Aulus Didius Gallus
Aulus Didius Gallus was a member of the
Career
According to
His career up to 51 can be partly reconstructed from an inscription from
After these two magistracies, Didius was proconsul of
His later career is described by Tacitus.
Didius acted to quell the rebels rather than enlarge the empire during his rule, which lasted until AD 57. While Tacitus criticizes him for being reactive and defensive, Sheppard Frere argues that he was acting on instructions from Claudius who did not consider the benefits of further conquest in difficult terrain to be great enough to warrant the risk. "Provincial legates were carefully selected with an eye to what was to be required of them," Frere writes, "and will have received careful briefing on appointment; and throughout their tenure they were in close contact with Rome."[9] Instead, Didius built roads and forts at the borders such as those at Usk to contain the native population. After five years in the post, covering the last two years of the reign of Claudius and the first three of Nero, Didius was replaced by Quintus Veranius.
Eponym of Cardiff
The modern city of Cardiff in Wales is often stated to be named for Didius.
The earliest
Though most modern linguists dismiss this derivation, the Didius connection has remained popular throughout the centuries, appearing in Camden's Britannia (1586), The Beauties of England and Wales (1815), and the writings of Iolo Morganwg and Taliesin Williams.[12][13]
Relatives
Whom Didius married, or whether he had married at all, is unknown. From his name, experts believe that Aulus Didius Gallus Fabricius Veiento, who was praetor in 62, is somehow related to Didius. Some, such as Edmund Groag and Mario Torelli, thought that Veiento was his son or grandson. Olli Salomies has shown that it is more likely that Veiento was adopted by Didius Gallus, at some point before Veiento became praetor.[14]
Anthony Birley mentions a "less certain" relative,
References
Primary sources
- Frontinus, On the Water Supply of Rome 2:102
- Tacitus, Agricola 14; Annals 12:15, 12:40, 14:29
- Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria Book 6, 3:68
Secondary sources
- Smith, William (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 2. p. 227. [1]
- Birley, Anthony R. (1981). The Fasti of Roman Britain. pp. 44–49.
Citations
- ^ Paul A. Gallivan, "The Fasti for the Reign of Gaius", Antichthon, 13 (1974), pp. 66-69
- ^ a b c Birley, The Fasti of Roman Britain (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981), p. 45
- ^ CIL III, 7247 = ILS 970
- ^ AE 1983, 210
- ^ a b c Birley, Fasti, p. 47
- ^ Syme, "Problems about Proconsuls of Asia", Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 53 (1983), pp. 191–208
- ^ Tacitus, Agricola, 14
- ^ Frere, Britannia: A History of Roman Britain, revised edition (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978), pp. 100f
- ^ Frere, Britannia, p. 99
- ^ a b Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, VI.3.68.
- ^ Pierce, Gwynedd O. "What's In A Name? – Cardiff". BBC Wales. Archived from the original on 15 January 2009. Retrieved 17 July 2008.
- ^ Wedlake Brayley, Britton, Edward, John (1815). The Beauties of England and Wales. London. p. 611.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Taliesin, Williams (1827). Cardiff Castle; a poem. With explanatory remarks and historical extracts. Merthyr Tydfil: J Howell. p. 25.
- ^ Salomies, Adoptive and polyonymous nomenclature in the Roman Empire, (Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 1992), p. 119
- ^ Birley, Fasti, p. 49