Cossutianus Capito () was a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

senator and ''

delator Delator (plural: ''delatores'', feminine: ''delatrix'') is Latin for a denouncer, one who indicates to a court another as having committed a punishable deed. Secular Roman law In Roman history, it was properly one who gave notice (''deferre'') t ...

'', often acting on behalf of the contemporary Roman emperor during the

Principate The Principate is the name sometimes given to the first period of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in 27 BC to the end of the Crisis of the Third Century in AD 284, after which it evolved into the so-called Dominate. ...

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...

offers a hostile portrait of Capito in his ''

Annales Annals are a concise form of historical writing which record events chronologically, year by year. The equivalent word in Latin and French is ''annales'', which is used untranslated in English in various contexts. List of works with titles contai ...

'', describing him as a "man stained with much wickedness", and as having "a heart eager for the worst wickedness".

Career

Tacitus first mentions Capito following the trial and suicide of Valerius Asiaticus in AD 47, when he and

Publius Suillius Rufus Publius may refer to: Roman name * Publius (praenomen) * Ancient Romans with the name: ** Publius Valerius Publicola (died 503 BC), Roman consul, co-founder of the Republic **Publius Clodius Pulcher (c. 93 BC – 52 BC), Republican politician * ...

were subsequently threatened with the '' Lex Cincia'' for accepting payments in return for serving as a legal advocate. However, both men managed to extract leniency from emperor Claudius, and he amended the law to permit a fee to be paid to an advocate of up to ten thousand sesterces. After this incident he became the governor of

Cilicia Cilicia (); el, Κιλικία, ''Kilikía''; Middle Persian: ''klkyʾy'' (''Klikiyā''); Parthian: ''kylkyʾ'' (''Kilikiyā''); tr, Kilikya). is a geographical region in southern Anatolia in Turkey, extending inland from the northeastern coa ...

; the year of his tenure is not known. But he had returned to Rome by the year 57, for in that year the subjects of Cilicia, represented by the senator

Thrasea Paetus Publius Clodius Thrasea Paetus (died AD 66), Roman senator, who lived in the 1st century AD. Notable for his principled opposition to the emperor Nero and his interest in Stoicism, he was the husband of Arria, who was the daughter of A. Caecina ...

, accused him of extortion. Captio lost this lawsuit; his penalties included being stripped of his senatorial rank. Capito had regained his senatorial rank by the year 62, when he reappears in Tacitus' work, with the help of his father-in-law the praetorian prefect

Ofonius Tigellinus Ofonius Tigellinus (c. 10 – 69) was a prefect of the Roman imperial bodyguard, known as the Praetorian Guard, from 62 until 68, during the reign of emperor Nero. Tigellinus gained imperial favour through his acquaintance wit ...

. In that year he accused the

praetor Praetor ( , ), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected '' magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to discharge vari ...

Antistius Sosianus The gens Antistia, sometimes written Antestia on coins, was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. The first of the gens to achieve prominence was Sextus Antistius, tribune of the plebs in 422 BC.''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Myth ...

of an act of

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

, specifically writing and reciting scurrilous verses about the emperor

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 unti ...

at a banquet hosted by Marcus Ostorius Scapula. Tacitus notes that this was the first occasion that anyone had been prosecuted for treason under Nero. Although Scapula claimed to have not heard the verses in question, a number of witnesses testified Sosianus had done so. Quintus Junius Marullus, the consul-elect, proposed that Sosianus should be deprived of his praetorship and executed; but once again Thrasea Paetus intervened against Capito, and convinced the Senate to pass a milder verdict of banishment to a desolate island. These successes of Thrasea Paetus earned him the displeasure of both the emperor and Capito. Four years later, he assisted

Titus Clodius Eprius Marcellus Titus Clodius Eprius Marcellus (died AD 79) was a Roman senator, twice consul, best known for his prosecution of the Stoic senator Thrasea Paetus and his bitter quarrel with Helvidius Priscus. Eprius was also notorious for his ability to ingr ...

in the prosecution Thrasea Paetus; Nero coerced the Senate to find him guilty, which led to Thrasea Paetus' suicide.Tacitus, ''Annales'', XVI.21-35 His life afterwards is a blank. It is uncertain whether Capito survived the turmoil of the

Year of Four Emperors A year or annus is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by change in weather, the hou ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Capito, Cossutianus Year of birth unknown Place of birth unknown Year of death unknown Place of death unknown Senators of the Roman Empire 1st-century Romans Imperial Roman praetors Roman governors of Cilicia Cossutii Ancient Roman delatores