Lucius Aelius Lamia Plautius Aelianus

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Lucius Aelius Lamia Plautius Aelianus (* perhaps 40 AD; † between 81 and 96 AD) was a Roman politician at the time of the Emperors Titus and Domitian and a suffect consul in 80.

Aelius Lamia came from the gens plautia and was probably a son of Tiberius Plautius Silvanus Aelianus , but in any case closely related to him. He was married to Domitia Longina , from whom he had a daughter named Plautia (* before 70). Plautia later married high-ranking politicians, Lucius Ceionius Commodus (consul 106), Gaius Avidius Niginus (suffect consul 110) and Sextus Vettulenus Civica Cerialis (consul 106). One of her sons, Lucius Aelius , was adopted by Emperor Hadrian and was originally supposed to succeed him in the rule, another, Lucius Lamia Silvanus , became the son-in-law of Emperor Antoninus Pius . In the case of Lucius Fundanius Lamia Aelianus (consul 116) it is not certain whether he was the son or grandson of Aelius Lamia.

At the beginning of the year 70, when the emperor Vespasian , who had just come to power, was still in Egypt as a result of the Jewish War , his younger son Domitian became aware of Lamia's wife Domitia in Rome and made her his mistress. Later she was divorced from her husband on imperial orders in order to be able to be married to the " Prince ".

Nevertheless, Aelius Lamia continued to enjoy imperial favor, even from 79 to 81, during the reign of Vespasian's older son Titus. In the year 80 he officiated as a suffect consul and, at probably five and a half months, had the longest term of office of all suffect consuls of the Flavian period : Lamia was already in office on January 14th of this year and was demonstrably still in office on June 13th. During this period he had three different colleagues, Aulus Didius Gallus Fabricius Veiento (occupied for the period between January 14th and February 11th, probably in the second half of January and in February), Quintus Aurelius Pactumeius Fronto (date unknown, probably in March and February April) and Gaius Marius Marcellus Octavius ​​Publius Cluvius Rufus (occupied for June 13, probably in May and June). A two-month term of office was customary at the time. However, members of the imperial family sometimes only held the consulate for two weeks in the first half of January at the beginning of the year, as did Titus and Domitian in 80 - this explains the inauguration of Aelius Lamia and Didius Gallus on January 14th.

Two anecdotes have been handed down about Lamia's handling of the forced divorce: When Titus tried to urge him to marry again, he replied with the counter-question why he was not looking for a wife again. When on another occasion a friend praised Lamia's extraordinarily good voice after a private vocal performance, he is said to have replied: "Yes, I live celibacy." Power and had Lamia executed for these provocative statements. The satirist Juvenal names Aelius Lamia in his work as an outstanding example of the high rank of Domitian's victims.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cassius Dio , Roman History 65,3,4.
  2. ^ AE 1948, 56
  3. ↑ CIL 06, 2059
  4. ↑ CIL 16, 26
  5. ^ Suetonius , Domitian 10.2.
  6. ↑ Juvenal , Satires 4,154.
personal data
SURNAME Plautius Aelianus, Lucius Aelius Lamia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman politician and suffect consul in 80
DATE OF BIRTH unsure: 40
DATE OF DEATH between 81 and 96