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 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 second half of the year 38 with Sextus Nonius Quinctilianus as his colleague. Celer was the son of Gaius Asinius Gallus, consul in 8 BC, and

Vipsania Agrippina Vipsania Agrippina (; unknown – 20 AD) was the first wife of the Roman emperor, Emperor Tiberius. She was the daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Attica (wife of Agrippa), Attica, thus being a granddaughter of Titus Pomponius Atticus, t ...

, a former wife of the emperor

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 ...

. 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 contemporaneous history provided much of the material used by the historians Appian and Plutarch. Po ...

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

Drusus Julius Caesar Drusus Julius Caesar (7 October – 14 September AD 23), also called Drusus the Younger, 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 ...

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

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

, Celer was a well-known gourmand who paid 8,000 sesterces for a fish. In the year 46, despite his friendship with the emperor

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 ...

, Celer was accused of participating in a conspiracy to kill the emperor and condemned to death.

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 ...

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