Lucius Fabius Justus was a Roman

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 ...

(active in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries AD) who occupied a number of offices in the imperial service. He also served as suffect

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...

in 102, replacing Lucius Licinius Sura as the colleague of the consul who opened the year, Lucius Julius Ursus Servianus; both Justus and Servianus closed their '' nundinium'' at the end of April. Justus is known as a correspondent of

Pliny the Younger Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo; 61 – ), better known in English as Pliny the Younger ( ), was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and e ...

, and is the addressee of

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. Tacitus’ two major historical works, ''Annals'' ( ...

' '' Dialogus de oratoribus''.

Ronald Syme Sir Ronald Syme, (11 March 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a New Zealand-born historian and classicist. He was regarded as the greatest historian of ancient Rome since Theodor Mommsen and the most brilliant exponent of the history of the Roma ...

questioned in a 1957 essay the rationale behind Tacitus addressing his work to Justus instead of, for example, Pliny the Younger. Syme's answer was that Justus at the time of the dedication was a young adult who had become cynical of the craft of

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

. Syme further pictures Justus as a ''viri militares'' (unlike Pliny), and as "an enlighted and cultivated person hohad deserted eloquence for the career of provinces and armies" despite the scant evidence for Justus' role in governing provinces or leading armies.

Origins

There is no exact information on the origins of Justus. Syme and Werner Eck believe that he came from a senatorial family of

Gallia Narbonensis Gallia Narbonensis (Latin for "Gaul of Narbonne", from its chief settlement) was a Roman province located in Occitania and Provence, in Southern France. It was also known as Provincia Nostra ("Our Province"), because it was the first ...

. However, other authorities cite epigraphic data that Justus was from the Iberian Peninsula, pointing out that there are more inscriptions that mention a person of the ''

gens In ancient Rome, a gens ( or , ; : gentes ) was a family consisting of individuals who shared the same ''nomen gentilicium'' and who claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens, sometimes identified by a distinct cognomen, was cal ...

'' Fabia in those provinces: whereas there are only 50 such inscriptions in Gallia Narbonensis, in the provinces of Hispania there are over 300 inscriptions.Françoise Des Boscs-Plateaux, ''Un parti hispanique à Rome? ascension des élites hispaniques et pouvoir politique d'Auguste à Hadrien, 27 av. J.-C.-138 ap. J.-C.'' (Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 2006), p. 535 Historian A. Kaballos notes that a number of senators bearing the ''gentilicum'' "Fabius", originated from Spain. As for which province Justus came from, an inscription has been found in

Lusitania Lusitania (; ) was an ancient Iberian Roman province encompassing most of modern-day Portugal (south of the Douro River) and a large portion of western Spain (the present Extremadura and Province of Salamanca). Romans named the region after th ...

mentioning a Fabius Justus of the

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

Galeria. According to the researcher Francoise de Bosque-Plateau, our Justus came from the Spanish city of

Ulia Ulia Fidentia or simply Ulia was a Roman municipium in the province of Hispania Baetica. The site is the location of the current city of Montemayor, Córdoba. During the Second Hispanian campaign of Caesar's Civil War almost all the towns of ...

( Montemayor, Córdoba).

Life

From the correspondence Pliny published, he mentions Justus in one letter and wrote two more to him. In a letter to Voconius Romanus, wherein Pliny gloats over the discomfort the '' delator'' or informer Marcus Aquilius Regulus felt following the death of

Domitian Domitian ( ; ; 24 October 51 – 18 September 96) was Roman emperor from 81 to 96. The son of Vespasian and the younger brother of Titus, his two predecessors on the throne, he was the last member of the Flavian dynasty. Described as "a r ...

in the year 96, Pliny mentions that Justus was one of the people Regulus approached to intervene on his behalf with Pliny, hoping to stave off Pliny's prosecution of the former informer. Of the two letters he wrote to Justus, the first was a light-hearted reproach for not writing him, while the second apparently was written after Justus responded to Pliny's first letter, accepting Justus' explanation that during the present summer he was too busy and looking forward to the winter months when Justus would have more time to write, while promising to send some of his own writings which the other had apparently asked for. Syme writes he fails to detect in the two letters addressed to Justus "a common friendship" with him that Pliny had with Tacitus, another of his correspondents: "He stood closer to Tacitus than did the other consular orator. Pliny favoured Tacitus with a long epistle defending long orations (I.20). Fabius has the dedication of the Dialogus which declared that eloquence is not needed any more."Syme
"Correspondents of Pliny"
'' Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte'',34 (1985), p. 359 Evidence for his career begins after Justus completed his ''nundinium'' as suffect consul. On the eve of

Trajan Trajan ( ; born Marcus Ulpius Traianus, 18 September 53) was a Roman emperor from AD 98 to 117, remembered as the second of the Five Good Emperors of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. He was a philanthropic ruler and a successful soldier ...

's Dacian War, Justus was appointed governor of

Moesia Inferior Moesia (; Latin: ''Moesia''; ) was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans south of the Danube River. As a Roman domain Moesia was administered at first by the governor of Noricum as 'Civitates of Moesia and Triballi ...

in 105, replacing Aulus Caecilius Faustinus; he held this post after the conclusion of the war, until 108. Syme would date the two letters Pliny wrote him to his administration of Moesia Inferior, thus explaining why Justus had been too busy to write. Once his term in Moesia Inferior was completed, Justus was assigned that same year to

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

, which he governed for four years, until 112.Eck, "Jahres- und Provinzialfasten", pp. 346-352 Syme speculates he may have died in Syria, thus denied a second consulship.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fabius Justus, Lucius 1st-century Romans 2nd-century Romans 2nd-century Roman governors of Syria Justus, Lucius Roman governors of Lower Moesia Roman governors of Syria Suffect consuls of Imperial Rome