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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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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