Publius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus 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

Principate The Principate was the form of imperial government of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in 27 BC to the end of the Crisis of the Third Century in AD 284, after which it evolved into the Dominate. The principate was ch ...

. He was

suffect consul The consuls were the highest elected public officials of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC). Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum''an ascending sequence of public offices to which politicians aspire ...

in 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 September to December 68, as the colleague of Gaius Bellicius Natalis. Both Asiaticus and Bellicius Natalis were picked to be suffect consuls by emperor

Galba Galba ( ; born Servius Sulpicius Galba; 24 December 3 BC – 15 January AD 69) was Roman emperor, ruling for 7 months from 8 June AD 68 to 15 January 69. He was the first emperor in the Year of the Four Emperors and assumed the throne follow ...

.Ronald Syme
"Partisans of Galba"
'' Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte'', 31 (1982), p. 475 Although it is not clear from his name, Asiaticus was a member of the Cornelii Lentuli, one of the patrician branches of the gens Cornelia. His father was

Publius Cornelius Lentulus Scipio Publius Cornelius Lentulus Scipio (c. 15 BC52 AD) was a Roman senator active during the Principate. He was suffect consul in the '' nundinium'' of July-December AD 24, as the colleague of Gaius Calpurnius Aviola. His name combines the two most f ...

, suffect consul in 24, and his mother the beautiful

Poppaea Sabina the Elder Poppaea Sabina the Elder (c. 10 – c. 47 AD) was an aristocratic woman who lived during the Principate. During her lifetime she was famed for her beauty, but as Ronald Syme writes, her "fame and follies have been all but extinguished by her homony ...

; his older half-brother was Publius Cornelius Scipio, suffect consul in 56. Asiaticus is the last known member of the Cornelii Lentuli. Asiaticus owed the final element of his name to the fact he was born when his father was 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 ...

. This provides an important clue to the year of his birth. The older Scipio had been thought to have been governor in 36/37; however,

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 ...

points to an inscription discovered in

Lydia Lydia (; ) was an Iron Age Monarchy, kingdom situated in western Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey. Later, it became an important province of the Achaemenid Empire and then the Roman Empire. Its capital was Sardis. At some point before 800 BC, ...

which indicates the date of Scipio's governorship falls in 41/2. The old date apparently is based on Asiaticus having been appointed consul at the earliest age permitted by the '' Lex annales'', which for a patrician is 32; however, based on the new evidence, Asiaticus acceded to the highest Republican magistracy as early as the age of 26. "That recalls the favour extended to nobiles in close propinquity to the dynasty," writes Syme, "and it may have encouraged forecasts about an impending choice of heir." Asiaticus disappears from history after his consulate. The

Year of the Four Emperors The Year of the Four Emperors, AD 69, was the first civil war of the Roman Empire, during which four emperors ruled in succession, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian. It is considered an important interval, marking the change from the ...

followed immediately upon his consulate, and

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 ...

was notorious for having one of Asiaticus' cousins,

Gnaeus Cornelius Dolabella Gnaeus Cornelius Dolabella was a consul of the Roman Republic in 81 BC, with Marcus Tullius Decula, during the dictatorship of Sulla. Biography Possibly a military tribune in 89 BC, Dolabella soon was attached to the staff of Sulla as a legate, ...

, murdered partly because the emperor Galba had considered Dolabella as his successor;Gwyn Morgan, ''69 A.D.: The year of four emperors'' (Oxford: University Press, 2006), pp. 152ff Asiaticus' similar closeness would have made him a similar risk. However, since our knowledge of the times is incomplete, anything from a premature death to a successful senatorial career and numerous children is equally possible.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus, Publius Senators of the Roman Empire

Scipio Asiaticus Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus (properly Asiagenes; 3rd century BC – after 183 BC) was a general and statesman of the Roman Republic. He was the son of Publius Cornelius Scipio and the younger brother of Scipio Africanus. He was elected c ...

1st-century Romans Suffect consuls of Imperial Rome