Appius Junius Silanus
Appius Junius Silanus (died AD 43), whom
Gaius Calvisius Sabinus were saved by one of the informers, Celsus, a tribune of a city cohort.[2][3]
Shortly after the accession of
Messalina. He was treated with the greatest of distinction, but having refused the advances of Messalina herself, he was soon put to death by the emperor. Messalina and Tiberius Claudius Narcissus accused him of plotting to assassinate Claudius, and claimed that they had seen Silanus attempting to murder the emperor in their dreams.[4][5][6]
Silanus' relationship to the other Junii Silani is uncertain. According to
Marcus Junius Silanus Torquatus, consul in AD 19.[7] Although Syme claims his marriage to Domitia was childless, Judith Ginsburg identifies Silanus as the father of Marcus Junius Silanus, suffect consul in either 54 or 55.[8]
In television
The 1976 television version of I, Claudius shows him carrying out an actual assassination attempt on Claudius with a dagger, and coming close to succeeding. He was played by Lyndon Brook.
See also
- Junii Silani
- List of Roman consuls
References
- ^ Cooley, Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy, p. 459.
- ^ Tacitus, Annales, iv. 9.
- ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 821 ("Appius Junius Silanus").
- ^ Tacitus, Annales, iv. 68, vi. 9, xi. 29.
- ^ Suetonius, "The Life of Claudius", 29, 37.
- ^ Cassius Dio, lx. 14, 15.
- ^ Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy, pp. 194 ff.
- ^ Ginsburg, "Nero's Consular Policy", American Journal of Ancient History 6 (1981), p. 52
Bibliography
- Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Annales.
- Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum (Lives of the Caesars, or The Twelve Caesars).
- Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus, Roman History.
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849).
- Alison E. Cooley, The Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy, Cambridge University Press (2012).
- Ronald Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy, Clarendon Press (1989).