Tiberius Plautius Silvanus Aelianus

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Tiberius Plautius Silvanus Aelianus was a patrician who twice served as consul, in 45 and 74 AD.[1] He was the adopted nephew of Plautia Urgulanilla,[2] first wife of the emperor Claudius.[3] It is known he offered up the prayer as pontifex when the first stone of the new Capitol was laid in 70 AD.[4] In some ancient sources he is referred to as "Plautius Aelianus", but we learn from an inscription that his full name was Tiberius Plautius Silvanus Aelianus, that he held many important military commands.[5]

Under Nero, from 61 to 66 AD, he served as the legate of Moesia, a province he ruled with a "massive scorched earth policy",[3] and from which he is said to have sent shipments of Moesian wheat to alleviate the food supply of the Roman people, possibly in crisis due to the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD.[2] Later, he was sent to Hispania, which at the time lacked a provincial governor. However in 69 AD the emperor Vespasian wished to appoint Aelianus prefect of the city in place of his brother, Sabinus, who had been murdered. As we know from his funerary inscription, Aelianus was in fact recalled to the city, where Vespasian proposed he receive a triumph for his time in Moesia, a gesture implicitly indicting the ungenerous nature of Nero's rule.[2][6] The senate ultimately voted to grant Vespasian's proposal.[3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Prosopographia Imperii Romani P 480.
  2. ^ a b c Griffin, Miriam Tamara (2002). Nero: The End of a Dynasty. Routledge, 108, 116-118, 194. ISBN 0-415-21464-5. 
  3. ^ a b c Edwards, Stephen (2005). The Cambridge Ancient History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 9, 24, 379. ISBN 0-521-26335-2. 
  4. ^ Tacitus, Hist. iv. 53
  5. ^ Smith, William (1867), “Aelianus, Plautius”, in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, Boston, pp. 29 
  6. ^ Tacitus, Hist. iv. 53
Preceded by
Gaius Sallustius Crispus Passienus and Tiberius Statilius Taurus		 Suffect Consul of the Roman Republic
suffect consul under Marcus Vinicius, with Tiberius Statilius Taurus Corvinus; and NN., Marcus Antonius Rufus, and Marcus Pompeius Silvanus Staberius Flavianus suffects
45 AD		 Succeeded by
Decimus Valerius Asiaticus and Marcus Junius Silanus Torquatus
Preceded by
Domitian and Lucius Valerius Catullus Messallinus		 Suffect Consul of the Roman Republic
suffect consul under Vespasian, with Titus; and Lucius Iunius Quintus Vibius Crispus, Quintus Petillius Cerialis Caesius Rufus, and Tiberius Clodius Eprius Marcellus suffects
74 AD		 Succeeded by
Vespasian and Titus

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).

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