Lucius Flavius ​​Silva Nonius Bassus

Lucius Flavius ​​Silva Nonius Bassus was a Roman senator and general of the 1st century AD.

An inscription from Urbs Salvia gives information about his career ( cursus honorum ) . Accordingly, he was Tresvir capitalis , military tribune of Legio IIII Scythica , quaestor , tribune of the people and legate of Legio XXI Rapax . Of Vespasian and Titus , he was during their censorship under the patrician recorded and received the rank of former Praetor awarded.

He was from around 73 (the dating is controversial in research) to around 80 legatus Augusti pro praetore (governor) in Judea . According to Flavius ​​Josephus , he conquered the Masada fortress and ended the Jewish uprising . His name was reconstructed by Tibor Grüll in a fragmentary inscription from the area of ​​the Temple Mount in Jerusalem , which documents the erection of an arch of honor for a Roman emperor. However, Hannah M. Cotton and Werner Eck were able to show that the addition of the name of Flavius ​​Silva to this inscription is unjustified and that the arch was only built much later.

Flavius ​​Silva was a member of the College of Pontifices . In 81 he was an ordinary consul . Flavius ​​Silva was the patron saint of Urbs Salvia in Picenum , probably the home of his family, and there twice held the honorary post of praetor quinquennalis . In his name, as well as that of his mother and his wife, whose names have only survived in fragments, he had an amphitheater built there. He may have been related to Gaius Salvius Liberalis Nonius Bassus , who also came from Urbs Salvia .

Flavius ​​Silva is also the main character of two historical novels by the writer Ernest K. Gann and the subsequent miniseries Masada (played by Peter O'Toole ).

See also

• List of Roman governors in Judea and Syria

literature

• Maria Federica Fenati: Lucio Flavio Silva Nonio Basso e la città di Urbisaglia . Is. di Storia Antica, Macerata 1995 ( Università degli Studi di Macerata , Pubblicazioni dell'Istituto di Storia Antica, 1).

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} AE 1961, 140 = 1969/70, 183a (a parallel text 183b, from it some text additions): [L (ucius) Flavius ​​--- f (ilius) Vel (ina) Silv] a Nonius Bassus co (n) s (ul) / [pont (ifex) legat (us) Aug (usti) pro pr (aetore) provinciae Iud] aeae adlectus inter patricios / [a divo Vespasiano et divo Tito censoribus ab] isdem adlect (us) inter pr (aetorios ) leg (atus) leg (ionis) XXI Rapac (is) / [trib (unus)? pleb (is)? quaest (or) trib (unus) mil (itum) leg (ionis) IIII Scithicae (!) III] vir {i} kapitalis pr (aetor) quinq (uennalis) II patron (us) colon (iae) suo et / [- --tt] ae matris suae item / [--- millae] uxoris nomine pec (unia) sua solo suo / [amphitheatrum faciendum curavit et] parib (us) XXXX ordinar (iis) dedicavit. “Lucius Flavius ​​Silva Nonius Bassus, from the Tribus Velina, consul, pontiff, imperial governor of the province of Iudaea, accepted into the patricians by the deified Vespasian and the deified Titus as censors, accepted by them as the praetors, legate of the Legion XXI Rapax, tribune (?), Quaestor, military tribune of Legion IIII Scythica, Tresvir capitalis, twice Praetor Quinquennalis (in Urbs Salvia), patron of the colony, in his name, that of his mother NN and his wife NN has the amphitheater at his own expense and on his own property erected and inaugurated with 40 pairs of gladiators. "
2. ↑ If it was previously assumed that Flavius ​​Silva was governor from 72, Werner Eck has pleaded for a later date to 73/74, see The Conquest of Masada and a new inscription by L. Flavius ​​Silva Nonius Bassus , in: Zeitschrift für die New Testament Science 60, 1969, pp. 282-289; ders .: Senators from Vespasian to Hadrian , Beck, Munich 1970, pp. 93-103.
3. ↑ His first publications appeared in several publications in 2005: Tibor Grüll, Preliminary Report on a Monumental Roman Inschription at the Islamic Museum of the Haram as-Sharif (Temple Mount), Jerusalem , in: Zsolt Visy (Ed.), Limes XIX. Proceedings of the XIXth International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies, Pécs, Hungary, September 2003 , Pécs 2005, 901-907; ders., Fragment of a Monumental Roman Inscription at the Islamic Museum of the Haram as-Sharif (Temple Mount), Jerusalem , in: American Schools of Oriental Research Newsletter 55/3, 2005, 16f .; ders., Fragment of a Monumental Roman Inscription at the Islamic Museum of the Haram as-Sharif (Temple Mount), Jerusalem , in: Albright News 10, 2005, 13; Another article a year later: the same, A Fragment of a Monumental Roman Inscription at the Islamic Museum of the Haram ash-Sharif, Jerusalem , in: Israel Exploration Journal 56, 2006, 183-200.
4. ^ Hannah M. Cotton, Werner Eck, An Imperial Arch in the Colonia Aelia Capitolina. A Fragment of a Latin Inscription in the Islamic Museum of the Haram ash-Sharif , in: Joseph Geiger, Hannah M. Cotton, Guy D. Stiebel (Eds.), Israel's Land. Papers Presented to Israel Shatzman on his Jubilee , Raanana 2009, 97 * -118 *.
5. ↑ Werner Eck, 'Urbs Salvia' e le sue più illustri famiglie in età romana , in: Studi su Urbisaglia Romana , Tivoli 1995 (Picus Suppl. V), p. 62, considers it possible that the name of the mother Annia and she was a sister of Lucius Annius Bassus (suffect consul probably in the year 71) (see [1]  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove it Note. ).  
6. ^ Werner Eck: Flavius ​​[II 44]. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 4, Metzler, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-476-01474-6 , Sp. 551.