Junius Annaeus Gallio

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Junius Annaeus Gallio, (originally Lucius Annaeus Novatus), son of the rhetorician L. Annaeus Seneca and the elder brother of L. Annaeus Seneca the philosopher, was born at Corduba (Cordova) about the beginning of the Christian era. At Rome he was adopted by L. Junius Gallio, a rhetorician of some repute, from whom he took the name of Junius Gallio. His brother Seneca, who dedicated to him the treatises De Ira and De Vita Beata, speaks of the charm of his disposition, also alluded to by the poet Statius (Silvae, ii.7, 32). It is probable that he was banished to Corsica with his brother, and that both returned together to Rome when Agrippina selected Seneca to be tutor to Nero. Towards the close of the reign of Claudius, Gallio was proconsul of the newly constituted senatorial province of Achaea, but seems to have been compelled by ill-health to resign the post within a few years. During his tenure of office (in 53) he dismissed the charge brought by the Jews against the apostle Paul (Acts xviii). His behaviour on this occasion (but Gallio cared for none of these things) shows the impartial attitude of the Roman officials towards Christianity in its early days. He survived his brother Seneca, but was subsequently put to death by order of Nero (in 65) or committed suicide.

Ancient sources: Tacitus, Annals, xv.73; Dio Cassius, lx.35, lxii.25.

Sir W. M. Ramsay, St Paul the Traveller, pp. 257-261; art, in J. Hastings Dict. of the Bible (H. Cowan). An interesting reconstruction is given by Anatole France in Sur la pierre blanche.