Lucius Munatius Felix 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 ...

'' eques'' who held a number of appointments during the reign of the Emperor

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 ...

, most notably ''

praefectus ''Praefectus'', often with a further qualification, was the formal title of many, fairly low to high-ranking, military or civil officials in the Roman Empire, whose authority was not embodied in their person (as it was with elected Magistrates) but ...

'' or governor of

Roman Egypt , conventional_long_name = Roman Egypt , common_name = Egypt , subdivision = Province , nation = the Roman Empire , era = Late antiquity , capital = Alexandria , title_leader = Praefectus Augustalis , image_map = Roman E ...

(149-154).

Eric Birley Eric Barff Birley, Munatii. About his career, although it can be assumed Felix passed through the ''

tres militiae The ''tres militiae'' ("three military posts") was a career progression of the Roman Imperial army for men of the equestrian order. It developed as an alternative to the ''cursus honorum'' of the senatorial order for enabling the social mobility ...

'', the only office attested for him is his tenure as governor of Egypt, an important post because Egypt provided a large share of the grain needed to feed Rome. The duties of the ''praefectus'' extended beyond ensuring that this was furnished so the inhabitants of the city were fed. He command of the troops stationed there: during years Felix was responsible for the province, two legions were based there, Legio III Cyrenaica and

Legio XXII Deiotariana Legio XXII Deiotariana ("Deiotarus' Twenty-Second Legion") was a legion of the Imperial Roman army, founded ca. 48 BC and disbanded during the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132–136. Its cognomen comes from Deiotarus, a Celtic king of Galatia. Its emb ...

. He also managed the financial and judicial affairs of the province. Records of his decisions have survived. One is a record of a hearing, dated 17 April 150, where the petition of two men -- Glycon son of Dionysius, and Apollonius son of Glycon -- requesting that since Glycon was without means he be allowed to abandon his property; Felix responded by ordering an investigation to determine whether Glycon intended to do this to defraud his creditors, and if so, the resignation will not be valid. Another is an incident recorded by

Justin Martyr Justin Martyr ( el, Ἰουστῖνος ὁ μάρτυς, Ioustinos ho martys; c. AD 100 – c. AD 165), also known as Justin the Philosopher, was an early Christian apologist and philosopher. Most of his works are lost, but two apologies and ...

in his ''

First Apology The ''First Apology'' was an early work of Christian apologetics addressed by Justin Martyr to the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius. In addition to arguing against the persecution of individuals solely for being Christian, Justin also provides the ...

''. Justin records that "one of our number" petitioned Felix to allow a surgeon to make him a

eunuch A eunuch ( ) is a male who has been castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2nd millennium ...

, for surgeons in Egypt "were forbidden to do this without the permission of the governor". Justin explains that the Christian desired this in order to avoid all sexual promiscuity. Despite the motivation, Felix refused to approve this petition. Nevertheless, the man remained single and "was satisfied with his own approving conscience, and the approval of those who thought as he did."Justin, ''First Apology'', ch. 29 This mention of Felix not only allows us to fix a ''terminus a quo'' for the publication of his work, it is possibly the earliest datable mention of a Christian community in Egypt.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Munatius Felix, Lucius 2nd-century Romans 2nd-century Roman governors of Egypt Ancient Roman equites Roman governors of Egypt

Felix Felix may refer to: * Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name Places * Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen * Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...