Lucius Fulvius Gaius Bruttius Praesens Laberius Maximus (c. 119 – after 180) 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 a number of imperial appointments during the reigns of

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

Antoninus Pius Antoninus Pius (Latin: ''Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius''; 19 September 86 – 7 March 161) was Roman emperor from 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Born into a senatoria ...

Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good ...

and

Commodus Commodus (; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was a Roman emperor who ruled from 177 to 192. He served jointly with his father Marcus Aurelius from 176 until the latter's death in 180, and thereafter he reigned alone until his assassination. ...

, and was twice

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throug ...

. Although he was the recipient of one of the letters of

Pliny the Younger Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo (61 – c. 113), better known as Pliny the Younger (), was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate ...

(''Epistulae'', vii.3), most of what we know about him comes from inscriptions. Praesens was the son and (as far as is known) the only child of consul and senator

Gaius Bruttius Praesens Lucius Fulvius Rusticus Gaius Bruttius Praesens Lucius Fulvius Rusticus (68 – 140 AD) was an important Roman senator of the reigns of the emperors Trajan, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. A friend of Pliny the Younger and Hadrian, he was twice consul, governed provinces, ...

, by his second marriage to the wealthy heiress Laberia Hostilia Crispina. His mother was the daughter of Manius Laberius Maximus, a general who was also twice consul. Praesens was born and raised in Volceii,

Lucania Lucania was a historical region of Southern Italy. It was the land of the Lucani, an Oscan people. It extended from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. It bordered with Samnium and Campania in the north, Apulia in the east, and Brutti ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. To judge by the presumed dates of his first offices, he must have been born in or around the year 119. He served as a military tribune in

Legio III Gallica Legio III Gallica ( Third Legion "Gallic") was a legion of the Imperial Roman army. The cognomen ''Gallica'' suggests that its earliest recruits came from veterans of the Gallic legions of Gaius Julius Caesar, a supposition supported by its e ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, probably about 136 when his father was governing the province. At the beginning of Antoninus Pius' reign the family evidently stood in high favour: the father took his second consulship in 139 as colleague of the new emperor, and the son was elevated to

patrician Patrician may refer to: * Patrician (ancient Rome), the original aristocratic families of ancient Rome, and a synonym for "aristocratic" in modern English usage * Patrician (post-Roman Europe), the governing elites of cities in parts of medieval ...

status about the same time. He went on to fill the coveted position of ''quaestor augusti'' to Antoninus. His first consulship fell in 153: he was ''consul ordinarius'', initiating the year with Aulus Junius Rufinus as his colleague. He continued to prosper under Marcus Aurelius: like his father, he was

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 ' ...

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 ...

, in 166–167. In 178, Marcus Aurelius' son, the future Emperor

, was married to Praesens's daughter

Bruttia Crispina Bruttia Crispina (164 – 191 AD) was Roman Empress from 178 to 191 as the consort of Roman Emperor Commodus. Her marriage to Commodus did not produce an heir, and her husband was instead succeeded by Pertinax. Family Crispina came from an illu ...

and Marcus designated Praesens consul for the year 180. On 3 August 178, Praesens was one of those who accompanied Marcus and the young Commodus on the so-called 'expeditio Germanica secunda' against the

Quadi The Quadi were a Germanic * * * people who lived approximately in the area of modern Moravia in the time of the Roman Empire. The only surviving contemporary reports about the Germanic tribe are those of the Romans, whose empire had its bord ...

Iazyges The Iazyges (), singular Ἰάζυξ. were an ancient Sarmatian tribe that traveled westward in BC from Central Asia to the steppes of modern Ukraine. In BC, they moved into modern-day Hungary and Serbia near the Dacian steppe between th ...

and

Marcomanni The Marcomanni were a Germanic people * * * that established a powerful kingdom north of the Danube, somewhere near modern Bohemia, during the peak of power of the nearby Roman Empire. According to Tacitus and Strabo, they were Suebian. Origin ...

, and received military decorations for his part in the campaign. Praesens held the fasces again in 180, again as ''consul ordinarius'', with

Sextus Quintilius Condianus Sextus is an ancient Roman '' praenomen'' or "first name". Its standard abbreviation is Sex., and the feminine form would be Sexta. It is one of the numeral ''praenomina'', like Quintus ("fifth") and Decimus ("tenth"), and means "sixth". Althoug ...

as his colleague. Praesens had two children by an unknown woman: a son, the future consul

Lucius Bruttius Quintius Crispinus Lucius Bruttius Quintius Crispinus was a Roman senator who lived in the second century AD. He was ordinary consul in 187, and Lucius Roscius Aelianus Paculus was his colleague. Crispinus was a member of the Bruttia gens, who originated in Volce ...

, and a daughter, future Empress

Sources

* https://web.archive.org/web/20070706043759/http://www.forumancientcoins.com/historia/coins/r3/r1361.htm * https://www.livius.org/bn-bz/bruttius/crispina.html * Various essays by Sir Ronald Syme, notably 'An Eccentric Patrician', in ''Roman Papers'' Volume III (Oxford, 1984). {{DEFAULTSORT:Bruttius Praesens, Gaius 119 births Year of death unknown 2nd-century Romans Praesens, Gaius Fulvii Imperial Roman consuls Roman patricians