Marcus Statius Priscus

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Marcus Statius Priscus Licinius Italicus (M. Statius M. f. Cl. Priscus Licinius Italicus)

senator and general active during the reigns of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. Contemporary sources refer to him as Marcus Statius Priscus or simply Statius Priscus.[1] He was consul for the year 159 as the colleague of Plautius Quintillus; Priscus was one of only two homines novi to attain the ordinary consul in the reigns of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius.[2]

Life

The

procurator of the vicesima hereditatium in Gallia Narbonensis and Aquitania
.

At this point Statius Priscus entered the Senate. No details are provided, but we can surmise a few details. One is that this happened under emperor Antoninus Pius. Another was that he owed his advance to the patronage of

legatus legionis or commander of Legio XIV Gemina; Birley suggests this was while Claudius Maximus, a friend of heir apparent Marcus Aurelius governed Pannonia Superior.[5]

Statius Priscus was appointed governor of

Moesia Superior by another military diploma dated to February 161, as well as a dedication he erected after the death of Antoninus Pius to the new emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus at Viminacium.[7] The northern frontier of Roman Britain
came under threat that required an experienced general, so the new emperors reassigned him there later that year.

He had been in Britain only a few months when a more serious threat presented itself—the

Valarshapat.[9] The satirist Lucian records how one contemporary historian described "how Priscus the general merely shouted out and 27 of the enemy dropped dead."[10] Birley comments, "It is foolhardy to try to squeeze some truth out of evidence of this kind, but one might perhaps suppose, at least, that Priscus was a man with an aggressive and boisterous style of leadership."[11]

According to Cassius Dio, when Avidius Cassius (the governor of Egypt and Syria) was declared emperor by his legions, it was Priscus who informed Emperor Aurelius. Cassius declared himself emperor at the behest of Aurelius' wife who convinced Cassius and his legions that the emperor had died.[12] Aurelius quickly defeated Cassius and installed Priscus as governor of Syria.[13]

Family

Although no wife is attested for Priscus, Giuseppe Camodeca published the inscription of a statue honoring one Fufidia Clementiana, a clarissima puella, who is described as the granddaughter of Priscus. This implies he had a daughter, who married

Moesia Inferior under the emperor Macrinus, who is possibly Statius Priscus' grandson.[15]
If Longinus is his grandson, the existence of a son follows.

Notes

  1. ^ The name M. Statius M. f. Cl. Priscus Licinius Italicus says he is the son of a Marcus as M. f.; Cl. refers to the tribe he belonged to, which in this case was "Claudia". See Roman naming conventions

References

  1. ^ Olli Salomies, Adoptive and Polyonymous Nomenclature in the Roman Empire (Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 1992), p. 145
  2. ^ Géza Alföldy, "Consuls and Consulars under the Antonines: Prosopography and History", Ancient Society, 7 (1976), p. 294. The other man was the jurist, Salvius Julianus.
  3. ^ CIL VI, 1523 = ILS 1092
  4. ^ Birley, The Fasti of Roman Britain (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981), p. 124
  5. ^ a b c Birley, Fasti of Roman Britain, p. 125
  6. ^ Birley, Fasti of Roman Britain, p. 126
  7. ^ AE 1910, 86
  8. Augustan History
    , "The Life of Marcus Aurelius", 9
  9. ^ Cassius Dio Book 71.2
  10. ^ Lucian, Quomodo Historia conscribenda sit, 20
  11. ^ Birley, Fasti of Roman Britain, pp. 126f
  12. ^ Birley (2001), p. 184.
  13. ^ Cassius Dio 71.23
  14. ^ Camodeca, "Fufidia Clementiana, c(larissima) p(uella), e i suoi avi consolari in una nuova iscrizione da Teanum del tempo di M. Aurelio", Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 179 (2011), pp. 231-238
  15. ^ Birley, Fasti of Roman Britain, p. 127

Further reading

Political offices
Preceded by
Quintus Pomponius Musa,
and Lucius Cassius Juvenalis
Consul of the Roman Empire
159
with Plautius Quintillus
 Succeeded by
Preceded by
Longinus
Roman governors of Britain

161- later in the 160s 		Succeeded by
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