Marcus Servilius Nonianus (died in 59AD) was a
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
* Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...
senator, best known as a historian. He was
ordinary consul in 35 as the colleague of
Gaius Cestius Gallus.
Tacitus described Servilius Nonianus as a man of great eloquence and good-nature.
[Tacitus, ''Annales'', XIV.19] He wrote a history of Rome which is considered the major contribution on the topic between the works of
Livy and
Tacitus, and which was much referred to by later historians, but was later lost.
[ Ronald Syme, "Servilius Nonianus", ''Hermes'', 92. Bd (1964), pp. 408, 421ff] A number of anecdotes regarding him survive and help to give an understanding of Roman life in the first century.
Life
Nonianus was descended from
Gaius Servilius Geminus
Gaius Servilius Geminus (died 180 BC) was a Roman statesman who served as Consul in 203 BC, Dictator in 202 BC (the last in 120 years), and '' Pontifex Maximus'' from 183 BC to 180 BC.
Heritage
Geminus was the son of Gaius Servilius Geminus, a ...
the
praetor, who had renounced his
Patrician status.
[Syme, "Servilius Nonianus", p. 409] His father was
Marcus Servilius
Marcus Servilius was a Roman senator who was active during the reigns of the emperors Augustus and Tiberius. He was ordinary consul in AD 3 as the colleague of Lucius Aelius Lamia.
Servilius was the son of Marcus Servilius, plebeian tribune in 4 ...
, consul in AD 3 and his mother the daughter of the
Nonius whom
Mark Antony proscribed over the possession of a gem. He was
proconsular governor of
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
in 46–47.
Pliny the Elder recounts several anecdotes concerning Nonianus. One was that he was terribly worried about losing his sight and to prevent this, Nonianus wore a lucky charm around his neck consisting of the two
Greek letters alpha
Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , whic ...
and
rho
Rho (uppercase Ρ, lowercase ρ or ; el, ρο or el, ρω, label=none) is the 17th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 100. It is derived from Phoenician letter res . Its uppercase form uses the sa ...
. Pliny reports that the charm worked. Another anecdote was that his daughter was cured of an illness with goats' milk, as advised by the family doctor
Servilius Democrates. The poet
Persius revered Nonianus like a father, according to the historian
Ronald Syme.
Nonianus married Considia; their daughter Servilia Considia married the senator
Quintus Marcius Barea Soranus
Quintus Marcius Barea Soranus was a Roman senator who lived in the reign of Nero. He was suffect consul in 52, but later attracted the hatred of Nero, and upon being condemned to death committed suicide. He was associated with a group of Stoics o ...
. This marriage and the admiration Persius had for him, led Syme to suspect Nonianus was part of the
Stoic
Stoic may refer to:
* An adherent of Stoicism
Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century BCE. It is a philosophy of personal virtue ethics informed by its system of logic and ...
circle of the
Principate
The Principate is the name sometimes given to the first period of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in 27 BC to the end of the Crisis of the Third Century in AD 284, after which it evolved into the so-called Dominate. ...
. Tacitus dates the death of Servilius Nonianus to 59, contrasting his elegant life to another senator who died that year,
Domitius Afer
Gnaeus Domitius Afer (died 59) was a Roman orator and advocate, born at Nemausus ( Nîmes) in Gallia Narbonensis. He flourished in the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero. He was suffect consul in the '' nundinium'' of September t ...
, who possessed the same genius yet was a provincial.
[
]
Historical work
Servilius Nonianus wrote a book on the history of Rome but the work is not extant. Even its title is unknown. According to Tacitus and Quintilian
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quintilian ...
this work was considered a very important reference book on Roman history, especially for those historians who belonged to the senatorial party. It is considered to be the leading Roman history between the works of Livy and Tacitus.[
Quintilian writes that Servilius Nonianus used publicly to read his own work, ''Recitationes''. Several scholars have suggested Tacitus drew on Servilius Nonianus for his history of the first Imperial period, along with the historian ]Aufidius Bassus
Aufidius Bassus was a renowned Roman historian and orator who lived in the reign of Augustus and Tiberius.
Bassus was a man much admired in Rome for his eloquence. He drew up an account of the Roman wars in Germany. Uncertainty in his health perh ...
. The period covered by Nonianus' history is unknown. It is considered probable that Nonianus also covered the reign of the emperor Tiberius.
Pliny the Younger records the anecdote that during one of the public ''recitationes'' of Nonianus, the emperor Claudius
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Drusus and Antonia Minor ...
, who was strolling nearby, was so attracted by the applause that he asked who was reading, and joined the audience.[Pliny the Younger, ''Epistulae'']
I,13,3
References
Sources
* Olivier Devillers: ''Tacite et les sources des Annales''. Leuven 2003.
* Michael M. Sage: "Tacitus’ Historical Works: A Survey and Appraisal," ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt
, commonly referred to by its German acronym, ''ANRW'', or in English as ''Rise and Decline of the Roman World'', is an extensive collection of books dealing with the history and culture of ancient Rome. Akin to a journal and published in various ...
'', Vol. II.33.2. Berlin-New York 1990, pp. 851–1030.
* Ronald Syme, ''Tacitus.'' 2 volumes. Oxford 1958.
* Ronald Syme
"The Historian Servilius Nonianus"
''Hermes'', 92 (1964), pp. 408ff.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Servilius Nonianus, Marcus
59 deaths
1st-century historians
1st-century Romans
Imperial Roman consuls
Latin historians
Nonianus, Marcus
Year of birth unknown