Lucius Volusius Saturninus (suffect consul 12 BC)

Lucius Volusius Saturninus, also known as Lucius Volusius[1] (died AD 20)[2] was a Roman Senator from a plebeian family. He was a cousin of emperor Tiberius.

Dupondius from Acholla with the head of Volusius, and the text "VOLVSIVS SATVR ACHVL"

Biography

Early life

Volusius came from an ancient and distinguished Senatorial family, that according to Tacitus never rose above the praetorship.[2] His father was Quintus Volusius a prefect who served under Cicero in 51 BC to 50 BC in Cilicia[3] and was a pupil of his in oratory.[4] His mother was Claudia, aunt of the future Roman emperor Tiberius.[5] He had a sister named was Volusia Saturnina.[6]

Career

Volusius was a homo novus, the first member of his family to serve as a suffect consul in 12 BC, replacing Publius Sulpicius Quirinius.[7] According to Tacitus, he held censorial functions for the selection of equestrians as members of the judicature, and became the first person in his family to amass wealth, for which his family became greatly conspicuous.[2]

Following his consulship, Volusius was admitted to the septemviri epulonum.[8] Several years later he served as proconsular governor of Africa for 7/6 BC, as attested by coins of Acholla and Hadrumetum.[9] From AD 4 to 5, Volusius served as a Roman Governor of Syria.[10] Based on inscriptional evidence, the Horrea Volusiana was either built by Volusius or his grandson Quintus Volusius Saturninus, consul in 56.[6]

Family

Volusius married Nonia Polla, the daughter of Lucius Nonius Asprenas consul of 36 BC.[11] Polla bore Volusius a son, Lucius Volusius Saturninus suffect consul in AD 3,[12] and a daughter Volusia Saturnina.[13] Some older authorities claim that Volusius and Nonia Polla had another daughter, Volusia Cornelia, but Rudolf Hanslik has shown she was the daughter of another Voluisus Saturninus, the consul of the year 92.[14]

References
  1. Tacitus, Annales XII.22
  2. Tacitus, Annales, III.30
  3. Cicero, Ad Atticum, V, 21
  4. Quintus Volusius no.2 article at ancient library
  5. Syme, Aristocracy, p. 56
  6. Rickman, Roman Granaries and Store Buildings, p. 169
  7. Ronald Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), p. 457
  8. Martha W. Hoffman Lewis, The Official Priests of Rome under the Julio-Claudians (Rome: American Academy, 1955), p. 57
  9. Syme, Aristocracy, pp. 319f
  10. Syme, Aristocracy, pp. 101, 338
  11. Syme, Aristocracy, pp. 56, 319
  12. Syme, Aristocracy, p. 319
  13. Syme, Ronald (1989). The Augustan Aristocracy (illustrated and revised ed.). Clarendon Press. pp. ?. ISBN 9780198147312.
  14. Hanslik, "Volusia Q.f. Cornelia 23", Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, Supplement 9A, col. 1863

Sources
Political offices
Preceded by
Publius Sulpicius Quirinius
as Ordinary consul		 Suffect Consul of the Roman Empire
12 BC
with Gaius Caninius Rebilus		 Succeeded by
Quintus Aelius Tubero,
and Paullus Fabius Maximus
as Ordinary consuls
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