Gaius Junius Silanus 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 letter ...
Senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
active during the reigns of
Augustus
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...
and
Tiberius
Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father ...
. He acceded to the rank of
Roman consul
A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC), and ancient Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum'' (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politic ...
in 10 AD as the colleague of
Publius Cornelius Dolabella. For the term 20/21 the
sortition
In governance, sortition (also known as selection by lottery, selection by lot, allotment, demarchy, stochocracy, aleatoric democracy, democratic lottery, and lottocracy) is the selection of political officials as a random sample from a larger ...
selected him to be
proconsul
A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a consul. A proconsul was typically a former consul. The term is also used in recent history for officials with delegated authority.
In the Roman Republic, military command, or ' ...
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 ...
. However, upon his return to Rome in 22 he was accused of malversation (misconduct).
To this alleged crime his accusers in the senate added the charges 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 ...
(''majestas'') and sacrilege to the divinity of
Augustus
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...
.
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 ...
suggests that the charge of treason was added to his charges in order to dissuade Silanus' friends from defending him. Silanus, deserted by his friends and without experience in pleading, abandoned his defence. It was proposed to
outlaw
An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...
and banish him to the island of
Gyarus
Gyaros ( el, Γυάρος ), also locally known as Gioura ( el, Γιούρα), is an arid, unpopulated, and uninhabited Greece, Greek island in the northern Cyclades near the islands of Andros and Tinos, with an area of . It is a part of the muni ...
; but
Tiberius
Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father ...
changed the place of his exile to the less inhospitable island of
Cynthus
Mount Cynthus (, ''Kýnthos'') is located on the isle of Delos, part of the Greek Cyclades.
Mythology
In Greek mythology, Leto gave birth to Apollo and Artemis on this island, having been shunned by Zeus' wife Hera who was extremely jealous of hi ...
where his sister Torquata had begged might be his place of punishment.
He was either the father or a brother of
Appius Junius Silanus
__NOTOC__
Appius Junius Silanus (died AD 43), whom Cassius Dio calls Gaius Appius Silanus, was consul in AD 28, with Publius Silius Nerva as his colleague. He was accused of ''majestas'', or treason, in AD 32 along with a number of senators, but he ...
, consul in 28; Decimus Junius Silanus, who had an affair with
Julia the Younger
Vipsania Julia Agrippina (19 BC – c. AD 29) nicknamed Julia Minor (Classical Latin: IVLIA•MINOR) and called Julia the Younger by modern historians, was a Roman noblewoman of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. She was emperor Augustus' first grandda ...
; and
Marcus Junius Silanus, ''consul suffectus'' in 15.
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Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Junius Silanus, Gaius
1st-century Romans
1st-century BC births
1st-century deaths
1st-century BC Romans
Imperial Roman consuls
Roman governors of Asia
Junii Silani
Ancient Roman exiles