Titus Statilius Taurus was the name of a line of Roman senators. The first known and most important of these was a Roman general and two-time consul prominent during the Triumviral and Augustan periods. The other men who bore this name were his descendants.
Titus Statilius Taurus (I) was a general and twice consul during the Triumviral and Augustan periods. This Taurus was a novus homo ("new man" or "self-made man") [1] from the region of Lucania. [2]
Initially a partisan of Marcus Antonius, by whom he was chosen as suffect consul in 37 BC, he subsequently was sent by Antonius with a fleet to aid Octavian in his war against Sextus Pompeius. After Pompey was driven from Sicily, Taurus crossed the sea to the province of Africa, which he secured without any difficulty and for which he was awarded a triumph in 34 BC. [3] He returned to Rome, where he began work on the city's first permanent amphitheatre. [4]
In 34 BC, he accompanied Octavian on campaign to Dalmatia, and after Octavian's return to Rome, Taurus remained in command of the troops stationed there. When war with Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra broke out, Taurus chose Octavian's side and in the Battle of Actium, he was in command of Octavian's land force. Antony's land forces surrendered to him rather than fight him. This greatly accelerated the victory of Caesar Octavian. After the death of Antonius, Taurus was sent in 29 BC to Spain where he defeated the Cantabrians, Vaccaei and Astures. He was later made consul ordinarius for the year 26 BC alongside Augustus, as Octavian was now known. [5] In 16 BC, when Augustus left Italy for Gaul, he left Taurus in Rome as praefectus urbi . [6] Until the second consulship of Tiberius in 7 BC, Statilius Taurus was the last man to hold multiple consulships. It appears Augustus was experimenting with a "share the honors" program before he consolidated enough power to rule as the unofficial emperor.
Statilius Taurus' amphitheatre was completed in 29 BC, opening with a number of gladiatorial contests. [7] These were received with so much acclaim that the people's assembly accorded Taurus the right to name a praetor every year. [8]
Taurus is said to have maintained a private bodyguard of German slaves in Rome. [9]
Taurus seems to had three sons and possibly two daughters, though it is uncertain whether all these children were by the same woman. The eldest son, also named Titus Statilius Taurus (II), was a monetalis, but did not reach consular years. [10] A second son, also named Titus Statilius Taurus (III), was consul in 11 AD. A third son was named Sisenna Statilius Taurus consul in 16 AD. It seems certain that Taurus had at least one daughter, Statilia L. Pisonis, who married Lucius Calpurnius Piso the Augur (consul in 1 BC). A second may be the Statilia who died at the age of 99 in the reign of Claudius, although she may have been a sister to this Taurus. [10]
Titus Statilius Taurus (II) was the eldest son of Titus Statilius Taurus (I), possibly by Cornelia Sisenna or an unknown woman. [11] He was either the full-brother or half-brother of Titus Statilius Taurus (III), Sisenna Statilius Taurus, Statilia L. Pisonis and possibly Statilia.
All that is known of this Taurus is that he was a monetalis and died before reaching consular age. [10]
Titus Statilius Taurus (III) was consul in 11 AD. He was the second son of Titus Statilius Taurus (I) perhaps by Cornelia Sisenna. [11] He may have been the full-brother or half-brother of Titus Statilius Taurus (II) and possibly Statilia, and was probably the full-brother Sisenna Statilius Taurus and Statilia L. Pisonis.
This Taurus married Valeria, daughter of the senator Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, and fathered three children by her: two consular sons, Titus Statilius Taurus (IV) and Titus Statilius Taurus Corvinus, and a daughter, Statilia Messallina, who was the mother to the Empress Statilia Messalina. [12]
Titus Statilius Taurus (IV) was the eldest son of Titus Statilius Taurus (III) by Valeria, daughter of Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus. He was brother to Titus Statilius Taurus Corvinus (consul 45 AD). This Taurus served as consul in 44 AD and later, proconsul of Africa from 51 to 53 AD.
A wealthy man, he laid out the celebrated Taurian Gardens. He was accused by Tarquitius Priscus, a former subordinate during his tenure as Proconsul of Africa, of "a few acts of extortion, but particularly ... [of] magical and superstitious practices" [13] at the direction of Julia Agrippina, and despite his apparent innocence, he committed suicide as a result of these accusations. [13]
Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus was a Roman general, author, and patron of literature and art.
Sextus Pompeius Magnus Pius, also known in English as Sextus Pompey, was a Roman military leader who, throughout his life, upheld the cause of his father, Pompey the Great, against Julius Caesar and his supporters during the last civil wars of the Roman Republic.
Statilia Messalina was a Roman patrician woman, a Roman Empress and third wife to Roman Emperor Nero.
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Marcus Valerius Messalla Messallinus was a Roman senator who was elected consul for 3 BC.
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.
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Octavia the Younger was the elder sister of the first Roman Emperor, Augustus, the half-sister of Octavia the Elder, and the fourth wife of Mark Antony. She was also the great-grandmother of the Emperor Caligula and Empress Agrippina the Younger, maternal grandmother of the Emperor Claudius, and paternal great-grandmother and maternal great-great-grandmother of the Emperor Nero.
Marcus Aurelius Cotta Maximus Messalinus was a Roman Senator who was a friend of the first two Roman emperors Augustus and Tiberius.
Claudia Marcella Minor (PIR2 C 1103, born some time before 39 BC) was a niece of the first Roman emperor Augustus. She was the second surviving daughter of the emperor's sister Octavia the Younger and her first husband Gaius Claudius Marcellus. Marcella had many children by several husbands, and through her son Marcus Valerius Messalla Barbatus she became the grandmother of the empress Messalina.
Gaius Calvisius Sabinus was a consul of the Roman Republic in 39 BC under the Second Triumvirate. He and his consular colleague Lucius Marcius Censorinus had been the only two senators who tried to defend Julius Caesar when his assassins struck on 15 March 44 BC, and their consulship under the triumvirate is taken as a recognition of their loyalty. An inscription, described by Ronald Syme as "one of the most remarkable inscriptions ever set up in honour of a Roman senator," praises Calvisius for pietas, his sense of duty or devotion. As a military officer, Calvisius is notable for his long service and competence, though he was not without serious defeats.
Lucius Marcius Censorinus was a consul of the Roman Republic in 39 BC, during the Second Triumvirate. He and his colleague Gaius Calvisius Sabinus had been the only two senators who tried to defend Julius Caesar when he was assassinated on the Ides of March in 44 BC, and their consulship under the triumvirate was a recognition of their loyalty.
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Titus Statilius Taurus Corvinus was a member of the Titus Statilius Taurus family of Roman Senators which went back to Titus Statilius Taurus, the general of emperor Augustus. Corvinus was consul in 45 AD during the reign of the Emperor Claudius with Marcus Vinicius as his colleague.
Lucius Valerius Catullus Messalinus was a Roman senator during the Flavian dynasty, and is best known as the most hated and ruthless delator or informer of his age. He was feared all the more due to his blindness.
Sisenna Statilius Taurus was a Roman senator. He was consul for the year AD 16 with Lucius Scribonius Libo as his colleague. Most of our information about Sisenna comes from inscriptions.
The gens Statilia was a plebeian family of Lucanian origin at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned in the third century BC, when one of them led the Lucanian assault on the city of Thurii, and another commanded an allied cavalry troop during the Second Punic War; but at Rome the Statilii first come to attention in the time of Cicero, at which point they held equestrian rank. The first of the family to attain the consulship was Titus Statilius Taurus in 37 BC, and his descendants continued to fill the highest offices of the Roman state until the time of Marcus Aurelius.