Decimus Laelius Balbus

Decimus Laelius Balbus was a Roman senator, who was active during the reign of Augustus. He was consul in 6 BC with Gaius Antistius Vetus as his colleague.[1] Balbus was the son of Decimus Laelius, plebeian tribune in 54 BC, and thus a novus homo.

Balbus was one of the Quindecimviri sacris faciundis who organized the Secular Games in 17 BC.[2] Ronald Syme notes his membership in this prestigious Roman priesthood led to Balbus entering the consulate twelve years later. "That fact itself renders this novus homo not a little enigmatic," Syme writes, "but consecrates the value and significance of priesthoods as well as consulships."[3]

References

1. Alison E. Cooley, The Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy (Cambridge: University Press, 2012), p. 458
2. CIL VI, 32323
3. Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), p. 78

Political offices
Preceded by Tiberius Claudius Nero II, and Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso	Consul of the Roman Empire 6 BC with Gaius Antistius Vetus	Succeeded by Imp. Caesar Divi filius Augustus XII, and Lucius Cornelius Sulla Faustus