Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Gaetulicus (died AD 39) was a Roman senator and general. He was ordinary consul in the year 26 with Gaius Calvisius Sabinus as his colleague. [1] Gaetulicus was involved in a plot against the emperor Caligula, and following its discovery he was executed.
Gaetulicus was the son of Cossus Cornelius Lentulus, consul in 1 BC; his siblings include Cossus Cornelius Lentulus, consul in 25, and Cornelia, the wife of his consular colleague Calvisius Sabinus. [2] He is attested as having married Apronia, the daughter of Lucius Apronius, [3] by whom he had one daughter and at least three sons: Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Gaetulicus, suffect consul in 55, Cossus Cornelius Lentulus Gaetulicus, and Decimus Junius Silanus Gaetulicus.
Ronald Syme describes the family of the Cornelii Lentuli as distinguished by "mediocrity and survival". [4] However, Gaetulicus stands out from them, bringing "the Lentuli into fame and peril" with becoming a partisan of the praetorian prefect Sejanus. This was solidified by the betrothal of Gaetulicus' daughter to one of Sejanus' sons. [5] The support of a Patrician was rewarded by the ambitious Sejanus, first with the consulate in the year 26, and later with the appointment of legatus pro praetore or governor of the imperial province of Germania Superior in the year 29, possibly in succession to his brother, Cossus Cornelius Lentulus.
With the fall and death of Sejanus in the year 31, not only was the family of the praetorian prefect killed but many of his supporters were either exiled or also murdered. Gaetulicus was prosecuted by a Senator who had achieved the office of aedile, Abudius Ruso, but the lawsuit boomeranged on Abudius and the delator was banished from Rome. Tacitus notes that Gaetulicus "alone of all connected with Sejanus lived in safety and in high favour." [5] Gaetulicus was very secure in his post in Germania Superior: he was popular with his troops for his kindness and moderate discipline, while his father-in-law Apronius governed the adjacent province of Germania Inferior. [5] Tacitus further mentions a rumor that Gaetulicus and the emperor Tiberius had come to an understanding: the governor had sent him a letter reminding the emperor that he had aligned himself with Sejanus at the emperor's advice, not his own choice, had no part in the affair that led to Sejanus' destruction, and would remain loyal as long as he was left undisturbed in Germania Superior. [5]
Gaetulicus remained governor past the death of Tiberius into the reign of Caligula, when a misstep in the year 39 by the former brought him down. "The whole affair is mysterious, the evidence disconnected and fragmentary," writes Ronald Syme. [6] Syme reviews the primary sources -- which include Suetonius and Dio Cassius -- and provides the essential facts. In September 39, Caligula left Rome and proceeded to Moguntiacum, the capital of Germania Superior, accompanied by his sisters and Lepidus. Upon reaching Moguntiacum, Gaetulicus was one of many executed, in his case because of his popularity with his soldiers. Lepidus was executed by a tribune, while Agrippina and Livilla were exiled to the Pontine Islands. [7] On 27 October word of the nefaria consilia had reached Rome, when the Arval Brethren celebrated a thanksgiving for its suppression. [8]
Gaetulicus also had a literary bent. He wrote a history or set of memoirs that Suetonius used as a source for his De vita Caesarum and Tacitus his Annals. He is mentioned by name in Suetonius' Life of Caligula (Gaius) 8. His cognomen "Gaetulicus" appears on nine poems in the Greek Anthology , and Ronald Syme identifies this Gaetulicus as the author, although Syme admits that "some, it is true, are impelled to cast doubt on his authorship." [2] He is known to have written some erotic verses, for Martial cites him as a precedent for the free use of language.
He also claimed that the tomb of Archilochus is continually haunted by wasps. [9]
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Publius Pomponius Secundus was a distinguished statesman and poet in the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius. He was suffect consul for the nundinium of January to June 44, succeeding the ordinary consul Gaius Sallustius Crispus Passienus and as the colleague of the other ordinary consul, Titus Statilius Taurus. Publius was on intimate terms with the elder Pliny, who wrote a biography of him, now lost.
Cornelia was the daughter of Scribonia and her second husband. She was stepdaughter to Octavian through her mother's third marriage and half-sister to Julia the Elder, Augustus' only biological child.
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus was a patrician Roman senator, politician and general, praised by the historian Tacitus.
Lentulus may refer to:
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Quintus Pomponius Secundus was a Roman aristocrat of the first century, and consul suffectus in AD 41 as the colleague of Gnaeus Sentius Saturninus. His brother was the poet and statesman Publius Pomponius Secundus, and their half-sister, Milonia Caesonia, was the second wife of the emperor Caligula.
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Gaius Calvisius Sabinus was a Roman Senator, who was consul in AD 26 as the colleague of Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Gaetulicus. During the reign of Caligula, he was accused of conspiring against the emperor, and took his own life rather than submit to a trial.
Cossus Cornelius Lentulus Gaetulicus was a Roman senator and general, who was consul in 1 BC with Lucius Calpurnius Piso the Augur as his colleague.
Lucius Calpurnius Piso was a Roman senator who was appointed consul in 1 BC as the colleague of Cossus Cornelius Lentulus Gaetulicus. He was also an augur.
Cossus Cornelius Lentulus was a Roman senator who flourished during the Principate. He was the consul posterior as the colleague of the emperor Nero in AD 60.
Cossus Cornelius Lentulus was a Roman senator, who was active during the reign of Tiberius. He was consul in the year AD 25 as the colleague of Marcus Asinius Agrippa. Except for his consulship, the only office Lentulus might have held is governorship of Germania Superior, as Edmund Groag conjectured.
Publius Cornelius Lentulus Scipio was a Roman senator active during the reign of the emperor Augustus. He was suffect consul for the second half of AD 2 with Titus Quinctius Crispinus Valerianus as his colleague. He was the earliest member of the Cornelii gens to combine the name of the two most famous branches of that family, the Lentuli and the Scipiones, in his own name.
Poppaea Sabina the Elder was an aristocratic woman who lived during the Principate. During her lifetime she was famed for her beauty, but as Ronald Syme writes, her "fame and follies have been all but extinguished by her homonymous daughter", Poppaea Sabina the Younger. She met her end as a victim of the empress Valeria Messalina, wife of Claudius.
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Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Gaetulicus was a Roman senator, who flourished under the reign of Nero. He was consul in the nundinium of November to December 55 with Titus Curtilius Mancia as his colleague. He is known entirely from inscriptions.
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