Claudius Xenophon

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Claudius Xenophon (or Xenephon) was a governor of Britannia Inferior, a province of Roman Britain around AD 223. He is named on two milestones with nearly identical texts, which can be dated to that year. [1] He succeeded Marius Valerianus, whose rule is attested in AD 222; and his governorship must have ended by AD 225, when another governor is mentioned in a fragmentary inscription, which only provides part of the name (Maximus). He is also mentioned in inscriptions in Vindolanda [2] and perhaps at Chesters. [3] [4] His father is thought to be a T. Cl(audius) T. f(ilius) Papiria Xenophon, who is mentioned in inscriptions and papyri in various procuratorships in Egypt and Dacia under Commodus. [5]

Britannia Inferior was a new province carved out of Roman Britain around AD 197 during the reforms of Septimius Severus. The removal of the governors in Londinium from control over the legions guarding Hadrian's Wall was aimed at reducing their power, given Clodius Albinus's recent bid to become emperor. The province was probably formalised around 214 by Severus's son Caracalla.

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Marius Valerianus was a governor of Britannia Inferior, a province of Roman Britain between 221 and 223. He is known through three inscriptions he left at Chesters, Netherby and South Shields. Anthony Birley notes that these inscriptions are useful because "they illustrate the fact that the praetorian governor of the Lower province was responsible for the whole of the northern frontier of Roman Britain, from the North Sea to the western outpost north of Carlisle."

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References

  1. RIB 2299, a mile east of Vindolanda on the north side of the Stanegate, cur(ante) Cl(audio) X[e]noph(onte) leg(ato) Aug(usti) pr(o) [pr]a[e]t(ore) (translated in RIB as "under the charge of Claudius Xenophon, emperor's propraetorian legate"); 2306, near Milecastle 42 of Hadrian's Wall, at Cawfields, the same text, but with the name written out and spelt Xenephonte.
  2. RIB 1706 sub Cl(audio) Xenepho[nte l]eg(ato) [Aug(usti)] n(ostri) pr(o) pr(aetore) Br(itanniae) In(ferioris) (translated in RIB as "under Claudius Xenephon, our emperor's propraetorian legate of Lower Britain")
  3. RIB 1467 per Cl(audium) [Xenephontem] leg(atum) pr(o) pr(aetore). Birley, p. 342 n. 24, thinks the incomplete name could also belong to Tiberius Claudius Paulinus or to Claudius Xenophon's successor Maximus.
  4. Salway, Peter (2001). A History of Roman Britain. Oxford Paperbacks. p. 186.
  5. Groag and Stein (1936) p. 256 n. 1052, p. 257 n. 1054; Birley (2005) 345-6.

Further reading