Quintus Caecilius Marcellus Dentilianus

legatus proconsulis or assistant to governors of two public provinces. The first province was Crete and Cyrenaica; the second was Hispania Baetica. Alföldy dates his tenure in these positions, similar to modern internships and were held at the pleasure of the governors of those provinces, to successive years, c. 136/137 and c. 137/138 respectively.^[6] After these postings, the sortition gave Dentilianus the opportunity to govern a province on his own, which was Crete and Cyrenaica. This province was not favored by senators, due to its elements—the island of Crete and Cyrenaica in North Africa—were separated by the Mediterranean Sea, making governing the province more difficult. The date he governed this province lacks a firm date: Alföldy tentatively dates his tenure to the term 139/140, while Werner Eck dates it with less precision to either the last years of Hadrian's reign or the first few of Antoninus Pius.^[7] Dentilianus eventually received his first imperial appointment after this, a commission as legatus or commander of Legio XII Fulminata, which was stationed on the Eastern frontier, either in Cappadocia or Armenia; Alföldy dates his tenure in this post from circa 141 to circa 144.^[8] This was followed by an appointment as governor of the imperial province of Gallia Aquitania, which Alföldy between the years 146 and 149, or just prior to the time Dentilianus acceded to the consulate, while Eck dates it with less precision again to either the last years of Hadrian's reign or the first few of Antoninus Pius.^[9]