Quintus Licinius Modestinus SextusAttius Labeo 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 ...

, who held a number of imperial appointments during the middle of the second century AD. 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 year 146, following the death of

Sextus Erucius Clarus Sextus Erucius Clarus (died March 146) was a Roman senator and aristocrat. He was Urban prefect and twice consul, the second time for the year AD 146. Clarus was the nephew of Gaius Septicius Clarus, a friend of Pliny the Younger. Erucius Clarus w ...

in March, serving until the end of June; his colleague was

Gnaeus Claudius Severus Arabianus Gnaeus Claudius Severus Arabianus (113 – after 176) was a senator and philosopher who lived in the Roman Empire. Life Severus was the son of the consul and first Roman Governor of Arabia Petraea, Gaius Claudius Severus, by a mother whose name i ...

. He is known entirely from inscriptions.

Life

An inscription from (modern Marino), currently in the Gallaria Lapidaria of the

Vatican Museum The Vatican Museums (; ) are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of the best-known Roman sculptures and ...

, provides us details of his ''

cursus honorum The , or more colloquially 'ladder of offices'; ) was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The comprised a mixture of ...

''. Modestinus began his career as one of the ''

decemviri stlitibus judicandis The ''decemviri stlitibus judicandis'' was a civil court of ancient origin, traditionally attributed to Servius Tullius, which originally dealt with cases concerning whether an individual was free. History Originally these decemvirs were a jury of ...

'', one of the four boards that form the ''

vigintiviri The ''vigintisexviri'' ( ''vigintisexvir''; ) were a college ( ''collegium'') of minor magistrates (''magistratus minores'') in the Roman Republic. The college consisted of six boards: * the '' decemviri stlitibus judicandis'' – 10 magis ...

''; membership in one of these four boards was a preliminary and required first step toward gaining entry into the Roman Senate.

Mireille Corbier Mireille Corbier (born 24 May 1943) is a French historian of Classical history. Currently Research Director Emerita at Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), she has published a number of books and articles, and since 1992 has been e ...

interprets the combination of this position and a lack of service as a

military tribune A military tribune () was an officer of the Roman army who ranked below the legate and above the centurion. Young men of Equestrian rank often served as military tribunes as a stepping stone to the Senate. The should not be confused with the ...

as making him "predestined for an administrative career". His next posting was as

quaestor A quaestor ( , ; ; "investigator") was a public official in ancient Rome. There were various types of quaestors, with the title used to describe greatly different offices at different times. In the Roman Republic, quaestors were elected officia ...

to the

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

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, and upon completion of this traditional Republican magistracy Modestinus was enrolled in the Senate. Two more of the traditional Republican magistracies followed:

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

and

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, and (ii) as an elected ''magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to disch ...

. Once he completed his term as praetor, Modestinus was qualified to hold several important offices. First was curator of the

Via Salaria The Via Salaria was an ancient Roman road in Italy. It eventually ran from Rome (from Porta Salaria of the Aurelian Walls) to ''Castrum Truentinum'' ( Porto d'Ascoli) on the Adriatic coast, a distance of 242 km. The road also passed throu ...

, which

Géza Alföldy Géza Alföldy (June 7, 1935 – November 6, 2011) was a Hungarian historian of ancient history. Life Géza Alföldy was born in Budapest. He studied at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Budapest from 1953 to 1958, where he i ...

estimates was from around the year 138 to around 141. This was followed by ''

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect' ...

us of the

aerarium Saturni ''Aerarium'', from ''aes'' ("bronze, money") + -''ārium'' ("place for"), was the name given in Ancient Rome to the public treasury, and in a secondary sense to the public finances. ''Aerarium populi Romani'' The main ''aerarium'', that of ...

''; although Alföldy dates his tenure from around the year 141 to 144, Corbier has argued in her monograph on the prefects of the Roman treasuries that his tenure extended from the year 138 to 140.Corbier, ''L'aerarium saturni et l'aerarium'', p. 211 While being prefect of this treasury in most cases led immediately to the consulate, Modestinus was instead governor of the public province of

Achaea Achaea () or Achaia (), sometimes transliterated from Greek language, Greek as Akhaia (, ''Akhaḯa'', ), is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the modern regions of Greece, region of Western Greece and is situated in the northwest ...

for the term 144/145.Alföldy, ''Konsulat und Senatorenstand'', p. 260 However, Corbier lists two other men who held a propraetorian governorship before acceding to the consulate. Modestinus also held a number of Roman priesthoods. These included membership in the ''

collegium A (: ) or college was any association in ancient Rome that Corporation, acted as a Legal person, legal entity. Such associations could be civil or religious. The word literally means "society", from ("colleague"). They functioned as social cl ...

'' of the ''

fetiales A fetial (; , . ) was a type of priest in ancient Rome. They formed a '' collegium'' devoted to Jupiter as the patron of good faith. The duties of the fetials included advising the Senate on foreign affairs and international treaties, making for ...

'', in 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 ...

, and in the ''

Quindecimviri sacris faciundis In ancient Rome, the were the fifteen () members of a college (''collegium'') with priestly duties. They guarded the Sibylline Books, scriptures which they consulted and interpreted at the request of the Senate. This ''collegium'' also oversaw ...

'', the Roman priesthood entrusted with the care of the

Sibylline oracles The ''Sibylline Oracles'' (; sometimes called the pseudo-Sibylline Oracles) are a collection of oracular utterances written in Greek hexameters ascribed to the Sibyls, prophetesses who uttered divine revelations in a frenzied state. Fourteen b ...

. After his consulate, Modestinus' life is a blank.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Licinius Modestinus, Quintus 2nd-century Romans Roman governors of Achaia Suffect consuls of Imperial Rome

Modestinus Herennius Modestinus, or simply Modestinus, was a civil servant and a celebrated Roman jurist, a student of Ulpian who flourished about 250 AD. He appears to have been a native of one of the Greek-speaking provinces, or probably Dalmatia. Poss ...