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The Consuls Of A.D. 13

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

R. Syme
R. Syme
Affiliation:
Brasenose College, Oxford.
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Extract

In the year 13 of our era C. Silius and L. Munatius Plancus held the fasces, known characters. But the inscribed record presents a double and intricate problem. First, nomenclature. Is Silius by his full and proper style to be registered as ‘C. Silius Caecina Largus’ ? Second, was there also a consul suffect—and was there perhaps another suffectus or a pair of suffecti ?

That Silius was polyonymous, Borghesi claimed, and so did Mommsen. The persuasion obtained in the standard works of reference. Recently, however, a firm and reasoned negation was issued. It seemed cogent. None the less, it failed to win the assent of the scholar whose authority stands paramount in this field. And somebody else has essayed a refutation, reinstating ‘C. Silius Caecina Largus’. It is expedient to look into the matter again. That can be done briefly, thanks to the arguments already adduced—and no fresh evidence accrues.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 56 , Issue 1-2 , November 1966 , pp. 55 - 60
Copyright
Copyright ©R. Syme 1966. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 PIR 1, S 507; Nagl in P-W III A, 74 ff.; A. Degrassi, Inscr. It. XIII, 1, p. 63; cf. p. 141, etc.

2 , A. E. and Gordon, J. S., AJP LXXII, 1951, 283 ff.Google Scholar

3 Degrassi, A., I Fasti consolari (1952), 7.Google Scholar

4 Suolahti, J., Eranos LI, 1953, 146 ff.Google Scholar

5 Inscr. It. XIII, 1, no. 26.

6 Degrassi, Inscr. It. XIII, 1, p. 303.

7 A. E. and J. S. Gordon, o.c. 288.

8 Inscr. It. XIII. 1, no. 24.

9 CIL VI, 2023 b.; IV, 1553; cf. PIR 2, A 404.

10 For the problems of 21 (and of 22) see A. Degrassi, Epigraphica VIII, 1946, 38 f.

11 Inscr. It. XIII, 1, p. 297; cf. the photograph, ib. Tab. XCII.

12 Inscr. It. XIII, 1. p. 62; cf. Tab. XLIII.

13 CIL l2, p. 39; Ges. Schrift. IV, 405.

14 Degrassi in Inscr. It. XIII, 1, p. 142; cf. p.20.

15 Tacitus, Ann. XI, 35, 1.

16 CIL XIII, 11513.

17 Inscr. It. XIII, 1, p. 282; cf. Tab. LXXXVIII.

18 For the evidence, PIR 2, A 1229. Add CIL XII, 2623 (Genava).

19 Valerius Maximus IV, 2, 6.

20 Münzer opted for the son, the consul (P-W III, 1477); Groag is agnostic (PIR2, C 389). The parent is assumed the prosecutor in Rom. Rev. (1939), 200.

21 Inscr. It. XIII, 1, p. 284; cf. Tab. LXXXVIII.

22 Ann. VI, 12, 2.

23 CIL VI, 2025.

24 Ann. VI, 10, 1.

25 As argued by Groag in PIR 2, F 511, adducing the erasure of his parent's name.

26 ILS 6207. Not noted under PIR 2, F 511.

27 The list transfers, in a corrupted form, the cognomen ‘Frugi’ from M. Licinius Crassus (cos. 14 B.C.) to L. Calpurnius Piso (cos. 15 B.C.), to the confusion of many scholars until the full nomenclature of the former was established by IRT 319 and by the bronze tablet found in the sea near Pollenza (AÉ 1957, 317). Also, it presents C. Caelius Rufus (cos. A.D. 17) as Γ. Καικίλιος Γ. υἰ. Νέπως ἢ ΄Ροῦφος.

28 PIR 1, S 512; P-W III A, 69 f. He married the daughter of a senator, in 30 B.C., called Coponius (Velleius 11, 83, 3): probably from Tibur, cf. the Coponii of Pro Balbo 53; ILS 3700.

29 Velleius 11, 101, 3.

30 Velleius 11, 116, 4.

31 Sydenham, R. Rep. Coinage 160.

32 Ann. XI, 33 f.

33 For useful guidance see Degrassi, Epigraphica 111(1941), 23 ff.

34 PIR 2, C 64. A disturbing phenomenon will be noted at this point. It is already possible for a man to assume the cognomen of the maternal grandfather. Thus Cn. Cornelius Cinna Magnus (cos. A.D. 5), even on the Fasti Capitolini.

35 For the stemma of the descendants of Pupius Piso Frugi, M., JRS XLVIII (1958), 16.Google Scholar

36 PIR 1, L 205. He has no entry in P-W. The degree of his relationship to the wife of the Princeps would be worth knowing.

