Gnaeus Domitius Afer

Gnaeus Domitius Afer (died 59) was a Roman orator and advocate, born at Nemausus (Nîmes) in Gallia Narbonensis. He flourished in the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero.^[1] He was suffect consul in the nundinium of September to December 39 as the colleague of Aulus Didius Gallus.^[2]

Life

Afer became

Quintilian, when a young man, heard Afer,^[8] and frequently speaks of him as the most distinguished orator of his age. He says that Afer and Julius Africanus were the best orators he had heard, and that he prefers the former to the latter,^[9] Quintilian refers to a work of his On Testimony,^[10] to one entitled Dicta,^[11] and to some of his orations, of which those on behalf of Domitilla, or Cloantilla, and Lucius Volusenus Catulus seem to have been the most celebrated.^[12]

According to Pliny the Younger, in his will Afer had made Titius Marcellus Curvius Lucanus and Titius Marcellus Curvius Tullus his heirs on the condition that they take on his name. He had prosecuted their father, Sextus Curvius Tullus, stripping him of his wealth and citizenship. Pliny comments that Afer's will had been drawn up 18 years previously, suggesting that Afer and Tullus the elder had once been friends.^[13]

See also

• List of ancient Roman speeches
• Domitia gens
• Nerva–Antonine dynasty

References

Further reading

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Afer, Domitius".

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Afer, Domitius". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. p. 54.