Aulus Claudius Charax 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 Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

and historian of the second century AD, who held a number of offices in the emperor's service. He served as

suffect consul The consuls were the highest elected public officials of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC). Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum''an ascending sequence of public offices to which politicians aspire ...

for the ''

nundinium Nundinium was a Latin word derived from the word '' nundinum'', which referred to the cycle of days observed by the Romans. During the Roman Empire, ''nundinium'' came to mean the duration of a single consulship among several in a calendar year. ...

'' April–June 147 with

Quintus Fuficius Cornutus Quintus Fuficius Cornutus was a Roman senator active in the first half of the second century AD, who held a number of offices in the emperor's service. He was suffect consul for the ''nundinium'' April-June AD 147 with Aulus Claudius Charax as his ...

as his colleague. Charax wrote a history, ''Hellenika'', in forty books, of which only fragments survive.

Life

The ''

cursus honorum The , or more colloquially 'ladder of offices'; ) was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The comprised a mixture of ...

'' for Charax is partly known from a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

inscription erected in

Pergamum Pergamon or Pergamum ( or ; ), also referred to by its modern Greek form Pergamos (), was a rich and powerful ancient Greek city in Aeolis. It is located from the modern coastline of the Aegean Sea on a promontory on the north side of the river ...

. Inscriptions from elsewhere in Asia Minor and Greece provide other details of his life. Bernard Remy, in his monograph on the

Fasti In ancient Rome, the ''fasti'' (Latin plural) were chronological or calendar-based lists, or other diachronic records or plans of official and religiously sanctioned events. After Rome's decline, the word ''fasti'' continued to be used for simi ...

of Roman officials of the provinces of Asia Minor, suggests that while traveling through the eastern provinces, the emperor

Hadrian Hadrian ( ; ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic peoples, Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his branch of the Aelia gens, Aelia '' ...

met Charax.Remy
''Les carrières sénatoriales dans les provinces romaines d'Anatolie au Haut-Empire (31 av. J.-C. - 284 ap. J.-C.) (Pont-Bithynie, Galatie, Cappadoce, Lycie-Pamphylie et Cilicie)''
(Istanbul: Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes-Georges Dumézil, 1989), p. 345 There is ample evidence that Charax was very wealthy; his possessions included a large tile factory. Being respectably wealthy, and a cultured man, he obviously appealed to the hellenophile emperor who decided to facilitate the latter's election as

quaestor A quaestor ( , ; ; "investigator") was a public official in ancient Rome. There were various types of quaestors, with the title used to describe greatly different offices at different times. In the Roman Republic, quaestors were elected officia ...

; this office enrolled him in the Senate. The inscription from Pergamum attests Charax discharged this office in the public province of

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

, then adds the puzzling note that he was adlected ''inter aedilicios'' – or as an

aedile Aedile ( , , from , "temple edifice") was an elected office of the Roman Republic. Based in Rome, the aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings () and regulation of public festivals. They also had powers to enforce public orde ...

– which makes better sense if Charax had skipped the office of quaestor. Remy suggests that the person who wrote the inscription may have been confused about the details of Charax's adlection.

Anthony Birley Anthony Richard Birley (8 October 1937 – 19 December 2020) was a British ancient historian, archaeologist and academic. He was one of the leaders of excavations at of the Roman fortress at Vindolanda and also published several books on Roman ...

suggests that this could "indicate some special role for of the senate at the time of Antoninus' accession."Birley, ''The Fasti of Roman Britain'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981), p. 251 In any case, after this event Charax advanced to the office of

praetor ''Praetor'' ( , ), also ''pretor'', was the title granted by the government of ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected ''magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to disch ...

, after which he held a series of promotions at what Remy describes as a very fast rate. He was appointed curator of the

Via Latina The Via Latina (Latin for "Latin Road") was a Roman road of Italy, running southeast from Rome for about 200 kilometers. Route It led from the Porta Latina in the Aurelian walls of Rome to the pass of Mount Algidus; it was important in the ea ...

;

Géza Alföldy Géza Alföldy (June 7, 1935 – November 6, 2011) was a Hungarian historian of ancient history. Life Géza Alföldy was born in Budapest. He studied at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Budapest from 1953 to 1958, where he i ...

dates this office from about the years 138 to about 141. This was followed immediately by ''

legatus legionis A legate (Latin: , ) was a high-ranking Roman military officer in the Roman army, equivalent to a high-ranking general officer of modern times. Initially used to delegate power, the term became formalised under Augustus as the officer in comman ...

'' or commander of

Legio II Augusta Legio II Augusta ( Second Legion "Augustus'") was a legion of the Imperial Roman army that was founded during the late Roman Republic. Its emblems were the Capricornus, Pegasus, and Mars. It may have taken the name "''Augusta''" from a victory ...

, which was stationed in

Roman Britain Roman Britain was the territory that became the Roman province of ''Britannia'' after the Roman conquest of Britain, consisting of a large part of the island of Great Britain. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. Julius Caes ...

; Alföldy dates his commission from about 141 to around 144. During these years the legion was involved with the campaigns of governor

Quintus Lollius Urbicus Quintus Lollius Urbicus was a Berber governor of Roman Britain between the years 139 and 142, during the reign of the Emperor Antoninus Pius. He is named in the ''Historia Augusta'', although it is not entirely historical, and his name appears ...

in Scotland, and with the building of the

Antonine Wall The Antonine Wall () was a turf fortification on stone foundations, built by the Romans across what is now the Central Belt of Scotland, between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth. Built some twenty years after Hadrian's Wall to the south ...

. This was followed by governorship of

Cilicia Cilicia () is a geographical region in southern Anatolia, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Cilician plain (). The region inclu ...

, which Alföldy dates from immediately after Charax left his commission to around the time of his consulship; it is possible Charax was consul ''in absentia''. Here the information on the Pergamum inscription ends, indicating it was inscribed shortly after Charax's consulate. Details from the other inscriptions now come into play. He constructed at his own expense the vestibule (''propylon'') for the ''Asklépiéion'' in Pergamum. Another inscription from

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

attests he was an eponymous '' patronomos'' around the middle of the second century; this was a position that was sometimes held by distinguished foreigners.A. M. Woodward
"Inscriptiones Graecae, V. I: Some Afterthoughts"
''Annual of the British School at Athens'', 43 (1948), pp. 257-259

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Claudius Charax, Aulus 2nd-century Romans Roman governors of Cilicia Suffect consuls of Imperial Rome Claudii