Lucius Valerius Licinianus

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Lucius Valerius Licinianus was a Roman senator of Praetorian rank who lived in the 1st century. He came from Bilbilis , a city in the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis , in what is now Spain.

Lucius Valerius Licinianus was a lawyer and was considered a famous court speaker of his time. His professional and social career came to an end after he had to answer to the Emperor Domitian and the charge of crimen incesti .

The Cornelia Cause

Cornelia , who had risen to become Superior of the Vestals ( virgo Vestalis maxima ), faced another trial for unchastity around 91 AD. After she had been acquitted in a similar sacred trial that had been going on for years, Cornelia was again accused of having engaged immorally with the knight Celer .

In addition to Cornelia and Celer, the praetor Lucius Valerius Licinianus des crimen incesti was indicted and convicted. According to the majority opinion of recent research, Licinianus was probably not convicted of direct complicity , but rather because of his indirect involvement in the crime, namely aiding and abetting . The position as praetor made it even more difficult that Licinianus, although originally not responsible for sacred jurisdiction, as a representative of the ordinary jurisdiction should have supported the high priest's prosecution of the Pontifex maximus , but at least not hindered or even thwarted it .

In a confession , which he made available to the emperor through his legal counsel Herennius Senecio , Licinianus admitted his involvement. This was to access a prosecution witness , a freedman to have made was the Cornelia impossible, which in turn the investigation into Cornelia and Celer difficult.

Since Lucius Valerius Licinianus obviously did not associate directly with the Vestal Virgin and the admission of his aiding and abetting resulted in the conviction of the main defendants, there was, in contrast to Celer and Cornelia, no sacral need to impose the death penalty. The legal consequence for Licinianus was his banishment for life.

Under Nerva the sanction was softened by allowing Licinianus to take up his domicile in Sicily. Here he had probably worked as a speech teacher until his death.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Publius Papinius Statius , Silvae 4, 55, 1 ff., Martial 1, 49, 3. 3, 61, 11 f.
  2. ^ Suetonius , Domitian 8, 3 f.
  3. ^ Jan-Wilhelm Beck : The Licinianus scandal and the crimen incesti (Pliny epist. 4,11). In: Göttingen Forum for Classical Studies . Volume 15, 2012, pp. 129–152, especially pp. 145–151 ( PDF ).
  4. ↑ Pliny the Younger , epistulae 4, 11, 11.
  5. ↑ Pliny the Younger, epistulae 4, 11, 1 f.
personal data
SURNAME Valerius Licinianus, Lucius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION roman knight
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century
PLACE OF BIRTH Bilbilis
DATE OF DEATH 1st century or 2nd century
Place of death Sicily