Marcus Peducaeus Plautius Quintillus (died 205) was a Roman noble closely related by birth, adoption, and marriage to the Nerva-Antonine emperors. Through his marriage to

Fadilla Annia Aurelia Fadilla, most commonly known as Fadilla (159 – after 211) was one of the daughters born to Marcus Aurelius and his wife Faustina the Younger. She was a sister to Lucilla and Commodus. Fadilla was named in honor of her late matern ...

, the daughter of Emperor

Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good E ...

and Empress

Faustina the Younger Annia Galeria Faustina the Younger (born probably 21 September AD, – 175/176 AD) was Roman empress from 161 to her death as the wife of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, her maternal cousin. Faustina was the youngest child of Emperor Antoninus Pius a ...

, he became the brother-in-law to the future emperor,

Commodus Commodus (; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was a Roman emperor who ruled from 177 to 192. He served jointly with his father Marcus Aurelius from 176 until the latter's death in 180, and thereafter he reigned alone until his assassination. ...

. Despite his position, he never became emperor himself. After Commodus was assassinated in 192, he fell out of favor with Septimus Severus during the

Year of the Five Emperors The Year of the Five Emperors was AD 193, in which five men claimed the title of Roman emperor: Pertinax, Didius Julianus, Pescennius Niger, Clodius Albinus, and Septimius Severus. This year started a period of civil war when multiple rulers vie ...

. In 205, he committed suicide after Septimus issued an order for his execution.

Early life

Plautius was the son of Ceionia Fabia, the daughter of

Lucius Aelius Lucius Aelius Caesar (13 January 101 – 1 January 138) was the father of Emperor Lucius Verus. In 136, he was adopted by Hadrian and named heir to the throne. He died before Hadrian and thus never became emperor. After Lucius' death, he was ...

, the first adoptive heir of

Hadrian Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania ...

who had died before ascending to the throne; his birth father is believed to be

Plautius Quintillus Plautius Quintillus (died by 175) was a Roman senator who lived in the 2nd century. Life The family of Plautius Quintillus was of consular rank and was politically active during the Nerva–Antonine dynasty in the 2nd century. Quintillus’ birth ...

, consul in 159. At some point, he was

adopted Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

as the heir of

Marcus Peducaeus Stloga Priscinus Marcus Peducaeus Stloga Priscinus was a Roman senator active during the middle of the second century AD. He was ordinary consul for 141 as the colleague of Titus Hoenius Severus. An inscription from the Great Theatre at Ephesus mentions a Marcus ...

, consul in 141.Olli Salomies, ''Adoptive and Polyonymous Nomenclature in the Roman Empire'' (Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 1992), p. 101 Through his adopted father, as well as his natural father and mother, he could claim descent from families of the highest nobility.

Antonine era

When Plautius married Annia Aurelia Fadilla, he became son-in-law to Marcus Aurelius and brother-in-law to Commodus. They had two children: a son, (Plautius) Quintillus, and a daughter, Plautia Servilla. In 177, Plautius served as ordinary consul as the colleague of Commodus, and then again with Commodus at an unknown date in his reign (180-192). Plautius was also an

Augur An augur was a priest and official in the classical Roman world. His main role was the practice of augury, the interpretation of the will of the gods by studying the flight of birds. Determinations were based upon whether they were flying ...

. When Marcus Aurelius died in 180, Commodus succeeded him, and Plautius was one of his main advisers.

Year of the Five Emperors

After the assassination of Commodus, in December 192, the civil war that ensued saw five different men assume the throne; Plautius was not one of them. When Septimus Severus, the victor of the civil war, advanced on Rome,

Didius Julianus Marcus Didius Julianus (; 29 January 133 or 137 – 2 June 193) was Roman emperor for nine weeks from March to June 193, during the Year of the Five Emperors. Julianus had a promising political career, governing several provinces, including D ...

proposed that the Senate and the

Vestal Virgins In ancient Rome, the Vestal Virgins or Vestals ( la, Vestālēs, singular ) were priestesses of Vesta, virgin goddess of Rome's sacred hearth and its flame. The Vestals were unlike any other public priesthood. They were chosen before pubert ...

meet Severus' advancing army as supplicants, a proposal Plautius intervened forcefully against.Anthony Richard Birley, ''Septimius Severus: the African emperor'', second edition (London: Routledge, 1999), p. 165 Plautius afterwards retired to his country villa. In 205, he was the target of a ''

delator Delator (plural: ''delatores'', feminine: ''delatrix'') is Latin for a denouncer, one who indicates to a court another as having committed a punishable deed. Secular Roman law In Roman history, it was properly one who gave notice (''deferre'') t ...

'' or informer, and Septimus ordered his execution. When he heard of the order, Plautius called for his funeral shroud. "What is this?" Plautius asked, observing how tattered it had become with age, "we are late!" Then preparing to take his own life, he burned incense before uttering his last words: "I make the same prayer that Servianus made for

" — that is, that Severus would one day wish to die, but would be unable to. It is unknown whether Fadilla was still alive then.

References

Sources

* Albino Garzetti, ''From Tiberius to the Antonines: a history of the Roman Empire AD 14-192'' (1974) * Alan K. Bowman, Peter Garnsey, Dominic Rathbone, ''The Cambridge ancient history'', Volume 11, second edition (2000) * https://www.livius.org/di-dn/divi_fratres/fadilla.html * http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/6756/gensadoptengbf2.swf {{DEFAULTSORT:Plautius Quintillus, Marcus Peducaeus 2nd-century births 205 deaths Imperial Roman consuls 2nd-century Romans 3rd-century Romans Peducaei Plautii Nerva–Antonine dynasty Ancient Roman politicians who committed suicide Politicians from Rome Ancient Roman adoptees