Lucius Fabius Cilo

Lucius Fabius Cilo, full name Lucius Fabius Cilo Septiminus Catinius Acilianus Lepidus Fulcinianus, was a Roman senator of the second century. He was born in Hispania, around 150 AD.

It was between 180 and 184 he became the Legate for the XVI Flavia Firma and military Prefect (approx. 187-189). Around 185 it became Pro consul of the Roman Province of Gallia Narbonensis and afterwards Legate of III Gallica, about 189 to 192.

Cilo was made consul suffectus in 193. In this role, he provided for the tumulation of the body of Commodus in the Mausoleum of Hadrian, by order of Pertinax (Historia Augusta, "Commodus", xvii 4). The following year, during the rule of Septimius Severus, his intimate friend, Cilo fought against the usurper Pescennius Niger near Perinthus.

Nominated praefectus urbi, mayor of Rome, for year 203, he saved the life of procurator Marcus Opellius Macrinus (later emperor), when his patron Plautianus fell into disgrace (Cassius Dio, Roman History, lxxix). The next year he was nominated consul for the second time.

Cilo served also under Caracalla. When the emperor decided to kill his own brother and co-ruler Geta and Papinian, Cilo, who had counselled harmony between the brothers, was seized by the urbaniciani, and only after the soldiers had torn off his senator's robe and pulled off his boots, Caracalla stopped them. According to Cassius Dio:

He [Caracalla] also wished to take the life of Cilo, his tutor and benefactor, who had served as prefect of the city under his father, and whom he himself had often called "father." The soldiers who were sent to Cilo first plundered his silver plate, his robes, his money, and everything else of his, and then led him along the Sacred Way with the purpose of taking him to the palace and there putting him out of the way; he had only low slippers on his feet, since he had chanced to be in the bath when arrested, and was wearing a short tunic. The soldiers tore the clothing off his body and disfigured his face, so that the populace as well as the city troops began to make an outcry; accordingly, Antoninus, in awe and fear of them, met the party, and shielding Cilo with his cavalry cloak (he was wearing military dress), cried out: "Insult not my father! Strike not my tutor!" As for the military tribune who had been bidden to slay him and the detail of soldiers sent with him, they were put to death, ostensibly because they had plotted Cilo's destruction, but in reality because they had not killed him.

Antoninus pretended to love Cilo to such a degree that he declared, "Those who have plotted against him have plotted against me" [...]

Cassius Dio, Roman History, lxxviii 4-5

He married Cilonia Fabia.

A domus on the Aventine was given as a present by Severus to Cilo. This domus, showed also in the Forma Urbis Romae, is presently under the basilica and the monastery of Santa Balbina, and was close to the horti Ciloniae Fabiae.

References

• "Septimius Severus" and "Macrinus", Wiki Classical Dictionary
• Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby), "Gardens of Ancient Rome" and "Houses in the City of Rome", in A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, Oxford University Press, London, 1929. From Lacus Curtius.