Marcus Lollius Paulinus, Roman was a general, the first governor of Galatia (25 BC) and served as consul in 21 BC. In 16 BC, when governor of Gaul (Bergmanus), he was defeated by the Sicambri and Tencteri and Usipetes, German tribes who had crossed the Rhine. This defeat (the "clades Lolliana") is coupled by Suetonius 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. He had a son of the same name.
A. Degrassi suggested that this son was consul suffectus in AD 13, followed by P.A. Brunt. R. Syme and G. Stern disagreed. By AD 13 Tiberius was powerful and had little reason to allow his enemy's son to reach the consulship. A few years later Tiberius criticized the older (dead) Lollius to the Senate.
The younger Lollius was the father of brief Empress and third wife of Emperor Caligula, Lollia Paulina.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Marcus Claudius Marcellus Aeserninus and Lucius Arruntius |
Consul of the Roman Empire 21 BC |
Succeeded by Marcus Appuleius and Publius Silius Nerva |