Lucius Publilius Celsus (executed 118) 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 ...

as well as a confidant of the emperor

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 ...

. He was

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 ...

twice: the first time as suffect consul 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. ...

'' of May to August 102 as the colleague of Titus Didius Secundus; the second time as ordinary consul for the year 113 with Gaius Clodius Crispinus as his colleague.

Dio Cassius Lucius Cassius Dio (), also known as Dio Cassius ( ), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history of ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...

records the fact that Celsus was one of three men the emperor Trajan honored during their lives with statues, the other two men being

Aulus Cornelius Palma Frontonianus Aulus Cornelius Palma Frontonianus (died AD 118) was a soldier and Roman statesman who was twice consul: first as consul ordinarius in AD 99, with Quintus Sosius Senecio as his colleague; and again in 109, with Publius Calvisius Tullus Ruso as ...

and

Quintus Sosius Senecio Quintus Sosius Senecio ( 1st century AD) was a Roman senator who was favored by the emperors Domitian and Trajan. As a result of this relationship, he was twice ordinary consul, an unusual and prestigious honor: first in 99, with Aulus Cornelius ...

, which attests to his importance.

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 he accompanied Trajan on the latter's expedition against the Parthians. Upon the death of Trajan, his power and influence was such that Trajan's successor,

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 '' ...

, felt threatened and had him executed along with Cornelius Palma in 118; the account in the ''

Augustan History The ''Historia Augusta'' (English: ''Augustan History'') is a late Roman collection of biographies, written in Latin, of the Roman emperors, their junior colleagues, designated heirs and usurpers from 117 to 284. Supposedly modeled on the sim ...

'' adds two more men to those Hadrian ordered executed,

Lusius Quietus Lusius Quietus (, ; , ) was a Roman Berber general and 11th legate of Judaea from 117. He was the principal commander against the Jewish rebellion known as the Kitos War (''Kitos'' is a later corruption of ''Quietus''). He was notably one of t ...

and

Gaius Avidius Nigrinus Gaius Avidius Nigrinus (died 118 AD) was a Roman senator who lived between the 1st and 2nd centuries. Nigrinus served as suffect consul for the '' nundinium'' of April to June 110 with Tiberius Julius Aquila Polemaeanus as his colleague. Ances ...

.''Vita Hadrianus''
7.2
/ref> Although the ''Augustan History'' states that the four men had been united in a conspiracy against Hadrian, John D. Grainger suggests the men may have been executed because they were inconvenient. Despite the evident importance of Celsus in Trajan's court, little more than these facts are known about him.

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 ...

opines that the statue and other known details imply he held a consular military command.Syme, ''Tacitus'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958), p. 648

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Publilius Celsus, Lucius 1st-century Romans 2nd-century Romans Imperial Roman consuls Year of birth unknown 118 deaths

Celsus Celsus (; , ''Kélsos''; ) was a 2nd-century Greek philosopher and opponent of early Christianity. His literary work '' The True Word'' (also ''Account'', ''Doctrine'' or ''Discourse''; Greek: )Hoffmann p.29 survives exclusively via quotati ...

Executed ancient Roman people People executed by the Roman Empire