, 419 (comment in the print version); Werner Eck also implicitly goes in the same direction: Neranius. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 8, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01478-9 , Sp. 843 ..
  11. ↑ This is what the following two articles imply: Werner Eck: Acilius II, 11. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 1, Metzler, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-476-01471-1 , Sp. 88. The same: Addendum Acilius II, 12. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 12/2, Metzler, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-476-01487-8 , Sp. 878.
  12. ↑ Emil Ritterling : Fasti of Roman Germany under the principle (= contributions to the administrative and military history of Gaul and Germania. Volume 2). LW Seidel & Sohn, Vienna 1932, p. 56.
  13. ^ To the inscription Hans Lehner: The ancient stone monuments of the Provincial Museum in Bonn. Buchhandlung F. Cohen, Bonn 1918, p. 63 f., No. 128 (with references to the older literature). Images of the inscription can be found in the Clauss / Slaby epigraphic database .
  14. ↑ Emil Ritterling: Fasti of Roman Germany under the principle (= contributions to the administrative and military history of Gaul and Germania. Volume 2). LW Seidel & Sohn, Vienna 1932, p. 56, note 93.
  15. ↑ AE 1969/70, 583 . See Werner Eck: The governors of the Germanic provinces from 1. – 3. Century (= epigraphic studies. Volume 14). Rheinland-Verlag on commission from Dr. Rudolf Habelt, Cologne / Bonn 1985, ISBN 3-7927-0807-8 , p. 140.
  16. ↑ Werner Eck: The governors of the Germanic provinces from 1. – 3. Century (= epigraphic studies. Volume 14). Rheinland-Verlag on commission from Dr. Rudolf Habelt, Cologne / Bonn 1985, ISBN 3-7927-0807-8 , p. 139 f.
  17. ^ A b Addendum to L. Acilius Strabo in the database of the Prosopographia Imperii Romani from February 4, 2002.
  18. ↑ On this question Bengt E. Thomasson : The governors of the Roman provinces of North Africa from Augustus to Diocletianus. Volume 2, CWK Gleerup, Lund 1960, p. 165 f.
  19. ^ So Emil Ritterling: On the history of the Roman legion on the Rhine II. The uprising of Antonius Saturninus. In: West German magazine for history and art. Year XII, 1893, pp. 203–242, here pp. 213 f., Note 23. For the effects on the dating of the governor Acilius Strabo see the same: Fasti of Roman Germany under the principate (= contributions to administrative and military history of Gaul and Germania. Volume 2). LW Seidel & Sohn, Vienna 1932, p. 56 f.
  20. ↑ For example the following publications: Wolfgang Spickermann : Germania Superior (= history of religion of Roman Germania. Volume 1). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2003, p. 228, no. 93 (dating to the period between 73 and 78). Hans Ankersdorfer: Studies on the religion of the Roman army from Augustus to Diocletian. Dissertation, University of Konstanz 1973, p. 225 (dating between 72 and 74).
  21. ↑ Olivier Richier: Centuriones ad Rhenum. Les Centurions Legionnaires des Armées Romaines du Rhin (= Gallia Romana. Volume 6). De Boccard, Paris 2004, ISBN 2-7018-0173-7 , pp. 219 f., No. 115. Richier, however, is not yet aware of the fact that the consulate was re-dated to 80.
  22. ↑ This can be deduced from the location of the inscription CIL X, 1486 and the tribal information given there , see PIR² A 83.
  23. ↑ AE 1899, 34 and AE 1903, 166 (for these two see Steven L. Tuck: Latin Inscriptions in the Kelsey Museum. The Dennison and De Criscio collections (= Kelsey Museum Studies. Volume 9). University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 2005, ISBN 0-472-11516-2 , pp. 165 f., Numbers 272 and 273); also the four inscriptions Note degli Scavi di Antichità 1893, pp. 211a – d .
  24. ↑ AE 1980, 245 . Extensively published in: Mario Pagano: Schede epigrafiche: Cumae (Baiae). In: Puteoli. Studi di Storia Antica. Volume 3, 1979, pp. 160-162 (with photo on p. 161).
  25. ^ John H. D'Arms: Romans on the Bay of Naples. A social and cultural study of the villas and their owners from 150 BC to AD 400. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) 1970, ISBN 0-674-77925-8 , p. 202.
personal data
SURNAME Acilius Strabo, Lucius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Strabo, Lucius Acilius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman suffect consul 80
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century
DATE OF DEATH 1st century or 2nd century