Gaius Vettulenus Civica Cerealis (died 88) 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 ...

who held at least one office in the service of the emperor. He was appointed

suffect 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 ...

some time between 73 and 76. Civica Cerealis was of Sabine origin. Ronald Syme speculates that the Sextus Vettulenus Cerealis, memorialized with his wife Lusia Galla in an inscription recovered at Venafro, was Cerealis' father and mother. If that is the case, his father served as a soldier, and his career was capped as '' primus pilus'' of

Legio XI Legio XI Claudia ("Claudius' Eleventh Legion") was a legion of the Imperial Roman army. The legion was levied by Julius Caesar for his campaign against the Nervii. XI ''Claudia'' dates back to the two legions (the other was the XIIth) recruited b ...

. Following his tenure as suffect consul, Cerealis was appointed governor of the imperial province of

Moesia Moesia (; Latin: ''Moesia''; el, Μοισία, Moisía) was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans south of the Danube River, which included most of the territory of modern eastern Serbia, Kosovo, north-eastern Alban ...

from 81 to 84. 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 ...

allotted him the prestigious public province 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 ...

for 87/88. During his time in this office, he was confronted with an uprising led by a

false Nero After the emperor Nero committed suicide near the villa of his freedman Phaon in June of 68 AD, various Nero impostors appeared between the autumn of 69 AD and the reign of the emperor Domitian. Most scholars set the number of Nero impostors to two ...

at the time of Domitian's Dacian War, but Cerealis failed to suppress the pretender. It is not known if Cerealis was involved in a conspiracy against the emperor

Domitian Domitian (; la, Domitianus; 24 October 51 – 18 September 96) was a Roman emperor who reigned from 81 to 96. The son of Vespasian and the younger brother of Titus, his two predecessors on the throne, he was the last member of the Flavi ...

or if his failure was due to his reluctance to act. In either case, Cerealis was arrested and executed on Domitian's orders.

Suetonius Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; c. AD 69 – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is a set of biographies ...

, ''

De vita Caesarum ''De vita Caesarum'' (Latin; "About the Life of the Caesars"), commonly known as ''The Twelve Caesars'', is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire written by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. The g ...

'', "Domitian", 10

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vettulenus Civica Cerialis, Gaius 1st-century Romans 88 deaths Roman governors of Moesia Suffect consuls of Imperial Rome Roman governors of Asia Civica Cerialis Executed ancient Roman people People executed by the Roman Empire