Quintus Marcius Barea Soranus was a
Roman senator
The Roman Senate ( la, Senātus Rōmānus) was a governing and advisory assembly in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, being established in the first days of the city of Rome (traditionally founded in ...
who lived in the reign of
Nero
Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 un ...
. He was
suffect consul in 52, but later attracted the hatred of
Nero
Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 un ...
, and upon being condemned to death committed suicide. He was associated with a group of Stoics opposed to the perceived tyranny and autocratic tendencies of certain emperors, known today as the
Stoic Opposition.
Life and career
Soranus was a member of the
gens Marcia; his father,
Quintus Marcius Barea Soranus
Quintus Marcius Barea Soranus was a Roman senator who lived in the reign of Nero. He was suffect consul in 52, but later attracted the hatred of Nero, and upon being condemned to death committed suicide. He was associated with a group of Stoics ...
, had been a suffect consul as well as governor of
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
. His brother was
Quintus Marcius Barea Sura
Quintus Marcius Barea Sura was a Roman Senator of the first century AD.
Life
Sura was the son of the suffect consul Quintus Marcius Barea Soranus; his brother was the suffect consul Quintus Marcius Barea Soranus. He was the father of Marcia Fu ...
, friend of the future emperor
Vespasian
Vespasian (; la, Vespasianus ; 17 November AD 9 – 23/24 June 79) was a Roman emperor who reigned from AD 69 to 79. The fourth and last emperor who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty that ruled the Empi ...
and maternal grandfather of
Trajan
Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presi ...
.
His career prior to becoming consul is not well known. Subsequent to holding the ''
fasces
Fasces ( ; ; a ''plurale tantum'', from the Latin word ''fascis'', meaning "bundle"; it, fascio littorio) is a bound bundle of wooden rods, sometimes including an axe (occasionally two axes) with its blade emerging. The fasces is an Italian symbo ...
'', Soranus was governor of
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
around 61/62.
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historiography, Roman historians by modern scholars.
The surviving portions of his t ...
, ''Annals
Annals ( la, annāles, from , "year") are a concise historical record in which events are arranged chronologically, year by year, although the term is also used loosely for any historical record.
Scope
The nature of the distinction between ann ...
'', xvi.23 During this tenure, the Emperor Nero had ordered his freedman Acrato to take away the works of art of the city of
Pergamon
Pergamon or Pergamum ( or ; grc-gre, Πέργαμον), also referred to by its modern Greek form Pergamos (), was a rich and powerful ancient Greece, ancient Greek city in Mysia. It is located from the modern coastline of the Aegean Sea on a ...
, but the people revolted; Soranus refused to follow the orders of the Emperor and punish its citizens.
[
]
Trial and death
Soranus was accused by Ostorius Sabinus
file:Roman baths ostorius 01.JPG, Publius Ostorius Scapula standing at the terrace of the Roman Baths (Bath)
Publius Ostorius Scapula (died 52) was a Roman empire, Roman statesman and general who governed Roman Britain, Britain from 47 until his ...
, an equestrian, of being friends with Rubellius Plautus
Rubellius Plautus (33–62 AD) was a Roman noble and a political rival of Emperor Nero. Through his mother Julia, he was a relative of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. He was the grandson of Drusus (only son of Tiberius Caesar), and the great-grandson o ...
(another object of Nero's hatred), and for inciting the citizens of Asia to revolt.[Tacitus, ''Annals'', xvi.30] One of the chief witnesses against him was Egnatius Celer of Berytus, his client and former tutor. Soranus' daughter, Servilia, was also accused of having hired a sorcerer (''magi
Magi (; singular magus ; from Latin ''magus'', cf. fa, مغ ) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius th ...
''), and was tried together with her father.[ Servilia confessed that she had consulted an astrologer, but only to pray in honor of her father and the emperor; Soranus asked that his daughter be spared because she was not involved in the conspiracy or aware of the misdeeds of her husband, Gaius Annius Pollio. In the end, Soranus was condemned to death (in 65 or 66), and committed suicide.]
Family
Soranus is known to have one daughter, Marcia Servilia Sorana
Marcia Servilia or commonly known as Servilia (40s-66) was the daughter of Roman Senator Barea Soranus. Her father was part of the Stoic Opposition who opposed Nero's tyrannical rule. When he was sentenced to death by Nero in 65 or 66, Servilia w ...
, better known as "Servilia".[Julian Bennett, ''Trajan: Optimus Princeps'' (Routledge, 2003), p. 13 ]
References
Further reading
*Tacitus, ''Histories'' iv.10
*Juvenal, Satire III
The ''Satires'' () are a collection of satirical poems by the Latin author Juvenal written between the end of the first and the early second centuries A.D.
Juvenal is credited with sixteen known poems divided among five books; all are in th ...
.116
*Dio Cassius
Lucius Cassius Dio (), also known as Dio Cassius ( ), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history on ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...
, lxii.26
{{s-end
60s deaths
Senators of the Roman Empire
Suffect consuls of Imperial Rome
Roman governors of Asia
1st-century Romans
Marcii
Ancient Romans who committed suicide
People executed by the Roman Empire