Marcus Junius Silanus (suffect consul 15)

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Marcus Junius Silanus (* around 28 BC (?); † 38 AD) was a Roman politician and consul in 15 AD. He was a friend of Tiberius and Caligula's father-in-law .

Life

Marcus Iunius Silanus belonged to the respected family of the Iunii Silani. He was the son of Gaius Iunius Silanus and brother of Decimus Silanus and possibly also of Gaius Iunius Silanus , the consul of the year 10, and the vestal virgin Iunia Torquata .

Soon after Tiberius' accession to the throne in 14, Silanus was in the second half of 15 the next consul together with the year-round reigning emperor Drusus . Through his influence with Tiberius, he achieved the return of his brother Decimus, who had been expelled by Augustus twelve years earlier as a lover of the imperial daughter Julia , from exile in the year 20 .

Marcus Junius Silanus was considered an important speaker and had the right in the Senate to be the first to raise his voice on the subjects under discussion, which was a special honor and could decisively determine the course of further discussion. In the year 22 he requested that the years be counted according to the respective tribunicia potestas of the emperor instead of the consuls , and at the beginning of the year 32 he apparently agreed to the general demands against the memory of Livia Iulia , who had committed adultery with Seianus and murdered her husband Drusus in the year 23, and supported the nationalization of the Aerar assets of Seianus, who had been executed for high treason the previous year.

In the year 27 AD, the entire Caelius burned down, only the statue of Tiberius in the house of Senator Junius was spared from the flames. Presumably, the Tiberius friend Marcus Junius Silanus is also meant here.

When a false Drusus in Asia and Achaia claimed to be a son of Germanicus in the year 31 , this caused considerable unrest. The impostor later passed himself off as the son of Marcus Junius Silanus, whereupon the crowd dispersed again.

Marcus Iunius Silanus, who was married to Aemilia Lepida , daughter of Paullus Aemilius Lepidus , presumably had two daughters, Iunia Claudilla and Iunia Silana . In 33 he married Iunia Claudilla to the future emperor Caligula. Caligula hated his father-in-law. In the Senate, he made sure that the first vote was withdrawn from him. The emperor also tried to stage a lawsuit for laesa maiestas (high treason). For fear of seasickness, Silanus had refused to sail the stormy sea in the emperor's entourage. Caligula interpreted this as if Silanus had hoped for a shipwreck of the emperor, in order to then rise himself to the emperor. Caligula gave the order to Senator Lucius Iulius Graecinus , the father of Agricola , to indict Marcus Silanus. When he did not give in, Graecinus was killed without further ado. Marcus Junius Silanus was driven to suicide in May '38 and cut his throat with a razor.

literature

Remarks

  1. ^ Prosopographia Imperii Romani (PIR²) I 824
  2. ↑ A vestal virgin Iunia C Silani f Torquata appears from 5 BC. BC to 55 AD in the Fasti sacerdotum (Jörg Rüpke: Fasti sacerdotum: the members of the priesthoods and the sacred officials of Roman, Greek, Oriental and Judeo-Christian cults in the city of Rome from 300 BC to 499 AD . Chr , Volume 1). While Tacitus ( Annalen 3, 66-69) reports, however, of her commitment to her disgraced brother, Marcus Silanus does not seem to have stood up for him.
  3. ↑ Tacitus , Annalen 3, 24, 3f. engl. translation
  4. ↑ Tacitus Annals 3, 24, 3; Philo of Alexandria , Embassy to Gaius 62, 167R; Cassius Dio 59, 8, 4
  5. ^ Philon, Legation to Gaius 75, 169 R; Cassius Dio 59, 8, 6.
  6. ↑ Tacitus, Annalen 3, 57, 1.
  7. ^ Tacitus Annales 6, 2, 2.
  8. ↑ Tacitus Annales 4, 64, 3.
  9. ↑ Tacitus Annals 5, 10, 3. [1]
  10. ^ Paul von Rohden : Aemilius 169 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 1, Stuttgart 1893, Col. 591.
  11. ↑ PIR² (1966) I 861 u. Stemma p. 351. According to Rudolf Hanslik, Iunius 27. I. Silana , in: Der Kleine Pauly , vol. 2 (1967), col. 1561, however, Iunia Silana was the daughter of Marcus Iunius Silanus Torquatus (consul 19) .
  12. ↑ Tacitus, Annals 6, 20, 1; Suetonius Caligula 12, 1 [2] ; Cassius Dio 58, 25, 2.
  13. ↑ Tacitus Agricola 4.
  14. ^ Philon, embassy to Gaius 62ff .; Seneca Apokolokyntosis 11, 2f .; Suetonius , Caligula . 23.3; Cassius Dio 59, 8, 4. On May 24th, 38 C. Calpurnius Piso is co-opted as his successor into the College of the Arval Brothers. ( RE 19 (1917) Sp. 1098)
personal data
SURNAME Junius Silanus, Marcus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Silanus, Marcus Junius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman politician, suffect consul 15 AD
DATE OF BIRTH around 28 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 38