Lucius Pedanius Secundus

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Lucius Pedanius Secundus (d. AD 61) was a Roman senator of the first century.

Contents

Biography

The Pedanii had their roots as Roman colonists in the town of Barcino in Tarraconensis. Secundus' descendants include a series of consuls, beginning with his son Gnaeus Pedanius Fuscus Salinator, consul in AD 61. [1]

Reign of Claudius

In AD 43, during the reign of Claudius, he was consul suffectus from the Kalends of March to the Kalends of July, together with Sextus Palpellius Hister. [2] Secundus was the first senator from the Spanish provinces to achieve the rank of consul since the anomalous tenure of Lucius Cornelius Balbus in 40 BC. [1]

Reign of Nero

In AD 56, he was appointed praefectus urbi by Nero.

Death by a slave

Few details of his tenure are known; only that he was murdered in the year 61 by one of his slaves. The Senate, moved, among others, by Gaius Cassius Longinus, [i] approved the execution of all of Pedanius' four hundred slaves, in accordance with Roman law; an abridged version of Longinus' speech was preserved by Tacitus. [3] The people demanded the release of those slaves who were innocent, but Nero deployed the Roman army to prevent the mob from disrupting the executions. [3] [4]

See also

Footnotes

  1. Not to be confused with the murderer of Caesar.

References

  1. 1 2 Ronald Syme, "The Ummidii", Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte , 17 (1968), p. 85
  2. Paul A. Gallivan, "The Fasti for the Reign of Claudius", in Classical Quarterly , 28 (1978), pp. 407–426.
  3. 1 2 Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Annales , xiv. 42–45.
  4. Anastasia Serghidou, Peur de l'esclave, peur de l'esclavage en Méditerranée ancienne ("Fear of Slaves, Fear of Enslavement in the Ancient Mediterranean"), Presses Universitaires de Franche-Comté, (2007), pp. 151, 152.