Decimus Valerius Asiaticus (Legatus of Gallia Belgica)

Decimus Valerius Asiaticus (35 – after 69 AD) was a Roman Senator who served as a Legatus of Gallia Belgica.[1]

Family background and early life

Asiaticus was of praetorian rank.[1] He was the son of the Roman Senator, consul Decimus Valerius Asiaticus[2] and Lollia Saturnina. There is a possibility he may have had siblings. He and his family had their origins in Vienna,[3] Gallia Narbonensis.

The father of Asiaticus was of Allobrogian origin[4] and his political career was a contemporary of the rule of the Roman emperors Tiberius, Caligula and Claudius. His father was a respected,[5] wealthy, and prominent Roman Senator.[6] The elder Asiaticus in 35 served as a suffect consul and again in 46, served as an ordinary consul.[7] He was the first man from Gaul to attain the consulship[8] and became the first man from Gaul to be admitted into the Roman Senate.[9]

The mother of Asiaticus was the social and beautiful Lollia Saturnina,[10] whose younger sister Lollia Paulina was a Roman empress and the third wife of the Roman emperor Caligula.[11] Saturnina was the first daughter of Marcus Lollius and the noble woman Volusia Saturnina,[12] who was first cousin to the Roman emperor Tiberius. The father of Asiaticus was murdered on the orders of the Roman empress Valeria Messalina in 47[5] and the junior Asiaticus was later raised by his mother.

Political career

After serving as a Legatus of Gallia Belgica,[1] he became the Roman governor of that province[3] in the reign of the Roman emperor Nero.[13] In early 69 when Aulus Vitellius became Roman emperor, he was finding governors and commanders in the provinces as supporters for his emperorship who were genuinely enthusiastic.[14] Among those supporters was Asiaticus.[14] When Vitellius was in the city of Lugdunum in Gaul, proclaiming his son and daughter as heirs from his wife Galeria Fundana, Vitellius betrothed his daughter Vitellia to Asiaticus.[3] Asiaticus and Vitellia had married in the reign of Vitellius.[3]

He had become powerful through wealth and the skilful exploitation of imperial patronage.[13] The alliance with Asiaticus and Vitellius was perhaps an attempt to reconcile the communities in Gaul with the Roman state.[1] Asiaticus was unable to give Vitellius much support when the Roman army commanders appointed Vespasian as an alternative successor to Vitellius.[1]

When Vespasian became Roman emperor in the second half of 69, Asiaticus was appointed for a consulship in 70.[3] Before he could serve his consulship in early 70, Asiaticus died.[15]

Asiaticus was survived by Vitellia and their son Marcus Lollius Paulinus Decimus Valerius Asiaticus Saturninus.[16] Later in 70, Vespasian arranged for Vitellia to remarry another unnamed groom.[15] Her second marriage was a splendid match for her and Vespasian provided for her the dowry and clothing.[15]

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gollark: ???
gollark: > Admitting to know a lot about someone but not sharing it with anyone else except the target, suggesting it to remove from given sources, is doxxing.Not really *doxxing*, but stalking-y.
gollark: > "surveillance" also happens when one researches documents available to general public.Yes, it does, and your rather passive-aggressive claim about how "there would be no need for NSA to exist" doesn't invalidate this. You can spy on people using information which is available for regular people to access with some work.
gollark: Because you might be an alt.

References
  1. Bowman, The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume 10, p. 273
  2. "The Roman World: Gallia Narbonensis's Urbs of Vienna". Archived from the original on 2013-12-19. Retrieved 2014-01-11.
  3. Morgan, 69 AD: The Year of Four Emperors, p. 149
  4. Decimus Valerius Asiaticus: A notable Gallo-Roman from Vienna in the 1st century, translated from French to English
  5. Alston, Aspects of Roman History AD 14-117, p. 92
  6. Wiseman, Talking to Virgil: A Miscellany, p.75
  7. P.J. Sijpesteijn, "Another οὑσἱᾳ of D.Valerius Asiaticus in Egypt", Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 79 (1989), p. 194
  8. Freisenbruch, The First Ladies of Rome: The Women Behind the Caesars, p.131
  9. Decimus Valerius Asiaticus: A notable Gallo-Roman from Vienna in the 1st century, translated from French to English
  10. Wiseman, Talking to Virgil: A Miscellany, p. 75
  11. Freisenbruch, The First Ladies of Rome: The Women Behind the Caesars, p. 131
  12. Lollius by D.C. O’Driscoll
  13. Wightman, Gallia Belgica, p. 61
  14. Morgan, 69 AD: The Year of Four Emperors, p. 81
  15. Epilogue: The Fall of the Vitellii - Vitellia?, daughter Archived 2014-01-11 at Archive.today
  16. Bowman, The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume 10, p. 217

Sources
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