Lucius Volusius Saturninus (Consul 87)

Domitian , Roman emperor from 81 to 96 AD, last ruler of the Flavian dynasty .

Lucius Volusius Saturninus (* before 60 AD) was a senator from the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD. He was consul under Emperor Domitian .

Lucius Volusius Saturninus came from the plebeian family of the Volusii ( Gens Volusia ), from which some praetors and senators had emerged. His father Quintus Volusius Saturninus (* around 25 AD; † after 70 AD), consul in 56 BC. Chr., Or already his grandfather Lucius Volusius Saturninus (38 BC - 56 AD), suffect consul in the year 3 BC. BC, had risen to the rank of patrician .

Lucius Volusius Saturninus was the firstborn son of Quintus Volusius Saturninus. He also had a brother who was also called Quintus . Presumably, as the firstborn, Lucius did not bear his father's name, since among the Volusii Saturnini the series of firstborns was called Lucius for several generations and the older brother of Quintus, the pontiff Lucius Volusius Saturninus , had no male descendants himself. Hence Quintus named his firstborn Lucius.

Of the official career ( Cursus honorum ), which Lucius as the patrician son certainly trod, is only known that he was in the year 87 BC. Was appointed consul with Emperor Domitian as a colleague. His younger brother Quintus succeeded him as consul five years later. Since the family of the Volusii Saturnini was in the favor of the emperor, Lucius Volusius Saturninus should have been appointed consul soon after the earliest possible appointment, i.e. between the ages of 32 and 35. Then Saturninus must have been born before AD 60.

Lucius Volusius Saturninus could have been the husband of Licinia Cornelia Volusia Torquata , as the inscription on her altar in the Licinier tomb suggests. If so, then according to the inscription Saturninus also belonged to the college of highly respected augurs , one of the four great priesthoods in ancient Rome.

In older research it was believed that a certain Lucius Volusius Torquatus , allegedly a suffect consul in the 2nd century AD, was the grandson or son of Lucius Volusius Saturninus. However, this name is not found in the list of Roman consuls . Descendants of Lucius Volusius Saturninus are not documented epigraphically, and the name of Volusii Saturnini does not appear in the annals later .

family tree

Quintus Volusius Saturninus (Prefect)

Claudia

Lucius Volusius Saturninus (suffect consul 12 BC)

Nonia Polla

Lucius Volusius Saturninus (suffect consul 3 AD)

Cornelia

Volusia

Lucius Volusius Saturninus (Pontifex)

Quintus Volusius Saturninus (consul 56 AD)

Nonia Torquata

Lucius Volusius Saturninus (consul 87 AD)

Licinia Cornelia Volusia Torquata (?)

Quintus Volusius Saturninus (consul 92 AD)

Volusia Torquata (?)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stephen Wilson: The Means Of Naming: A Social History. UCL Press, London 1998, ISBN 1857282450 , p. 18.
2. ↑ Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum CIL 06, 32367
3. ^ Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum CIL 06, 31726
4. ^ Dietrich Boschung : Antique grave altars from the necropolis of Rome. Stämpfli, Bern 1987, p. 59.
5. ^ Prosopographia Imperii Romani V, 666.

literature

• Werner Eck : The family of the Volusii Saturnini in new inscriptions from Lucus Feroniae . In: Hermes . Vol. 100, No. 3 (1972), pp. 461-484.