Lucius Junius Quintus Vibius Crispus
Lucius Junius Quintus Vibius Crispus (sometimes known as Quintus Vibius Crispus) was a
Family
Crispus came from a family of the
Quintus Vibius Secundus, suffect consul in 86, is considered his son.[3] It is unknown if Crispus is related to Lucius Vibius Sabinus, father of the Roman empress Vibia Sabina.
Life
Crispus' life before he achieved the consulate for the first time, during the reign of Nero, is known only indirectly. Tacitus, in his Histories, implies that he was a delator, or informer, during those years, which would explain the source for some of his reputed fortune.[4] The date of his first consulate is not known. Proposed dates range from before the year 56 (Bosworth) to as late as 63 or 64 (Gallivan); the years 56-60 can be eliminated because all of the suffect consuls are known for those years.[5] In a more recent study of dated documents from Herculaneum, Giuseppe Camodeca narrowed the possible dates to either 60 or 61.[6]
Crispus' first recorded appearance was towards the end of the year 60. During that year his brother was convicted for extortion on a charge brought by the Mauretanians and was expelled from Italy. Crispus, through his influence in the Roman Senate, managed to save his brother from a worse sentence.[7]
In the year 68, Crispus was appointed
His other appearance was as an amicus of
Despite having been an intimate of Vitellius, Crispus recovered his standing after Vespasian defeated him and emerged as the victor. He was permitted to participate in the sortition and was allocated proconsular governorship of Africa in 71/72,[12] His legate, Gaius Flavius, was recorded as setting a record sailing from that province to Ostia in two days.[13] A few years later Crispus acceded to the suffect consulship a second time for the nundinium of March–April 74 as the colleague of Titus.[14] At some period under Vespasian's reign he was appointed governor of Hispania Tarraconensis.[15]
Crispus maintained his position as amicus during the reign of Vespasian's younger son, Domitian. "Although no one could have been a more useful advisor to Domitian, he limited his conversation with the emperor to safe topics — how wet it's been, how hot; never uttering his private opinions or staking his life on the truth."[16] It was Domitian who granted him a third suffect consulship, in either the year 82 or the year 83.[17] On one occasion during this time, when asked if anyone was closeted with the Emperor, Crispus wittily answered, "No, not even a fly", a sarcastic reference to Domitian's reputed habit of killing insects and displaying them on the end of a pin or writing stylus.[18]
If one of Martial's Epigrams actually refers to Crispus, he may have been dead by the year 90; Martial wrote a poem published that year about a Crispus who had squandered his entire fortune on himself and left his wife penniless.[19]
References
- ^ Tacitus, Dialogus de oratoribus, 8
- ^ Salomies, Adoptive and polyonymous nomenclature in the Roman Empire, (Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 1992), pp. 91f
- ^ Salomies, Adoptive and polyonymous nomenclature, p. 91
- ^ Martial refers to his wealth in IV.54.7
- ^ Judith R. Ginsberg, "Nero's Consular Policy", American Journal of Ancient History, 6 (1981), p. 67 n. 53
- ^ Camodeca, "I consoli degli anni di Nerone nelle 'Tabulae Herculanenses'", Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 193 (2015), p. 275
- Annales, XIV.28
- ^ R. H. Rodgers, "Curatores Aquarum", Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 86 (1982), p. 173
- ^ Tacitus, Histories, II.10
- ^ Tacitus, Histories, IV.41-43
- ^ Dio Cassius, 64.2.3
- ^ Werner Eck, "Jahres- und Provinzialfasten der senatorischen Statthalter von 69/70 bis 138/139", Chiron, 12 (1982), p. 290
- ^ Pliny the Elder, Natural History, XIX.1
- ^ Paul Gallivan, "The Fasti for A. D. 70-96", Classical Quarterly, 31 (1981), pp.
- ^ Eck, "Jahres- und Provinzialfasten der senatorischen Statthalter von 69/70 bis 138/139", Chiron, 13 (1983), pp. 196f and n. 539
- ^ Brian W. Jones, The Emperor Domitian (London: Routledge, 1993), pp. 57f
- ^ Gallivan, "Fasti", pp. 210, 216
- ^ Suetonius, Domitian, 3.1
- ^ Martial, V.32; Martial appears to allude to him also at X.2 and 14
Further reading
- Julian Bennett, Trajan: Optimus Princeps: a Life and Times (London, Routledge, 1997) ISBN 978-0-415-16524-2