Quintus Pompeius Falco

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Quintus Pompeius Falco (c. 70 – after 140 AD) was a Roman senator and general of the early 2nd century AD. He was governor of several provinces, most notably Roman Britain, where he hosted a visit to the province by the Emperor Hadrian in the last year. Falco achieved the rank of suffect consul for the nundinium of September to December 108 with Marcus Titius Lustricus Bruttianus as his colleague.[1]

Name

His complete name was Quintus Roscius Coelius Murena Silius Decianus Vibullius Pius Julius Eurycles Herculanus Pompeius Falco, an example of

Creta et Cyrenaica.[4] However, as Olli Salomies notes in his monograph on Imperial naming practices, the adoptive father would have the praenomen "Quintus", as Falco has, not "Marcus".[5] Salomies believes his adoptive father was a Quintus Roscius, most likely from Sicily, who could be related to either of the Roscii mentioned.[6]

The latest inscription to mention him, dated to the year 123, uses his full name.

Lucius Silius Decianus. The remaining elements come from the last of the Euryclids of Sparta, Gaius Julius Eurycles Herculanus, who is known to have died around 136/137; the elements "Vibullius Pius" come from another senator, Lucius Vibullius Pius, who actually adopted by testament Eurycles Herculanus.[8]
These names provide evidence for a fragment of the complex social network that Falco built up over his lifetime, which is often unknown in whole or even in part for his contemporaries.

Life

Early life and career

An inscription recovered from

plebeian tribune, and indicates Falco was born around the year 70.[11] While tribune, Falco at least once used his prerogative, interceding unsuccessfully for Aulus Didius Gallus Fabricius Veiento, favorite of the hated emperor Domitian and thrice consul, during the stormy session of the Senate when Pliny attacked Publicius Certus. Despite his defense of Veiento, Pliny was not offended by Falco's action, or at least not much for his later letters to Falco are cordial.[12] McDermott dates Falco's tenure as praetor peregrinus to 99 or 100.[12]

Dacian Wars, subsequent governorships

Birley describes Falco's career as "undistinguished" until he was put in command of the

Judea; Birley speculates that the annexation of territory that became the province of Arabia Petraea "made it desirable to appoint a particularly experienced man to the adjacent province."[13] His consulship followed not long after, which he may have held in absentia.[14]

Upon his return to Rome, Falco became the first curator of the

Moesia Inferior, where he is attested in 116 and 117. His appointment to govern Britain came soon after; Birley opines that it "must have been one of Hadrian's first acts."[16]

Suppressing rebels in Britain

The Historia Augusta reports that when Hadrian became emperor, he was confronted with a series of rebellions across the empire, which included Britain where "the Britons could not be kept under Roman control".[17] Sheppard Frere puts the Brigantes at the center of the rebellion in Britain, who had close ties to the Selgovae and the Novantae, in southern Caledonia. Frere notes we lack many of the details of this insurrection, but an inscription from Jarrow and commemorative coins issued in 119 attest to Falco's supposed success in crushing the revolt.[18] A reference by the orator Fronto to many soldiers being killed in Britannia under Hadrian's rule has been suggested as indicating that the victory was hard-won. However, Fronto may have been referring to a different conflict.

Governor of Asia

In 122 Hadrian visited the island of Britain, and decreed numerous reforms for the province, which included the construction of the fortifications known as Hadrian's Wall. To implement them, however, the emperor replaced Falco with Aulus Platorius Nepos, and returned to Rome. Although he arrived in Rome too late to participate in the sortition for proconsular governorship for that year, the following year Falco received authority over the province of Asia for 123/124, considered one of the pinnacles of a successful senatorial career.[19] McDermott notes that both of his previous postings had been difficult ones, and he most likely spent his years in those distant places without his family; whether this was the case, there is evidence that his wife and son accompanied him to this province.[20]

Retirement

When Falco returned home from Asia, he retired from his public career to his estates, likely near Tusculum. Pompeius Falco is last heard of in a letter by the young Marcus Aurelius to Fronto, likely written in 143, in which he recalls a visit to Falco's estate three years prior. There the elderly senator and soldier showed the boy and his father around the grounds, and pointed out a tree with numerous branches that Falco called a catachanna.[21]

Family

Falco married

Sextus Iulius Frontinus, also a three-time consul (cos. 97, 98, 100);[22] McDermott dates their marriage to after Falco's return from Judea—namely, either the year 108 or slightly later.[23] They are known to have had at least one son, Quintus Pompeius Sosius Priscus
, consul in 149.

References

  1. ^ AE 2004, 1898
  2. ^ Eck, "Senatorische Familien der Kaiserzeit in der Provinz Sizilien", Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 113 (1996), pp. 109-128
  3. ^ Birley, The Fasti of Roman Britain (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981), p. 97
  4. ^ Olli Salomies, Adoptive and polyonymous nomenclature in the Roman Empire, (Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 1992), p. 122
  5. ^ Salomies, Adoptive and polyonymous nomenclature, p. 123
  6. ^ Salomies, Adoptive and polyonymous nomenclature, pp. 124f
  7. ^ CIL X, 6321
  8. ^ A.J.S. Spawforth, "Balbilla, the Euryclids and Memorials for a Greek Magnate", Annual of the British School at Athens, 73 (1978), pp. 254f
  9. ^ CIL III, 12117
  10. ^ Pliny, Epistulae 1.23
  11. ^ Birley, The Fasti, p. 98
  12. ^ a b William C. McDermott, "Stemmata quid faciunt? The Descendants of Frontinus", Ancient Society, 7 (1976), p. 243
  13. ^ Birley, The Fasti, pp. 98
  14. ^ Birley, The Fasti, pp. 98f
  15. ^ McDermott, "Stemmata quid faciunt?", pp. 245f
  16. ^ Birley, The Fasti, p. 99
  17. ^ "Hadrian", 5
  18. ^ Frere, Britannia (London: Routledge, 1978), pp. 147f
  19. ^ Eck, "Jahres- und Provinzialfasten der senatorischen Statthalter von 69/70 bis 138/139", Chiron, 13 (1983), p. 158
  20. ^ McDermott, "Stemmata quid faciunt?", p. 250
  21. ^ Birley, The Fasti, p. 100
  22. ^ Syme, "Ummidius Quadratus, Capax Imperii", Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 83 (1979), p. 295
  23. ^ McDermott, "Stemmata quid faciunt?", pp. 244f
Political offices
Preceded byas Ordinary consuls
Suffect consul of the Roman Empire
108
with Marcus Titius Lustricus Bruttianus
 Succeeded byas Ordinary consuls
Preceded by
Roman governors of Britain

118-122 		Succeeded by
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