37 Thus E. Groag, P-W IV A, 824. The next consul with this type of name is Sex. Papinius Allenius of Patavium (cos. A. D. 36). Not necessarily proof of an adoption, but perhaps use of the maternal nomen as cognomen, after the fashion set by the Etruscans. On which see Rix, H., Das etruskische Cognomen (1963), 325 ff.Google Scholar For the ‘Cilnium Maecenatem’ of Ann. VI, 11, 2 (presumably inverted nomenclature), see Syme, R., Tacitus (1958), 709.Google Scholar

38 Ann. III, 2, 3.

39 That is, PIR 2, A 1487 and 1488 are one person, despite the hesitations of Groag, cf. Degrassi, A., Epigraphica VIII (1946), 38.Google Scholar The ‘sententia’ of Cotta Messallinus is registered along with those of six consulars in A.D. 16 (Ann. II, 32). He was clearly praetor-designate, identical with the praetor pere-grinus in 17 on the Fasti Arvalium (Inscr. It. XIII, 1, p. 217): ‘Cott]a’ can there be read, cf. JRS XLVI, 1956, 18.

40 ILS 992.

41 CIL XVI, 23.

42 ILS 1010 =CIL XIII, 7253.

43 Inscr. It. XIII, 1, p. 33. For the variations in his nomenclature, Degrassi, A., Epigraphica III (1941), 25 f.Google Scholar

44 Suetonius, Galba 4, 1: ‘adoptatusque a noverca sua Livi nomen et Ocellae cognomen assumpsit, mutato praenomine’.

45 ILS 8819. On two diplomata he is ‘C. Antius Julius Quadratus’ (CIL XVI, 38 f.).

46 A. E. and J. S. Gordon, o.c. (n. 2), 283 (with a number of later examples of the double praenomen).

47 That consul was opulent as well as influential. He had the mansion on the Palatine first made famous by the orator Crassus (Asconius 23; Pliny, NH XVII, 5).

48 PIR 2, C 101 duly registers the tile ‘[C]aecina[e? │…]s et Largu[s’ (CIL XI, 668954). Add the inscription from the theatre at Volaterrae: ‘C]aecin. Sever │ [C]aecin. Larc │’ (Not. Scav. 1955, 145).

49 Degrassi, A, Epigraphica VIII (1946), 34 ff.Google Scholar; Fasti consolari (1952), 7.

50 PIR 1, L 227; Groag in P-W XIII, 1387.

51 Ann. XII, 1, 2.

52 Pliny, NH IX, 117f.

53 Ann. III, 48.

54 Groag, P-W XIII, 1387.

55 Ann. XII, 22, 2: ‘sorore L. Volusii genitam, maiorem ei patruum Cottam Messalinum esse’. The relationship with Cotta Messallinus has not yet been cleared up.

56 Cited with approval in Tacitus (1958), 748. The editions of Fisher, Fuchs and Koestermann show no awareness of the difficulty.

67 viz. Lollius Maximus (Epp. I, 2, 1), Lollius (18, 1). Pseudo-Acro is up to form on the second passage—‘hic Lollius ad consulatum pervenit merito virtutis et beneficio Caesaris’.

58 JRS II (1912), 240 (photograph), whence ILS 9483.

59 As argued in Mus. Helv. XV (1958), 53 (on Favonius in ‘Sallust’, Ad Caesarem senem II, 9, 4).

60 Groag appears to make this assumption (PIR 2, F 121).

61 ILS 938 (Epidaurum).

62 Ann. I, 56, 1; 72, 1.

63 Ovid, Ex Ponto IV, 9, 75 ff.; 119 f. His recapture of Troesmis, which the poet mentions, is generally assigned to the year 15: thus PIR 1, P 538 and Stein, A., Die Legaten von Moesien (1940), 19.Google Scholar It might have occurred in 12.

64 viz. P. Vitellius, C. Antius and Anteius (Ann. II, 6, 1). Some scholars expel the name Anteius, without due warrant.

65 See the statement in JRS XLV (1955), 27; 29 f., modifying the list of Magie, D., Roman Rule in Asia Minor (1950), 1581.Google Scholar

66 Thus Groag in PIR 2, F 121: ‘magis crediderim Tiberium minus proprie Augustum dici’.

67 OGIS 469 (Samos).

68 cf. JRS XLV (1955), 27.

65 BMC Mysia 140, no. 251.

70 Suetonius, Divus Aug. 37, 1; cf. Stein, A., Der römische Ritterstand (1927), 67 f.Google Scholar

71 Ann. III, 30, 1. He had an especial interest in that family.

72 Degrassi, A., Epigraphica VIII (1946), 34 f.Google Scholar