Marcus Gavius Cornelius Cethegus 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 ...

active during the middle of the second century AD. He was ordinary consul for 170 as the colleague of Gaius Erucius Clarus. Cethegus is best known for his behavior while travelling through

Roman Greece Greece in the Roman era (, ) describes the Roman conquest of ancient Greece (roughly, the territory of the modern nation-state of Greece) as well as that of the Greek people and the areas they inhabited and ruled historically. It covers the peri ...

, which provoked one person to call him a great fool, to which the philosopher Demonax replied, "Not great" (οὐδὲ μέγα).Lucian, ''Demonax'' 30
/ref> He was the son of Marcus Gavius Squilla Gallicanus, consul in 150; a sister, Cornelia Cethegilla, has been identified. Olli Salomies, in his monograph on the naming practices of the Early Roman Empire, records a number of experts thought Cethegus and his sister were not natural, but adopted children of Gallicanus. After discussing the evidence, Salomies admits that he prefers the explanation that both "were Squilla Gallicanus' adoptive, not natural children." Cethegus may be the boy whose initial speech before the Roman senate was the subject of a letter the orator Fronto wrote to his father, one Squilla Gallicanus. However, there is an ambiguity over the identification, because both Cethegus' father and grandfather had the same name: it is possible that the letter could have been addressed to the elder Gallicanus about his uncle Marcus Gavius Orfitus, as some have argued. Far more definite is the fact Cethegus served as the ''

legatus 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 assistant for his father when Gallicanus was

proconsul A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a Roman consul, consul. A proconsul was typically a former consul. The term is also used in recent history for officials with delegated authority. In the Roman Republic, military ...

ar governor of

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, in the year 165. His uncle, Orfitus, was consul the same year.Alföldy, ''Konsulat und Senatorenstand'', p. 89 n. 60 It was while he transversed Greece that Cethegus' behavior attracted the comment

Lucian Lucian of Samosata (Λουκιανὸς ὁ Σαμοσατεύς, 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridi ...

records Demonax made.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gavius Cornelius Cethegus, Marcus 2nd-century Roman consuls Cornelius Cethegus