Gaius Calpetanus Rantius Quirinalis Valerius Festus

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Gaius Calpetanus Rantius Quirinalis Valerius Festus was a

Year of Four Emperors. He maintained his loyalty through the reigns of his sons Titus and Domitian, but fell out of favor during the latter's reign and was forced to commit suicide.[why?
]

Tacitus describes him in AD 70 as "a young man of extravagant habits and immoderate ambition".[1]

Origins

Festus'

Arretium, where a number of Valerii Festi have been attested, and these like him are members of the Roman tribe Pomptina.[2]

Career

His career is documented in a fragmentary honorary inscription found at

plebeian tribune and praetor. Following his praetorship, Festus was co-opted into the priesthood of the Sodales Augustales. At this point Nero appointed him legatus of Legio III Augusta in Numidia
, which was adjacent to the proconsular province of Roman Africa.

It was here Festus found himself in the civil war of the Year of the Four Emperors. According to Tacitus, initially Roman Africa declared for Vitellius, because he had been proconsul there not long before. At first Valerius Festus also sided with Vitellius, but soon Festus began to secretly negotiate with Vespasian, intending to hold with the man who succeeded.[4]

Festus' opportunity to act came in the early months of the year 70. Despite the defeat and murder of Vitellius, the proconsul of Africa,

Adrumetum to learn the outcome of events in Carthage, then proceeded to the camp of Legio III Augusta and took control of the unit. He had the prefect of the camp, Cetronius Pisanus, put in irons, claiming the man was an accomplice of Piso. Then Festus made several changes in personnel and used the legion to settle a long-simmering feud between Oenes and the Leptitani, thus demonstrating he was in control of the province.[5]
With this, he openly declared for Vespasian.

In return, Vespasian soon appointed Festus to a suffect consulship for the nundinium of May-June 71 as the colleague of the Caesar

dona militaria or military decorations. Not long afterwards Festus became curator alvei Tiberis,[7] and was admitted to the next priestly rank, pontiff. Then Festus was appointed governor of two important provinces in succession: first Pannonia (73-77),[8] then Hispania Tarraconensis (78-81).[9]

Brian W. Jones believes Festus may have been appointed proconsul of Asia during the short reign of Titus, although Werner Eck does not include his name in his list of proconsuls of this period.[10]

References

  1. ^ Tacitus, Histories, 4.49
  2. ^ Olli Salomies, Adoptive and polyonymous nomenclature in the Roman Empire, (Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 1992), p. 40
  3. ^ CIL V, 531 = ILS 989
  4. ^ Tacitus, Histories, 2.98
  5. ^ Tacitus, Histories, 4.48-51
  6. Classical Quarterly
    , 31 (1981), pp. 187, 213
  7. ^ Dated to 73 by a number of inscriptions, for example CIL VI, 1238
  8. ^ Werner Eck, "Jahres- und Provinzialfasten der senatorischen Statthalter von 69/70 bis 138/139", Chiron 12 (1982), pp. 293-299
  9. ^ Eck, "Jahres- und Provinzialfasten", pp. 300-304
  10. ^ Jones, The Emperor Domitian (London: Routledge, 1993), p. 56, and note
Political offices
Preceded byas Suffect consuls
Suffect consul of the Roman Empire
71
with Domitian
 Succeeded by
Lucius Flavius Fimbria, and
Gaius Atilius Barbarus
as Suffect consuls
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gaius_Calpetanus_Rantius_Quirinalis_Valerius_Festus&oldid=1206548867"