Lucius Caninius Gallus (fl. late 1st century BC – early 1st century AD) 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 ...

who 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 2 BC.

Biography

Caninius Gallus was a member of the

Plebeian In ancient Rome, the plebeians (also called plebs) were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words " commoners". Both classes were hereditary. Etymology The precise origins of ...

'' gens Caninia''. Originally from

Tusculum Tusculum is a ruined Roman city in the Alban Hills, in the Latium region of Italy. Tusculum was most famous in Roman times for the many great and luxurious patrician country villas sited close to the city, yet a comfortable distance from Rome ( ...

, he was either the son or grandson of Lucius Caninius Gallus, the consul of 37 BC.Syme, p. 88 The stemma provided by an inscription commemorating his daughter, Caninia Galla, strongly suggests that he is the son rather than grandson of the consul of 37, ''pace'' Syme. Gallus was ''

triumvir monetalis The ''triumvir monetalis'' ( ''tresviri'' or ''triumviri monetales'', also called the , abbreviated IIIVIR A. A. A. F. F.) was a moneyer during the Roman Republic and the Empire, who oversaw the minting of coins. In that role, he would be respons ...

'' in 12 BC. His praetorian career is unknown, although it is speculated that he was an

aedile ''Aedile'' ( ; la, aedīlis , from , "temple edifice") was an elected office of the Roman Republic. Based in Rome, the aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings () and regulation of public festivals. They also had powers to enf ...

at Tusculum at some point. In early 2 BC Gallus was appointed ''

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 ...

suffectus'', replacing Marcus Plautius Silvanus, and he had the

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), ...

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 ...

as his consular colleague for a period of time before Augustus relinquished the consulship in that year. This indicates that Gallus was held in some esteem by the ruling regime. He was the co-author of the ''

Lex Fufia Caninia In ancient Rome, the ''lex Fufia Caninia'' (also ''Furia ~'' or ''Fusia ~'', 2 BC) was one of the laws that national assemblies had to pass, after they were requested to do so by Augustus. This law, along with the ''lex Aelia Sentia'', p ...

'' (along with his new co-consul Gaius Fufius Geminus), which restricted the

manumission Manumission, or enfranchisement, is the act of freeing enslaved people by their enslavers. Different approaches to manumission were developed, each specific to the time and place of a particular society. Historian Verene Shepherd states that t ...

slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

. Possibly around AD 9/10, Gallus was appointed the

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 ' ...

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

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 ...

. Under the following emperor,

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 was the president of the ''curatores alvei Tiberis et riparum et cloacarum urbis'' (or officials responsible for maintaining the banks of the

Tiber River The Tiber ( ; it, Tevere ; la, Tiberis) is the third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the Riv ...

and the sewers of the city of

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

). Gallus was a member of the college of ''

quindecimviri sacris faciundis In ancient Rome, the were the fifteen () members of a college (''collegium'') with priestly duties. They guarded the Sibylline Books, scriptures which they consulted and interpreted at the request of the Senate. This ''collegium'' also oversaw t ...

''. In AD 32 he asked the

senate 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 ...

to vote on a resolution about including a new collection of Sibylline oracles in the state's official collection of

Sibylline Books The ''Sibylline Books'' ( la, Libri Sibyllini) were a collection of oracular utterances, set out in Greek hexameters, that, according to tradition, were purchased from a sibyl by the last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, and were consulted at mo ...

. Although the senate agreed, the emperor Tiberius rebuked Caninius Gallus for being rash and not following correct religious procedures, and the matter was referred to the full college of the ''quindecimviri sacris faciundis''. Gallus was also a member of the college of the

Arval Brethren In ancient Roman religion, the Arval Brethren ( la, Fratres Arvales, "Brothers of the Fields") or Arval Brothers were a body of priests who offered annual sacrifices to the Lares and gods to guarantee good harvests. Inscriptions provide eviden ...

, becoming ''magister'' of the college by AD 36., ,

References

Sources

*''

Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum The ''Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum'' (''CIL'') is a comprehensive collection of ancient Latin inscriptions. It forms an authoritative source for documenting the surviving epigraphy of classical antiquity. Public and personal inscriptions throw ...

'', Volume VI *''

Roman Imperial Coinage ''Roman Imperial Coinage'', abbreviated ''RIC'', is a British catalogue of Roman Imperial currency, from the time of the Battle of Actium (31 BC) to Late Antiquity in 491 AD. It is the result of many decades of work, from 1923 to 1994, a ...

'', Volume I, edd. C.H.V. Sutherland and R.A.G. Carson, rev. 1984. *Syme, Ronald, ''The Augustan Aristocracy'' (1986).

Clarendon Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Caninius Gallus, Lucius 1st-century BC Romans 1st-century Romans Gallus, Lucius Moneyers of ancient Rome Roman governors of Africa Senators of the Roman Empire Suffect consuls of Imperial Rome Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown