Marcus Salvius Otho was an

ancient Roman In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

politician and grandfather of emperor

Otho Otho ( ; born Marcus Salvius Otho; 28 April 32 – 16 April 69) was Roman emperor, ruling for three months from 15 January to 16 April 69. He was the second emperor of the Year of the Four Emperors. A member of a noble Etruscan civilization, ...

Biography

Early life

Marcus Salvius Otho was a member to the

Salvia gens The gens Salvia was a minor plebeian Roman family of the late Republic, which came to prominence under the early Empire. The first of the family known to have held public office at Rome was Publius Salvius Aper, praetorian prefect in 2 BC. About t ...

. His father is described by

Suetonius Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is ''De vita Caesarum'', common ...

as an

Eques Eques, ''horseman'' or ''rider'' in Latin, may refer to: * Equites, a member of the Roman Equestrian order * the Latin word for a knight in chess * '' Eques'', a small genus of fishes in the drum family Sciaenidae Sciaenidae is a family (biolo ...

(knight) of

Etruscan __NOTOC__ Etruscan may refer to: Ancient civilization *Etruscan civilization (1st millennium BC) and related things: **Etruscan language ** Etruscan architecture **Etruscan art **Etruscan cities **Etruscan coins **Etruscan history **Etruscan myt ...

descent whose ancestors came from

Ferentinum Ferentino is a town and ''comune'' in Italy, in the province of Frosinone, Lazio, southeast of Rome. It is situated on a hill above sea level, in the Monti Ernici area. History ''Ferentinum'' was a town of the Hernici; it was captured from them ...

and were descended from the princes of

Etruria Etruria ( ) was a region of Central Italy delimited by the rivers Arno and Tiber, an area that covered what is now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and north-western Umbria. It was inhabited by the Etruscans, an ancient civilization that f ...

. His mother is not named and stated as being of lowly origin, and may not even have been freeborn. There have been many attempts at identifying Marcus' father, among them an Otho mentioned to have been a "puny-headed" follower of

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...

in one of

Catullus Gaius Valerius Catullus (; ), known as Catullus (), was a Latin neoteric poet of the late Roman Republic. His surviving works remain widely read due to their popularity as teaching tools and because of their personal or sexual themes. Life ...

poems was proposed by Ernst Bickel, T. P. Wiseman and Bruce W. Frier have proposed that he may be the Salvius who was

tribune of the plebs Tribune of the plebs, tribune of the people or plebeian tribune () was the first office of the Roman Republic, Roman state that was open to the plebs, plebeians, and was, throughout the history of the Republic, the most important check on the pow ...

in 43 BC (and that this man was the son of an

Urban 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 An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights ...

in 76 BC) who

Elizabeth Rawson Elizabeth Donata Rawson, FBA (13 April 1934 – 10 December 1988''The Cambridge Ancient History'' (Cambridge University Press, 1994), vol. 9, preface, p. xvii.) was a classical scholar known primarily for her work in the intellectual history ...

also identifies as the Salvius who was the first victim of the proscriptions of the

Second Triumvirate The Second Triumvirate was an extraordinary commission and magistracy created at the end of the Roman republic for Mark Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian to give them practically absolute power. It was formally constituted by law on 27 November ...

. Joachim Losehand argued against a connection with the Gabinian centurion Salvius who assassinated

Pompey Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey ( ) or Pompey the Great, was a Roman general and statesman who was prominent in the last decades of the Roman Republic. ...

. Otho is presumed to have been born around 40 BC. He was raised and educated in the household of empress Livia, probably alongside her sons

Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus ( ; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was Roman emperor from AD 14 until 37. He succeeded his stepfather Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC to Roman politician Tiberius Cl ...

and

Drusus Drusus may refer to: * Gaius Livius Drusus (jurist), son of the Roman consul of 147 BC * Marcus Livius Drusus (consul) (155–108 BC), opponent of populist reformer Gaius Gracchus * Marcus Livius Drusus (reformer) (died 91 BC), whose assassinatio ...

after their father died in 33 BC.

Career

Through Livia's influence he entered the senate and reached the praetorship. Unusually for a '' novus homo'' Otho was ''

triumvir monetalis The ''triumvir monetalis'' ( ''tresviri'' or ''triumviri monetales'', also called the , abbreviated IIIVIR A. A. A. F. F.) was a moneyer during the Roman Republic and the Empire, who oversaw the minting of coins. In that role, he would be respon ...

'' in an uncertain year, possibly 11 BC or 7 BC (as his coinage depicts

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

crowning

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...

, perhaps celebrating Tiberius triumph that year).

Marriage

Otho married a woman whose identity is not known for certain, but

describes her as a noblewoman "allied to several great families". The appearance of the name "Titianus" among his descendants has led to speculation that she may have been a Titia. A Titia L. f. is known from inscription to have been the wife of a Salvius. This woman died young in 23 BC. He may have had a first-born homonymous son who became a moneyer, as well as the better known

Lucius Salvius Otho Lucius Salvius Otho was the father of the Roman emperor Otho. He was born of a distinguished and well-connected family on his mother's side. His close friendship with Tiberius, and physical similarity to him, led to rumours that he was Tiberius's ...

, father of emperor

, (although there were rumours that Lucius was actually Tiberius' bastard).

References

{{Reflist 1st-century BC Romans Family of Otho Salvii