Titus Varius Clemens

A military diploma from AD 157

Titus Varius Clemens (* in Celeia , Noricum ) was a Roman knight , who as governor in the provinces as part of his professional career Belgica and the two German provinces ( Germania inferior , Germania superior ), Rätien , Mauretania Caesariensis , Lusitania and Cilicia worked . Most recently he was appointed imperial secretary.

Career

The full career of Titus Varius Clemens is known, among other things, from an honorary monument erected in 157 AD and one between 162 and 165 in his Norse hometown of Celeia . As the son of Titus, who came from the tribe Claudia , he first went through the defined stations of a chivalric career, as provided for by the state reforms for chivalric positions carried out during the reign of Emperor Claudius (41-54). These primarily included the tres militiae , three knightly posts in which the knight had to prove himself first as prefect of an auxiliary troop cohort , as a military tribune and finally as prefect of a cavalry regiment ( Ala ). So Titus Varius Clemens was cohort prefect of the Cohors II Gallorum Macedonica (2nd Macedonian cohort of the Gauls) in Dacia and then came as a knightly military tribune to Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix (30th Legion Ulpia "the victorious") in Germania inferior (Lower Germany). At that time the Legion had its headquarters in Vetera near Xanten . In his last function for the time being, he received another marching order to Dacia in order to command the around 1000 strong Ala II Pannoniorum (2nd cavalry regiment of the Pannonians) in the fort Gherla as Praefectus equitum (equestrian officer) . When during the reign of Emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161) between 145 and 152 battles took place in Mauritania, Titus Varius Clemens was given a fourth prefecture and sent to the province of Mauretania Tingitana as the commander of an expeditionary army of auxiliary troops . As another honorary inscription reveals, this special mission was carried out from Spain. He was then appointed commander of one of the empire's elite regiments, the Ala Britannica milliaria . With this he exercised the militia quarta . All in all, Titus Varius Clemens' pure military career will have lasted at least ten years.

Now his civil service career began as a procurator . He was appointed financial procurator in Tarsus for the province of Cilicia in Asia Minor , then came to the provincial capital Emerita Augusta ( Mérida ); here he was responsible for Lusitania. Thereupon Titus Varius Clemens was ordered as presidential procurator (governor and commander in chief) to Caesarea Mauretaniae (Cherchell) to administer Mauretania Caesariensis. During his service, he inaugurated a hydraulic structure designed by the military engineer and surveyor Nonius Datus for the city of Saldae (today Bejaia ), during which the El'Hadjeb mountain had to be driven through. The construction of the project, which began under governor Gaius Petronius Celer , took around 15 or 20 years. As Nonius Datus mentions, ultimately with the help of the military. In April / June 152 AD Titus Varius Clemens was still officiating in Mauritania. At the end of his work in North Africa, the Decurions Valerius Urbanus and Licinius Secundinus thank him on behalf of the cavalry regiments in the province of Mauretania Caesariensis. His career then led Titus Varius Clemens as governor to his new official residence in Augusta Vindelicorum ( Augsburg ) in the province of Raetia. As the successor of the procurator Ulpius Victor ordered to Noricum , he appears in a series of Rhaetian military diplomas from September 28, 157. In 160 he was appointed procurator for the provinces of Gallia Belgica and the two Germania. His official seat was now Augusta Treverorum ( Trier ). In a final tribute, the civitas Treverorum thanked him for his services. Around 162 he was appointed imperial secretary from epistulis . This highest honor as head of the imperial chancellery meant that he had to accompany Emperor Mark Aurel (161-180) or his co-emperor Lucius Verus (161-169) at all times.

reception

Already under Emperor Friedrich III. (1452–1493) came one of the honorary monuments for Titus Varius Clemens ( CIL 000003 III, 5215 ) from Celeia to Graz . The stone was attached to the representative balcony belonging to the main wing of Graz Castle in 1452 . Like most emperors of the Holy Roman Empire , Friedrich III. as the legitimate successor of the Roman emperors, which this inscription stone was intended to underline. When Graz lost its importance, the inscription stone was ordered by Emperor Karl VI. (1711–1740) brought to Vienna in 1728 together with other stones from Celeia. As a replacement for the original that gave the identity, a baroque copy was made immediately after it was removed and put back on the balcony. When the entire west wing of Graz Castle fell victim to demolition in 1853/1854, the copy was taken indirectly into private ownership, where it survived in fragments.

Web links

Commons : Titus Varius Clemens - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

Jaro Šašel: To T. Varius Clemens from Celeia. In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik , Volume 51 (1983), pp. 295-300.

Remarks

↑ CIL 03, 05211 .
↑ CIL 03, 05215 .
↑ CIL 03, 05212 ; www.ubi-erat-lupa.org: Honorary inscription for Titus Varius Clemens ; accessed on November 21, 2016.
^ ^A ^b Anthony R. Birley : Locus virtutibus patefactus? To the transport system in the High Imperial Era. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1992, ISBN 978-3-663-01801-8 . Pp. 22-23.
↑ CIL 08, 02728 .
^ Marietta Horster: Building inscriptions of Roman emperors. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-515-07951-3 , pp. 175-176.
↑ AE 2007, 01774 .
↑ Bernd Steidl : … civitatem dedit et conubium… Eight new fragments of military diplomas from Raetia . In: Bavarian history sheets 79, 2014, pp. 61–86; here: p. 71; inter alia: AE 1988, 00905 ; AE 1995, 01182
↑ Stephan Karl: The humanistic reception of antiquities . In: Bernhard Hebert (Ed.): Prehistory and Roman times in Styria . Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2015, ISBN 978-3-205-79691-6 , pp. 51–56; here: p. 52.

personal data
SURNAME	Varius Clemens, Titus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Varius Clemens, T.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	roman knight
DATE OF BIRTH	2nd century
PLACE OF BIRTH	Celeia
DATE OF DEATH	2nd century

[1] CIL 03, 05211 .

[2] CIL 03, 05215 .

[3] CIL 03, 05212 ; www.ubi-erat-lupa.org: Honorary inscription for Titus Varius Clemens ; accessed on November 21, 2016.

[Birley_1992_22-23-4] A ^b Anthony R. Birley : Locus virtutibus patefactus? To the transport system in the High Imperial Era. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1992, ISBN 978-3-663-01801-8 . Pp. 22-23.

[5] CIL 08, 02728 .

[6] Marietta Horster: Building inscriptions of Roman emperors. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-515-07951-3 , pp. 175-176.

[7] AE 2007, 01774 .

[Steidl_2014_71-8] Bernd Steidl : … civitatem dedit et conubium… Eight new fragments of military diplomas from Raetia . In: Bavarian history sheets 79, 2014, pp. 61–86; here: p. 71; inter alia: AE 1988, 00905 ; AE 1995, 01182

[9] Stephan Karl: The humanistic reception of antiquities . In: Bernhard Hebert (Ed.): Prehistory and Roman times in Styria . Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2015, ISBN 978-3-205-79691-6 , pp. 51–56; here: p. 52.