Lucius Trebius Germanus was a governor of

Roman Britain Roman Britain was the territory that became the Roman province of ''Britannia'' after the Roman conquest of Britain, consisting of a large part of the island of Great Britain. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. Julius Caes ...

in 127, and suffect consul with Gaius Calpurnius Flaccus, the proconsul of Cyprus in 123, at an uncertain date. He is known from a military diploma published in 1997 that bears the date 20 August 127.

Anthony Birley Anthony Richard Birley (8 October 1937 – 19 December 2020) was a British ancient historian, archaeologist and academic. He was one of the leaders of excavations at of the Roman fortress at Vindolanda and also published several books on Roman ...

provides further information on Trebius Germanus. He is mentioned in the '' Digest'', which cites a legal decision Trebius Germanus made while governor of an unnamed province, not necessarily Roman Britain, condemning a slave boy to death for failing to call for help when his owner was murdered. Birley also notes that Trebius Germanus is a member of a small group of three consuls appointed to the office in a ten-year period who share the same

gentilicium The (; or simply ) was a hereditary name borne by the peoples of Roman Italy and later by the citizens of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. It was originally the name of one's (family or clan) by patrilineal descent. However, as Rome expan ...

-- the others being Gaius Trebius Maximus (suffect consul 121 or 122) and Gaius Trebius Sergianus (consul 132) -- while adding

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 ...

's observations that "'the obscure Trebii... are the first and last consuls of that name'; elsewhere he called them 'a unique and isolated group'". Birley speculates on the place of origin for these three consulars, finding less prominent Trebii attested in Italy, Spain, Gaul, and Dalmatia, but preferring none of these. Birley offers a few more speculations about Trebius Germanus. He suggests that his tenure as governor followed immediately on his predecessor,

Aulus Platorius Nepos Aulus Platorius Nepos was a Roman senator who held a number of appointments in the imperial service, including the governorship of Britain. He was suffect consul succeeding the ''consul posterior'' Publius Dasumius Rusticus as the colleague of th ...

, and lasted three years from 125 to 127; the military diploma would date from towards the end of his tenure. Birley also suggests that he may be the governor in whose name a broken and now lost inscription found at

Bewcastle Bewcastle is a large civil parish in the Cumberland unitary authority area of Cumbria, England. It is in the historic county of Cumberland. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 411, reducing to 391 at the 2011 Census. ...

was made. Prior to the discovery of this military diploma, Birley had speculated it might have contained the name of the other three governors then attested under

Hadrian Hadrian ( ; ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic peoples, Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his branch of the Aelia gens, Aelia '' ...

-- Nepos, Julius Severus, and Mummius Sisenna, or another consular, Gaius Nonius Proculus, who held the consulship in some undetermined ''

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. ...

'' between AD 50 and 150.

RIB In vertebrate anatomy, ribs () are the long curved bones which form the rib cage, part of the axial skeleton. In most tetrapods, ribs surround the thoracic cavity, enabling the lungs to expand and thus facilitate breathing by expanding the ...

br>995
Birley, ''The ''Fasti'' of Roman Britain'', (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981), pp. 105f

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Germanus, Trebius Roman governors of Britain 2nd-century Romans Trebii Suffect consuls of Imperial Rome