Gaius Asinius Gallus (before 38 BC – AD 33) was a Roman senator, son of

Gaius Asinius Pollio Gaius Asinius Pollio (75 BC – AD 4) was a Roman soldier, politician, orator, poet, playwright, literary critic, and historian, whose lost contemporary history provided much of the material used by the historians Appian and Plutarch. Poll ...

and Quinctia. He was the second husband of Vipsania, eldest daughter of Marcus Agrippa and first wife of

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 ...

, who ultimately imprisoned him.

Biography

In 11 BC he married

Vipsania Agrippina Vipsania Agrippina (; 36 BC – 20 AD) was the first wife of the Emperor Tiberius. She was the daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Pomponia Caecilia Attica, thus a granddaughter of Titus Pomponius Atticus, the best friend of Cicero. Biogr ...

, daughter of

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (; BC – 12 BC) was a Roman general, statesman, and architect who was a close friend, son-in-law, and lieutenant to the Roman emperor Augustus. He was responsible for the construction of some of the most notable build ...

and his first wife

Caecilia Attica Attica (born ca 58–51 BC, perhaps died around 32–29 BC) was the daughter of Cicero's Epicurean friend Titus Pomponius Atticus. She was also the first wife of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, close friend of the emperor Augustus. Early life Attica is ...

, and the former wife of

. Their union proved fruitful and produced at least six children. Gallus also claimed true paternity of

Drusus Julius Caesar Drusus Julius Caesar (14 BC – 14 September AD 23), was the son of Emperor Tiberius, and heir to the Roman Empire following the death of his adoptive brother Germanicus in AD 19. He was born at Rome to a prominent branch of the ''gens Claud ...

, earning him Tiberius' animosity. If Gallus' claim was true, he might also have been the father of the child Vipsania was expecting on her divorce. He is mentioned among the speakers at the senate meeting discussing Augustus' funeral in AD 14; on the subject of last honours he proposed that the funeral train should pass under a triumphal gateway. When the senate met to discuss the transfer of power, Gallus made a joke at Tiberius' expense; when Tiberius remarked he would take charge of whichever department was assigned to him, Gallus responded by asking him to choose whichever he wished. This embarrassed Tiberius publicly, and although Gallus attempted to quell the emperor's anger, he was unsuccessful. In 30, he was arrested on Tiberius' orders. At Tiberius' instigation, the Senate declared Gallus a public enemy, and he was held in conditions of solitary confinement: "He had no companion or servant with him, spoke to no one, and saw no one, except when he was compelled to take food. And the food was of such quality and amount as neither to afford him any satisfaction or strength nor yet to allow him to die." He died in prison of starvation in the year 33. When

Agrippina Agrippina is an ancient Roman cognomen and a feminine given name. People with either the cognomen or the given name include: Cognomen Relatives of the Roman general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa: * Vipsania Agrippina (36 BC–20 AD), first wife of the ...

died in October of that same year, Tiberius accused her of "having had Asinius Gallus as a paramour and being driven by his death to loathe existence". His name was erased from public monuments (a practice known as ''

damnatio memoriae is a modern Latin phrase meaning "condemnation of memory", indicating that a person is to be excluded from official accounts. Depending on the extent, it can be a case of historical negationism. There are and have been many routes to , includi ...

''), although this was reversed after Tiberius' death.

Marriage and children

Asinius Gallus' marriage to Vipsania (11 BC) led to the following known children: *

. **He was consul in 23; exiled as an accuser of a conspiracy and later was put to death on orders from Empress

Valeria Messalina Valeria Messalina (; ) was the third wife of Roman emperor Claudius. She was a paternal cousin of Emperor Nero, a second cousin of Emperor Caligula, and a great-grandniece of Emperor Augustus. A powerful and influential woman with a reputation ...

. * Marcus Asinius Agrippa. **He was consul in 25 and died in 26 *Gnaeus Asinius Saloninus, or simply Asinius Saloninus. **

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 ...

describes him as an ‘eminent’ person. Saloninus was intended to marry one of the granddaughters of Emperor Tiberius. He died in 22. * Servius Asinius Celer. **He was ''consul suffectus'' in 38. From Emperor

Caligula Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August 12 – 24 January 41), better known by his nickname Caligula (), was the third Roman emperor, ruling from 37 until his assassination in 41. He was the son of the popular Roman general Germani ...

he purchased a fish at an enormous price. He is mentioned in Seneca's satire '' The Pumpkinification of Claudius'', where he is listed among the many people killed by that emperor. His death probably occurred sometime before mid-47. Asinius Celer seems to have had a daughter by the name of Asinia Agrippina, though her existence is obscure. *Lucius Asinius Gallus (sometimes wrongly called Gallo). **In 46 he conspired with

Titus Statilius Taurus Corvinus Titus Statilius Taurus Corvinus was a member of the Titus Statilius Taurus family of Roman Senators which went back to Titus Statilius Taurus, the general of emperor Augustus. Corvinus was consul in 45 AD during the reign of the Emperor Claudius wi ...

against

Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Drusus and Antonia Minor ...

and was forced to go into exile.

Cassius Dio Lucius Cassius Dio (), also known as Dio Cassius ( ), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history on ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...

describes him as being "very small and ugly". Later rehabilitated, he became

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 throu ...

in 62. *Gnaeus Asinius. **His existence is recorded by the townsfolk of Puteoli, whose patron he was. He may have been identical with Asinius Saloninus or the foregoing Asinius Gallus. Since the ''Asinius Gallus'' seems to have been the ''Lucius Asinius Gallus'' who became a Consul in 60, by exclusion of parts the ''Gnaeus Asinius'' must be the ''Asinius Saloninus''.

In fiction

In the BBC television series

I, Claudius ''I, Claudius'' is a historical novel by English writer Robert Graves, published in 1934. Written in the form of an autobiography of the Roman Emperor Claudius, it tells the history of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and the early years of the Ro ...

, Gallus is portrayed by

Charles Kay Charles Kay (born Charles Piff, 31 August 1930) is an English actor. Early life Kay was born in Coventry, Warwickshire, the son of Frances (née Petty) and Charles Beckingham Piff. Originally educated at Warwick School, Kay went on to study m ...

. In Lloyd C Douglas's novel ''The Robe'', Gallus is furnished with a fictional daughter Diana, the love interest of the story.

References

Sources

* Syme, Ronald and Barbara M. Levick. "Asinius Gallus, Gaius." In Hornblower, Simon and Antony Spawforth, eds. ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary.'' Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003. 191–192.

External links

Coinage of Gaius Asinius Gallus
{{DEFAULTSORT:Asinius Gallus, Gaius 1st-century BC births Year of birth uncertain 33 deaths 1st-century Romans Senators of the Roman Empire Imperial Roman consuls Roman governors of Asia Julio-Claudian dynasty Gallus, Gaius Deaths by starvation People who died in prison custody