Lucius Trebius Germanus
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Lucius Trebius Germanus was a governor of
Roman Britain Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered wa ...
in 127, and suffect consul with Gaius Calpurnius Flaccus, the proconsul of Cyprus in 123, at an uncertain date. He is known from a military diploma published in 1997 that bears the date 20 August 127. Anthony Birley provides further information on Trebius Germanus. He is mentioned in the '' Digest'', which cites a legal decision Trebius Germanus made while governor of an unnamed province, not necessarily Roman Britain, condemning a slave boy to death for failing to call for help when his owner was murdered. Birley also notes that Trebius Germanus is a member of a small group of three consuls appointed to the office in a ten-year period who share the same
gentilicium The (or simply ) was a hereditary name borne by the peoples of Roman Italy and later by the citizens of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. It was originally the name of one's (family or clan) by patrilineal descent. However, as Rome expand ...
-- the others being
Gaius Trebius Maximus Gaius, sometimes spelled ''Gajus'', Kaius, Cajus, Caius, was a common Latin praenomen; see Gaius (praenomen). People *Gaius (jurist) (), Roman jurist * Gaius Acilius * Gaius Antonius * Gaius Antonius Hybrida *Gaius Asinius Gallus *Gaius Asinius ...
(suffect consul 121 or 122) and Gaius Trebius Sergianus (consul 132) -- while adding
Ronald Syme Sir Ronald Syme, (11 March 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a New Zealand-born historian and classicist. He was regarded as the greatest historian of ancient Rome since Theodor Mommsen and the most brilliant exponent of the history of the Roman ...
's observations that "'the obscure Trebii... are the first and last consuls of that name'; elsewhere he called them 'a unique and isolated group'". Birley speculates on the place of origin for these three consulars, finding less prominent Trebii attested in Italy, Spain, Gaul, and Dalmatia, but preferring none of these. Birley offers a few more speculations about Trebius Germanus. He suggests that his tenure as governor followed immediately on his predecessor,
Aulus Platorius Nepos Aulus Platorius Nepos was a Roman senator who held a number of appointments in the imperial service, including the governorship of Britain. He was suffect consul succeeding the ''consul posterior'' Publius Dasumius Rusticus as the colleague of ...
, and lasted three years from 125 to 127; the military diploma would date from towards the end of his tenure. Birley also suggests that he may be the governor in whose name a broken and now lost inscription found at Bewcastle was made. Prior to the discovery of this military diploma, Birley had speculated it might have contained the name of the other three governors then attested under Hadrian -- Nepos, Julius Severus, and Mummius Sisenna, or another consular, Gaius Nonius Proculus, who held the consulship in some undetermined '' nundinium'' between AD 50 and 150. RIBbr>995
Birley, ''The ''Fasti'' of Roman Britain'', (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981), pp. 105f


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Germanus, Trebius Roman governors of Britain 2nd-century Romans Trebii Suffect consuls of Imperial Rome