Libo Rupilius Frugi

Libo Rupilius Frugi (flourished 1st century, died 101), whose full name may have been Lucius Scribonius Libo Rupilius Frugi Bonus, was a Roman Suffect Consul and an ancestor to Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

According to Augustan History, Frugi was of consular rank and refers to him as a former consul.^[1] Frugi served as a suffect consul in 88.^[2] His relative Calpurnius Piso Crassus Frugi Licinianus had been consul a year earlier. He was perhaps the son of the Marcus Licinius Crassus Frugi who had been consul in 64 and grandson of the Marcus Licinius Crassus Frugi who had been consul in 27 and noblewoman Scribonia.^[2] Pliny the Younger reports him speaking aggressively in the Roman Senate in 101.^[3].

Frugi possibly married the niece of the Roman Emperor Trajan, Salonina Matidia as her third husband, as from her previous two marriages Matidia had two daughters Vibia Sabina and Mindia Matidia or Matidia Minor. Frugi had a daughter called Rupilia Faustina^[4]. The noblewoman Rupilia Faustina became the paternal grandmother of Marcus Aurelius.^[1]^[5]

Notes

^ ^a ^b Augustan History, Marcus Aurelius, 1.4, where Rupili Boni is emended to Rupili Libonis
^ ^a ^b Brian W. Jones, The Emperor Domitian, pages 165-6. Routledge
^ Pliny the Younger, Ep. 3.9.33
^ Matidia the Elder, from Livius.org.
^ "Libo Frugi's wife is unknown, but J. Carcopino, REA 51 (1949) 262 ff. argued that she was Matidia. This was supported by H. G. Pflaum, HAC 1963 (1964) 106 f. However, Schumacher, Priesterkollegien 195 points out that Libo Frugi's daughter Rupilia Faustina can hardly have been old enough, in that case, to be the mother of Marcus' father. The only way out would be to suppose that Matidia married Libo before her other two husbands; and was divorced from him (as he was still alive in 101). The theory becomes increasingly implausible." Anthony Richard Birley, Marcus Aurelius, page 244

Nerva–Antonine family tree

(1) = 1st spouse
(2) = 2nd spouse (not shown)
(3) = 3rd spouse
SMALL CAPS = posthumously deified (Augusti, Augustae, or other)
dotted lines indicate adoption or (in the case of Hadrian and Antinous) alleged lovers