Marcus Oclatinius Adventus

Marcus Oclatinius Adventus was a Roman politician, senator, and Praetorian prefect .

Adventus came from a relatively simple background. His year of birth is unknown, but is likely to be before the middle of the 2nd century , as he was already an old man in 217. Adventus made a career in the army, embarked on a knightly career, rose under Emperor Septimius Severus (193 to 211) to the princeps peregrinorum (an officer who commanded non-Roman auxiliary troops) and finally entered the administrative service. As procurator of Britain (between 205 and 207) he served under the governor Lucius Alfenus Senecio. Emperor Caracalla appointed him together with Marcus Opellius Macrinus as Praetorian prefect in 216 .

In 216/217 Adventus received the ornamenta consularia , the insignia of rank of a consular, and in March 217 the adlectio inter consulares ; so he was admitted to the Senate with the rank of a former consul . Adventus stayed with Caracalla in Mesopotamia and was to be proclaimed emperor by the soldiers after his murder. However, he declined, referring to his old age and an eye disease, so that in April 217 his colleague Macrinus was lifted to the throne instead.

Cassius Dio's anger was kindled in the person of Oclatinius Adventus. The new emperor Macrinus, whom Dio did not consider a worthy candidate for the empire, not only appointed Adventus as his colleague as his colleague consul ordinarius of 218, but also made him prefect city of Rome in gratitude for his reluctance . All this although, as Dio sarcastically pointed out, Adventus could neither see - because of his old age - nor read - because of poor education. According to Dio, he was incapable of anything at all because he lacked any experience. As consul, he allegedly could not even have a proper conversation with other senators, which is why, according to Dio, he faked an illness on the day he took office on January 1, 218.

Since Adventus had previously proven himself in various administrative positions, Dio has undoubtedly greatly exaggerated his incompetence. The historian's anger can be explained, however: Entrusting a man with the city prefecture before he had even fulfilled the tasks of the consulate meant a serious violation of the senatorial promotion policy and an affront to the aristocratic pride of the elite: the prefecture was actually the coronation of one long senatorial career. In addition, Dio notes that Macrinus probably tried to push his own origins into the background with this approach, since he himself had been a knight when he had attained the empire. Up until this point, only those men who had previously been at least a suffect consul were considered rulers . Conversely, it can be assumed that Dio gave Adventus a negative distortion because, as a very class-conscious senator, he despised the climbers Macrinus and Adventus.

literature

• Gerhard Winkler : Oclatinius. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 5, Stuttgart 1975, column 1632.
• Prosopographia Imperii Romani , 2nd edition, O 9

Remarks

1. ^ Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL) VII 1003.
2. ↑ Herodian , Roman History 4,14,2.
3. ^ Cassius Dio, Roman History 78: 14: 1-2.
4. ^ Cassius Dio, Roman History 78,14,2 and 4.