Paullus Fabius Persicus (2/1 BCE - some time during the reign of

Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; ; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54), or Claudius, was a Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusus and Ant ...

) was the only son of

Paullus Fabius Maximus Paullus Fabius Maximus (died AD 14) was a Roman senator, active toward the end of the first century BC. He was consul in 11 BC as the colleague of Quintus Aelius Tubero, and a confidant of emperor Augustus. Background The patrician Fabii were ...

and Marcia, a maternal cousin of

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 ...

(daughter of his aunt Atia and L. Marcius Philippus) and great-niece 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 ...

. As such, Persicus was a first-cousin-once-removed of

and a great-great-nephew of

Birth and name

Paullus Fabius Persicus is believed to have been born in 2 or 1 BCE.Ronald Syme, ''Augustan Aristocracy'' (1989), p. 416 His ''cognomen'' - like the ''praenomen'' (Paullus) he shared with his father - was given to him to advertise his natural paternal descent from

Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus (c. 229 – 160 BC) was a Roman consul, consul of the Roman Republic, as well as a general, who conquered the kingdom of Macedon, Macedonia during the Third Macedonian War. Family Paullus' father was Luc ...

, who had defeated the last

Macedon Macedonia ( ; , ), also called Macedon ( ), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, which later became the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by the royal ...

ian monarch,

Perseus In Greek mythology, Perseus (, ; Greek language, Greek: Περσεύς, Romanization of Greek, translit. Perseús) is the legendary founder of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus and Bellerophon, the greatest Greek hero and slayer of ...

, in 146 BCE.

Life and career

The first appearance of Persicus is in June of the year 15, when he was co-opted into the

Arval Brethren In ancient Roman religion, the Arval Brethren (, "Brothers of the Fields") or Arval Brothers were a body of priests who offered annual sacrifices to the Lares and gods to guarantee good harvests. Inscriptions provide evidence of their oaths, r ...

aged c. 15 to replace his then recently deceased father. Around the same time, he was also made a member of the

College of Pontiffs The College of Pontiffs (; see ''collegium'') was a body of the ancient Rome, ancient Roman state whose members were the highest-ranking priests of the Religion in ancient Rome, state religion. The college consisted of the ''pontifex maximus'' an ...

and of the

Sodales Augustales The Sodales or Sacerdotes Augustales (''singular'' Sodalis or Sacerdos Augustalis), or simply Augustales,Tacitus, ''Annales'' 1.54 were an order ('' sodalitas'') of Roman priests originally instituted by Tiberius to attend to the maintenance of t ...

. He subsequently held the posts of quaestor under

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 praetor, though the details of these posts are unknown.Braund, D., ''Augustus to Nero: A Sourcebook on Roman History, 31BC-AD68'' (1985), pp. 213-

/ref> His next dated post is in 34, when he became ordinary consul with

Lucius Vitellius Lucius Vitellius (before 7 BC – AD 51) was the youngest of four sons of procurator Publius Vitellius and the only one who did not die through politics. He was consul three times, which was unusual during the Roman Empire for someone who ...

, the father of the later Roman Emperor

Vitellius Aulus Vitellius ( ; ; 24 September 1520 December 69) was Roman emperor for eight months, from 19 April to 20 December AD 69. Vitellius became emperor following the quick succession of the previous emperors Galba and Otho, in a year of civil wa ...

, as his colleague. After his consulship, his next post was proconsul 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 reign of

(c. 44). An edict written by Persicus from his time as proconsul of Asia survives, addressed to the Ephesians concerning issues in the worship of the Goddess Artemis. He seems to have died sometime in the reign of Claudius.Syme, ''Augustan Aristocracy'', p. 417

Character

According to

Seneca the Younger Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger ( ; AD 65), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoicism, Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, a dramatist, and in one work, a satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature. Seneca ...

, Persicus was a particularly vile person, who owed his career more to his ancestry than to his own merit.Seneca, ''De Beneficiis'' IV.30

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 ...

adds, "He was also shunned by the virtuous and exemplary Julius Graecinus, the parent of Julius Agricola, unresponsive to the Narbonensian ''clientela'' of the Fabii."

Footnotes

References

* Braund, D.; ''Augustus to Nero: A Source Book on Roman History 31 BC-AD 68'' (Taylor & Francis, 1985) , * L'Année Epigraphique (AE) * Stevenson, G., ''Power and Place: Temple and Identity in the Book of Revelation'' (Walter de Gruyter, 2001) * Syme, Ronald; ''Augustan Aristocracy'' (Oxford University Press, 1989). , *

, ''De Beneficiis'' (On Benefits) {{DEFAULTSORT:Fabius Persicus, Paullus Julio-Claudian dynasty Persicus, Paullus 0s BC births 1st-century deaths 1st-century BC Romans 1st-century Romans 1st-century clergy Imperial Roman consuls Roman governors of Asia Year of birth uncertain Year of death unknown