Servius Asinius Celer (died AD 46) 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 ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...

active during the

Principate The Principate is the name sometimes given to the first period 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 so-called Dominate ...

. He was

suffect consul A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC), and ancient Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum'' (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politic ...

in the second half of the year 38 with

Sextus Nonius Quinctilianus Sextus Nonius Quinctilianus (fl. 1st century AD) was a Roman Senator. He was appointed consul in AD 8 as the colleague of Marcus Furius Camillus. Biography Nonius Quinctilianus was probably the son of Lucius Nonius Asprenas, who was the son of th ...

as his colleague. Celer was the son of

Gaius Asinius Gallus Gaius Asinius Gallus (before 38 BC – AD 33) was a Roman senator, son of Gaius Asinius Pollio and Quinctia. He was the second husband of Vipsania, eldest daughter of Marcus Agrippa and first wife of Tiberius, who ultimately imprisoned him. Bi ...

, consul in 8 BC, and

Vipsania Agrippina Vipsania Agrippina (; 36 BC – 20 AD) was the first wife of the Emperor Tiberius. She was the daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Pomponia Caecilia Attica, thus a granddaughter of Titus Pomponius Atticus, the best friend of Cicero. Biogra ...

, a former wife of the emperor

Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father ...

. Celer had several brothers, among them

Gaius Asinius Pollio Gaius Asinius Pollio (75 BC – AD 4) was a Roman soldier, politician, orator, poet, playwright, literary critic, and historian, whose lost contemporary history provided much of the material used by the historians Appian and Plutarch. Poll ...

, consul in 23, accused of conspiracy by

Valeria Messalina Valeria Messalina (; ) was the third wife of Roman emperor Claudius. She was a paternal cousin of Emperor Nero, a second cousin of Emperor Caligula, and a great-grandniece of Emperor Augustus. A powerful and influential woman with a reputation ...

;

Marcus Asinius Agrippa Marcus Asinius Agrippa was a Roman senator, who was active during the Principate. He was consul in AD 25 as the colleague of first Cossus Cornelius Lentulus, then of Gaius Petronius. Agrippa died at the end of the following year (26). According t ...

, consul in 25; Asinius Saloninus; and Asinius Gallus. In addition, Celer was half brother of

Drusus Julius Caesar Drusus Julius Caesar (14 BC – 14 September AD 23), was the son of Emperor Tiberius, and heir to the Roman Empire following the death of his adoptive brother Germanicus in AD 19. He was born at Rome to a prominent branch of the ''gens Claud ...

, son of his mother with Tiberius and heir to the emperor for a time. According to

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ...

, Celer was a well-known gourmand who paid 8,000

sesterces The ''sestertius'' (plural ''sestertii''), or sesterce (plural sesterces), was an ancient Roman coin. During the Roman Republic it was a small, silver coin issued only on rare occasions. During the Roman Empire it was a large brass coin. The na ...

for a fish. In the year 46, despite his friendship with the emperor Claudius, Celer was accused of participating in a conspiracy to kill the emperor and condemned to death.

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

mentions him in his '' Apocolocyntosis divi Claudii'' as one of his consular friends who confront Claudius in the afterworld as being responsible for their deaths.Seneca, ''Apocolocyntosis divi Claudii'', 13

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Asinius Celer, Servius 1st-century Romans Suffect consuls of Imperial Rome Celer 46 deaths Year of birth unknown