Marcus Aurelius Papirius Dionysius

Marcus Aurelius Papirius Dionysius (born in the 2nd century; died around 190) was a late classical Roman jurist . He was of knightly origin and held several legal offices in his career, where he rose to Praefectus Aegypti .

Marcus Aurelius Papirius Dionysius began his career under Marcus Aurelius , where he one next to several administrative posts, the office of sacerdos et confarreationum diffarreationum had exercised that the ancient form of the Roman marriage was responsible. After as a legal counselor ( centenario consiliario Augusti ) of the Emperor in its Advisory Committee ( consilium principis was added), it was subsequently Kaiser Commodus head of the Imperial Libellkanzlei ( a libellis ) together in personal union with the parallel management of the Imperial Court ( a cognitionibus ) ordered. This was followed by his elevation to the position of prefect , namely to the ( praefectus annonae ) of Rome , and then in 188 to finally rise to the praefectus Alexandreae et Aegypti .

The cabal of the bustling Praetorian prefect Marcus Aurelius Cleander caused Marcus Aurelius Papirius Dionysius to be relieved of his duties as prefect of Egypt and reinstated as prefect of cereals in 189. In revenge for the humiliation, the prefect used his office to artificially force an impending famine in Rome by deliberately withholding the grain reserves through deception. He probably triggered a revolt in the Circus Maximus during a horse race and knew how to portray Marcus Aurelius Cleander as the responsible cause of the unrest. In order to appease the angry crowd, Commodus had the apparent source of the food shortage and his son killed.

In the same year, Marcus Aurelius Papirius Dionysius met the same fate. He was probably executed at the behest of the emperor due to the events related to his office as the grain prefect.

Papirius Dionys was not one of Rome's outstanding jurists. He was also not known as an ambitious writer, so that subject-specific treatises and works were sought in vain.

literature

• Rudolf Hanslik : Aurelius II.27. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 1, Stuttgart 1964, Col. 769.
• Detlef Liebs : Court lawyers from the Roman emperors to Justinian (= Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class; meeting reports. ). Publishing house of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-7696-1654-5 , chapter Papirius Dionys .

Remarks

1. ↑ CIL 10, 6662
2. ↑ CIL 14,5340
3. ^ Cassius Dio : Roman History 73, 13 .
4. ^ Cassius Dio : Roman History 73, 14, 3 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Aurelius Verianus	Prefect of the Roman Province of Egypt 188–189	Quintus Tineius Demetrius