Marcus Lollius

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Marcus Lollius, Roman general, the first governor of Galatia (25 BC), consul in 21 BC.

In 16 BC, when governor of Gaul (Bergmanus), he was defeated by the Sigambri (Sygambri), Usipetes and Tencteri, German tribes who had crossed the Rhine. This defeat is coupled by Tacitus with the disaster of Publius Quinctilius Varus, but it was disgraceful rather than dangerous.

Lollius was subsequently (2 BC) attached in the capacity of tutor and adviser to Gaius Caesar on his mission to the East. Gaius was a son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder. His maternal grandparents were Augustus and his second wife Scribonia.

Lollius was accused of extortion and treachery to the state, and denounced by Gaius to the Roman Emperor. To avoid punishment he is said to have taken poison. According to Velleius Paterculus and Pliny, he was a hypocrite and cared for nothing but amassing wealth. It was formerly thought that this was the Lollius whom Horace described as a model of integrity and superior to avarice in Odes iv.9, but it seems hardly likely that this Ode, as well as the two Lollian epistles of Horace (i.2 and 18), was addressed to him. All three must have been addressed to the same individual, a young man, probably the son of this Lollius.

Preceded by Marcus Claudius Marcellus Aeserninus and Lucius Arruntius

Consul of the Roman Empire 21 BC

Succeeded by Marcus Appuleius and Publius Silius Nerva

[edit] Sources

Ancient sources: Suetonius, Augustus, 23, Tiberius, 12; Vell. Pat. ii.97, 102; Tacitus, Annals, i.10, iii.48; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix.35 (58); Dio Cassius, liv.6.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.