Mestrius Florus

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Lucius Mestrius Florus was a Roman senator in the 1st century AD and is mentioned several times by the philosopher and writer Plutarch , for example as a conversation partner in his work Quaestiones convivales .

Mestrius Florus was probably a Homo novus , so he was probably the first of his family to become a senator . His entry into the Senate can probably be dated to the time of Emperor Nero (ruled 54–68). In the four emperors year 69 AD he stayed in Rome and finally accompanied the emperor Marcus Salvius Otho together with various other senators in the civil war against his adversary Vitellius . Plutarch emphasizes that Florus involuntarily joined this campaign. Eventually the Ottonian troops were defeated in the First Battle of Bedriacum . To Vespasian , who emerged victorious from the Year of the Four Emperors, Florus to the Kaiser biographer Suetonius According to a good relationship and have had the confidant ( amici , literally "friends") have heard of the ruler. Suetonius calls him in this context consular , i.e. former consul. When Florus held the consulate is not known - researchers assume a year to be around 75. Since the list of “ordinary consuls” is fully known and Florus is not mentioned in it, it must have been a suffect consulate during his term of office . As can be seen from an inscription from Ephesus , Mestrius Florus was finally governor of the province of Asia in about 88/89 , so he held one of the most prestigious senatorial offices.

It is not known when he met Plutarch, who was still young at the time. It is believed that at some point in his career Florus held an office in the province of Achaea (central Greece) and met the writer there. As his sponsor, he then gave him Roman citizenship . Therefore Plutarch took over the Roman customs according to the gentile name Mestrius. In his Otho biography he later reported that Florus had shown him the scenes of the civil wars of the four-emperor year.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Plutarch, Otho 14.
  2. ^ Gwyn Morgan: 69 AD The Year of Four Emperors . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2006, ISBN 0-19-512468-5 , pp. 271 .
  3. ^ Suetonius, Vespasian 22.
  4. ↑ a b Werner Eck: Mestrius 3rd In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 8, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01478-9 , column 65.
  5. ↑ IK II, 234. See Werner Eck: Mestrius 3. In: Der Neue Pauly (DNP). Volume 8, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01478-9 , column 65.
personal data
SURNAME Florus, Mestrius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Florus, Lucius Mestrius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman senator and consul
DATE OF BIRTH before 69
DATE OF DEATH 1st century or 2nd century