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 (c. 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 mat ...

, the daughter of Emperor

Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ( ; ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoicism, Stoic philosopher. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, the last of the rulers later known as the Five Good Emperors ...

and Empress

Faustina the Younger Annia Galeria Faustina the Younger ( AD, – 175/176 AD) was Roman empress from 161 to her death as the wife of emperor Marcus Aurelius, cousin marriage, her maternal cousin. Faustina was the youngest child of emperor Antoninus Pius and empress F ...

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

Commodus Commodus (; ; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was Roman emperor from 177 to 192, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father Marcus Aurelius and then ruling alone from 180. Commodus's sole reign is commonly thought to mark the end o ...

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

Septimius Severus Lucius Septimius Severus (; ; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through cursus honorum, the ...

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 killed himself after Septimus issued an order for his execution.

Early life

Plautius was the son of

Ceionia Fabia Ceionia Fabia (flourished 2nd century) was a noble Roman woman and a member of the ruling Nerva–Antonine dynasty of the Roman Empire. Life Fabia was the first-born daughter to Lucius Aelius and Avidia. In 136, her father was adopted by Hadria ...

, 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 the reigning emperor Hadrian and named heir to the throne. He died before Hadrian and thus never became emperor. After Lu ...

, the first adoptive heir of

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 '' ...

who had died before ascending to the throne; his birth father is believed to be Plautius Quintillus, 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, 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 ancient Rome, classical Roman world. His main role was the practice of augury, the interpretation of the will of the List of Roman deities, gods by studying events he observed within a predetermined s ...

. 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

, the victor of the civil war, advanced on Rome,

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

proposed that the Senate and the

Vestal Virgins In Religion in ancient Rome, ancient Rome, the Vestal Virgins or Vestals (, singular ) were Glossary of ancient Roman religion#sacerdos, priestesses of Vesta (mythology), Vesta, virgin goddess of Rome's sacred hearth and its flame. The Vestals ...

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' ...

'' 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)
Livius article on Fadilla
{{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 died by suicide Politicians from Rome Ancient Roman adoptees