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A. Platorius Nepos as Tribunus Plebis
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2012
Extract
It is known from an inscription at Aquileia, of which he was a patronus, that A. Platorius Nepos, friend of Hadrian, consul suffect in 119, and legate of Britain from about 122 to 124, had been at one time tribunus plebis. Of some 16 inscriptions that name him and that are remarkable in being all exactly or approximately datable the Aquileia one is the only one that gives his name complete— ‘A. Platorius A. f. Serg. Nepos Aponius Italicus Manilianus C. Licinius Pollio’. From this it would appear (though, so far as I know, no one has previously drawn this conclusion) that his original name had been ‘C. Licinius Pollio’, but that he was adopted by one A. Platorius … Manilianus (whose name also looks like the result of adoption at some stage) and took Platorius’ name, adding at the end of it his own original name for formal completeness, as normal at this period. (Elsewhere he is named ‘A. Platorius Nepos’, ‘Platorius Nepos’ [in the same diploma, by error, also ‘Pretorius Nepos’], in the brickstamps ‘Plaetorius Nepo(s)’ or ‘Pl. Nep.’, and in the Augustan History Life of Hadrian ‘Pletorius Nepos’ or simply ‘Nepos’.)
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- Copyright ©Arthur E. Gordon 1958. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies
References
1 CIL V, 877 ( = ILS 1052). There are questions about the proper order of ll. 12 ff. and about what candidate divi Traiani goes with (cf. P-W XX, 2, 2546, ll. 8 ff.), but they do not affect trib. pleb.
2 In CIL V (1872)Google Scholar the inscription, though known to have been found at Aquileia, was reported as in Vienna, but by 1929 it was back in Aquileia: Brusin, Giovanni, Aquileia, guida storica e artistica (Udine, 1929), 106Google Scholar, no. 42. On the patrons of Aquileia cf. Calderini, Aristide, Aquileia romana, ricerche di storia e di epigrafia (Milan, preface 1930Google Scholar [Pubbl. d. Univ. Cattol. del Sacro Cuore, ser. 5, sc. storiche, vol. 10]), 281–3.
3 For recent literature on him cf. I. A. R[ichmond], Oxford Cl. Dict. (1949), 701; Artur Betz, P-W (XX, 2, 1950, 2545–2548), s.v. Platorius no. 2; Birley, E., Roman Britain and the Roman Army, Collected Papers (Kendal, 1953), 29, 36, 50Google Scholar; Crook, John, Consilium Principis (C.U.P., 1955), 178, no. 258Google Scholar.
4 CIL V, 877 (see above, n. 1); VI, 2078 (= 32374), col. 2, 1. 64 (A.D. 119); VII, 660–663, 1195 (= III, p. 873 = XVI, 70 [twice here]) (these 5 from his governorship of Britain, the last A.D. 124); XV, 1363 (corrected in Notizie d. Sc. 1896, 67 [A.D. 123]), 1364–1366 (A.D. 123, 134); XVI, 69 (17th July, 122: twice here); JRS XXV (1935), 16Google Scholar (as restored by R. G. Collingwood); XXVII (1937), 247, no. 6 (= AE 1938, no. 116); XXVIII (1938), 201, no. 7; XXXIII (1943), 79, no. 5 (= AE 1947, no. 123 [as restored from CIL VII, 498, by I. A. Richmond and R. P. Wright])(these last four also from his British period).
5 cf. ‘Roman Names and the Consuls of A.D. 13’, AJP 72 (1951), 285Google Scholar, notes 8–9, with references.
6 For the spelling ‘Plaet-/Pletorius’ see Bloch, Herbert, I bolli laterizi e storia edilizia romana … (Rome, 1947), 181Google Scholar (= Bull. d. Comm. Archeol. Com. di Roma 65 [1937], 177Google Scholar) with ref. to SHA, Vita Hadr. 4, 2Google Scholar; 15, 2; 23, 4 (ed. Hohl, Teubner, 1927).
7 [Laribus A]ugust. vici Iovis Fagutal[is et Genis Caesarum, i]mp. Nervadivi Nervae f. Traian[o Aug. Germanico Dac]ico pont. max. trib. pot. XIII imp. VI [cos. V, permissu (8–10 letters)] Pollionis trib. pleb., aed. reg. III vetusta[te dilapsam a solo ma]gistri anni CXXI sua inpensa restitu[er. …..l …..] Phoebus, A. Nonius A. l. Onesimus, [ ……. l. ……] Callistus, L. Valerius L. l. Eutichus.
8 The date is determined by the trib. pot. XIII, which ran from 108 to 109, probably 10th–9th Dec. (cf. Hammond, Mason, Memoirs Amer. Acad. in Rome XV (1938), 39–43Google Scholar; XIX (1949), 45–55).
9 I should read ‘Nervae’ for ‘Nerva’ in 1. 2. CIL and Dessau seem to take ‘imp. Nerva … Traiano’ as ablative, ‘in the reign of …’; I take it as dative, indicating a third object of the dedication, exactly as in CIL VI, 451. I seem to be supported in this by Maria Panvini Cotellessa, who in reprinting the text of CIL VI, 452, in her section of Lugli, G. Fontes ad topographiam veteris urbis Romae pertinentes III (Rome, 1955), 10, pp. 132 f.Google Scholar, no. 17, adds a (sic) after ‘Nerva’.
10 (J.) Asbach, Bonner Jahrb. LXXII (1882), 18Google Scholar, year 119, remark 2; von Rohden, P., PIR III (Berlin, 1898), 43Google Scholar, no. 337; Stech, Bruno, Senatores Romani qui fuerint inde a Vespasiano usque ad Traiani exitum (Klio, Beiheft 10, 1912Google Scholar), index, p. 197, no. 500c, and the entry between nos. 505 and 506; Niccolini, Giovanni, I fasti dei tribuni della plebe (Milan, 1934), 467Google Scholar, cf. 383, year 862/109; Artur Betz, P-W (XX, 2, 1950, 2546, 27–30, cf. 24–27), s.v. Platorius no. 2; Rudolf Hanslik, P-W (XXI, 2, 1952, 1414), s.v. Pollio no. 2.
11 o.c. ll. 1–4.
12 Caes. can be paralleled in this position in Trajan's title by reference to Dessau's indices (3:1, 274), where some 15 such examples are listed.
13 Spatially Licinii seems slightly preferable to Licini here.
14 cf. the case of the famous jurist Salvius Julianus (cos. A.D. 148), L. Octavius Cornelius P. f. Salvius Iulianus Aemilianus (CIL VIII, 24094 = ILS 8973), called simply ‘Iulianus’ or ‘Salvius Iulianus’ (with or without praenomen P. or L.) in consular dates and in non-inscriptional sources; and of the Emperor Galba, whose name ‘Servius Sulpicius Galba’ after adoption became ‘L. Livius Ocella Ser. Sulpiciurs Galba’ (‘Ser.“ is nearly always omitted in the full form of the name): Degrassi, Attilio, Epigraphica III (1941), 23 f., 25Google Scholar f.