2nd century Roman general and senator
Publius Tullius Varro was a Roman general and senator during the reign of Hadrian. The commander of two different legions during his career, one of his most important military roles was as commander of Legio VI Victrix during its transfer from Vetera in Germania Inferior to York in Roman Britain in AD 122.
Life
Varro was a native of
Tarquinii in
Etruria.
Anthony Birley wrote that "he had excellent connections in high places for his elder brother had been adopted, it would seem, by the influential Spaniard Dasumius, taking the names
P. Dasumius Rusticus", indicating his brother was
consul ordinarius in 119 as the colleague of the emperor Hadrian.
[1] However, it appears that Birley's understanding of this relationship was based on a misunderstanding of an inscription known as the
Testamentum Dasumii, which had led experts to conclude that Tullius Varro was the friend of its testator whose son that person would adopt, and the adoptee would be known by the name L. Dasumius Tullius Tuscus. Once it was clear that the testator of this inscription was not "Dasumius", this reconstruction lapses. While it is possible that the man who adopted Varro's natural son was related to Dasumius Rusticus, he has no further relationship to Varro.
[2]
Varro's career began in the vigintivirate as a member of the
decemviri stlitibus judicandis. He then received his first military commission, as the
tribunus laticlavius of
Legio XVI Flavia Firma, which was stationed at
Satala at the time. He returned to Rome, where he was elected
quaestor urbanus, and after his praetorship, Varro was assigned his first
legion to command,
Legio XII Fulminata which was stationed in the border province of
Cappadocia. The
sortition awarded him
proconsular governor of
Hispania Baetica which he held for a year, and Birley speculates that it may have been while he held this post that he came to the attention of Hadrian, who assigned Varro the "delicate" job of uprooting Legio VI Victrix from its long-term home and relocating it to Britain.
[1]
His command of a second legion was followed by a term as
Proconsul of Africa from 142 to 143.
[5] Birley notes that Varro's "social standing is demonstrated by his having been an
augur."
[6]
Family
Due to a number of facts, it is generally accepted that the suffect consul of 152, Lucius Dasumius Tullius Tuscus, is Varro's biological son. The elements "Lucius Dasumius" were added to the son's name from his adoptive father's whom Salomies notes was "certainly related" to Publius Dasumius Rusticus.[2]
References
- ^ a b Birley, The Fasti of Roman Britain (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981), p. 239
- ^ a b Olli Salomies, Adoptive and polyonymous nomenclature in the Roman Empire, (Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 1992), pp. 98f
- ^ Werner Eck, "Hadrianische Konsuln. Neue Zeugnisse aus Militärdiplomen", Chiron, 32 (2002), p. 482
- ^ Eck, "Jahres- und Provinzialfasten der senatorischen Statthalter von 69/70 bis 138/139", Chiron, 13 (1983), pp. 174-178
- .
- ^ Birley, Fasti of Roman Britain, p. 240
Political offices
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Preceded byas ordinary consuls
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Succeeded byas suffect consuls
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Preceded by
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Proconsul of Africa 142 – 143
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Succeeded by
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