Publius Julius Geminius Marcianus was a Roman

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 ...

and general. He participated in the Roman–Parthian War of 161–166. Marcianus 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 ...

in either 165 or 166.

Life

Marcianus was a native of Cirta in North Africa. Debrowa considers that he "was probably the first representative of his family in the Roman senate", making him a '' novus homo''.Dabrowa, ''Legio X Fretensis: A Prosopographical Study of its Officers (I-III c. A.D.)'' (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1993), p. 60 Professor Edward Champlin included him as a member of "a Cirtan community at Rome" he infers existed there, whose members included: Quintus Lollius Urbicus, consul in either 135 or 136; Gaius Arrius Antoninus, consul c. 170; and the rhetorician Fronto. Champlin speculates Marcianus may be the "Marcianus noster" who assisted Fronto in his prosecution of

Herodes Atticus Herodes Atticus ( grc-gre, Ἡρώδης; AD 101–177) was an Athenian rhetorician, as well as a Roman senator. A great philanthropic magnate, he and his wife Appia Annia Regilla, for whose murder he was potentially responsible, commissioned ...

.Champlin, ''Fronto and Antonine Rome'' (Cambridge: Harvard University, 1980), pp. 14f The beginning of his senatorial career was not impressive. As a member of the '' vigintiviri'', a preliminary and required first step toward gaining entry into the Roman Senate, Marcianus was allocated to the ''

tresviri capitalis In the Roman Republic, or were special commissions of three men appointed for specific administrative tasks apart from the regular duties of Roman magistrates. Most commonly when historians refer to Roman "triumvirs", they mean two political ...

'', which was not a prestigious office. Following this he held the typical series of offices: a hitch as military tribune in Legio IV Scythica, then another hitch as military tribune in Legio X Fretensis. He returned to Rome to serve as

quaestor A ( , , ; "investigator") was a public official in Ancient Rome. There were various types of quaestors, with the title used to describe greatly different offices at different times. In the Roman Republic, quaestors were elected officials who ...

, then plebeian tribune, praetor, legate to the proconsul of Africa, and legate or commander of Legio X Gemina. The outbreak of the Roman–Parthian War of 161–166 provided Marcianus with the opportunity to show his abilities. He was commissioned as commander of a collection of vexillations from

Pannonia Pannonia (, ) was a province of the Roman Empire bounded on the north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia. Pannonia was located in the territory that is now wes ...

that was sent to the Parthian front, and showed he was successful as legate of Legio X Gemina. He was promoted to govern the imperial province of Roman Arabia, then returned to be appointed consul. Shortly after his consulship, Marcianus was appointed proconsular governor of

Macedonia Macedonia most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a traditional geographic reg ...

. This is unusual, since Macedonia was considered a province whose administration was allocated to senators before they achieved the consulship. Dabrowa explains this oddity "because of the danger of Marcomanni and Germans attacking the province was really serious." The last office Marcianus is known to have held is the proconsular governorship of Asia around 182.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Julius Geminius Marcianus, Publius 2nd-century Romans 2nd-century Roman governors of Arabia Petraea Suffect consuls of Imperial Rome Roman governors of Arabia Petraea Roman governors of Macedonia Roman governors of Asia

Geminius Marcianus Publius Julius Geminius Marcianus was a Roman senator and general. He participated in the Roman–Parthian War of 161–166. Marcianus was appointed suffect consul in either 165 or 166. Life Marcianus was a native of Cirta in North Africa. Deb ...