Servius Cornelius Scipio Salvidienus Orfitus (consul 51)

Last updated

Servius Cornelius Scipio Salvidienus Orfitus (died AD 66) was a Roman senator, and consul ordinarius for the year 51, as the colleague of the emperor Claudius. [1] His father Orfitus was one of the seven sons of Vistilia, a noblewoman who came from a family that had held the praetorship, although some have erroneously stated Servius himself was the husband of Vistilia. [2] He became a member of the gens Cornelia through adoption by an otherwise unknown Servius Cornelius Scipio.

His career is set forth in an inscription found at Lepcis Magna, dated to AD 61 or 62. [3] According to the inscription, he was first quaestor to the emperor Claudius, then praetor urbanus ; both of these are prestigious offices, and he likely owed them to his father's half-brother, Publius Suillius Rufus, who was an intimate associate of Claudius. Following his consulate in 51, Servius was inducted into the collegia of Pontifices and the sodales Augustales , two socially powerful groups. He was proconsular governor of Africa for the term Summer 62/Summer 63; one Publius Silius Celer is mentioned as his legatus or assistant.

Our next glimpse of Orfitus is in Tacitus, who records that in AD in 65 that he proposed that the months of May and June be renamed Claudius and Germanicus, respectively, in honor of the emperor Nero, explaining that the deaths of Decimus and Lucius Junius Silanus Torquatus had rendered the name "Junius" inauspicious. [4] Frederik Juliaan Vervaet has argued that instead of an act of flattery, Nero and his partisans may have interpreted this proposal as a subtle form of criticism. If so, it would explain the actual motivation for Marcus Aquilius Regulus accusing Orfitus in the Senate of being a traitor to Nero the following year. [5] [6] Regardless of the motivation, Orfitus was found guilty and executed. [7] [8]

Orfitus' son, Servius, was consul at some point before AD 87, under the Flavian dynasty, but the year has not been determined. A grandson, also named Servius Cornelius Scipio Salvidienus Orfitus, followed in their footsteps and became consul in AD 110, under the emperor Trajan.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poppaea Sabina</span> Second wife of Emperor Nero

Poppaea Sabina, also known as Ollia, was a Roman empress as the second wife of the Emperor Nero. She had also been wife to the future emperor Otho. The historians of antiquity describe her as a beautiful woman who used intrigues to become empress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milonia Caesonia</span> Fourth and last wife of Roman emperor Caligula

Milonia Caesonia was Roman empress as the fourth and last wife of the Roman emperor Caligula from their marriage in AD 39 until they were both assassinated in 41.

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.

Gaius Sallustius Passienus Crispus was a prominent figure in the Roman Empire during the first century. He held the consulship twice, and was stepfather of the future emperor Nero.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornelia gens</span> Ancient Roman family

The gens Cornelia was one of the greatest patrician houses at ancient Rome. For more than seven hundred years, from the early decades of the Republic to the third century AD, the Cornelii produced more eminent statesmen and generals than any other gens. At least seventy-five consuls under the Republic were members of this family, beginning with Servius Cornelius Maluginensis in 485 BC. Together with the Aemilii, Claudii, Fabii, Manlii, and Valerii, the Cornelii were almost certainly numbered among the gentes maiores, the most important and powerful families of Rome, who for centuries dominated the Republican magistracies. All of the major branches of the Cornelian gens were patrician, but there were also plebeian Cornelii, at least some of whom were descended from freedmen.

Appius Junius Silanus, whom Cassius Dio calls Gaius Appius Silanus, was consul in AD 28, with Publius Silius Nerva as his colleague. He was accused of majestas, or treason, in AD 32 along with a number of senators, but he and Gaius Calvisius Sabinus were saved by one of the informers, Celsus, a tribune of a city cohort.

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.

Vistilia was a Roman matron of the gens Vistilia known by her contemporaries for having seven children by six different husbands; Pliny the Elder was more impressed by the fact most of her pregnancies were remarkably brief. Five of her sons became consuls, her daughter Milonia Caesonia became Roman empress through her marriage to Caligula, and her granddaughter Domitia Longina became empress through her marriage with Domitian. Due to her fertility Vistilia became a byword for prodigious fecundity in antiquity.

Publius Cornelius Lentulus Scipio was a Roman senator active during the Principate. He was suffect consul in the nundinium of July-December AD 24, as the colleague of Gaius Calpurnius Aviola. His name combines the two most famous branches of the gens Cornelia, the Lentuli and the Scipiones.

Servius Cornelius Scipio Salvidienus Orfitus was the name of several Roman men who lived during the early Roman Empire. They were descendants of Orfitus who was adopted by Servius Cornelius Scipio, an otherwise unknown member of the patrician branch of the Cornelii Scipiones.

Publius Suillius Rufus was a Roman senator who was active during the Principate. He was notorious for his prosecutions during the reign of Claudius; and he was the husband of the step-daughter of Ovid. Rufus was suffect consul in the nundinium of November-December 41 as the colleague of Quintus Ostorius Scapula.

Servius Cornelius Scipio Salvidienus Orfitus was a Roman senator who lived in the first century AD. He was a descendant of Orfitus, who was adopted by Servius Cornelius Scipio, an otherwise unknown member of the patrician branch of the Cornelii Scipiones.

Aulus Ducenius Geminus was a Roman senator active in the first century AD. Geminus is best known as Galba's appointment as Urban prefect of Rome during the Year of Four Emperors.

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.

Publius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus was a Roman senator active during the Principate. He was suffect consul in the nundinium of September to December 68, as the colleague of Gaius Bellicius Natalis. Both Asiaticus and Bellicius Natalis were picked to be suffect consuls by emperor Galba.

The gens Salvidiena was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned toward the end of the Republic, and from then to the end of the second century they regularly filled the highest offices of the Roman state.

Marcus Aquilius Regulus was a Roman senator, and notorious delator or informer who was active during the reigns of Nero and Domitian. Regulus is one of the best known examples of this occupation, in the words of Steven Rutledge, due to "the vivid portrait we have of his life and career in Pliny, Tacitus, and Martial." Despite this negative reputation, Regulus was considered one of the three finest orators of Roman times. Rutledge points to the judgment of Martianus Capella, who ranked him with Pliny the Younger and Fronto as the greatest Roman orators after Cicero. However, none of his speeches have survived from ancient times.

References

  1. Paul Gallivan, "The Fasti for the Reign of Claudius", Classical Quarterly , 28 (1978), p. 409
  2. Ronald Syme, "Domitius Corbulo", Journal of Roman Studies , 60 (1970), p. 31.
  3. Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania, 341
  4. Tacitus, Annales , xv. 12.
  5. Vervaet, "A Note on Syme's Chronology of Vistilia's Children", Ancient Society, 30 (2000), pp. 108 ff.
  6. Tacitus, Histories , iv. 42.
  7. Suetonius, "The Life of Nero", 37.
  8. Cassius Dio, lxii. 27.

Further reading

Political offices
Preceded byas Ordinary consuls Consul of the Roman Empire
51
with Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus
Succeeded byas Suffect consul