Marcus Servilius Nonianus (died in 59AD) 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 lette ...

senator, best known as a historian. He was ordinary consul in 35 as the colleague of

Gaius Cestius Gallus Gaius Cestius Gallus (d. 67 AD) was a Senate of the Roman Empire, Roman senator and general who was active during the Principate. He was Roman consul, suffect consul for the second ''nundinium'' of the year 42 as the colleague of Gaius Caecina Larg ...

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 ...

described Servilius Nonianus as a man of great eloquence and good-nature.Tacitus, ''Annales'', XIV.19 He wrote a history of Rome which is considered the major contribution on the topic between the works of

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...

and

, and which was much referred to by later historians, but was later lost.

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 ...

, "Servilius Nonianus", ''Hermes'', 92. Bd (1964), pp. 408, 421ff A number of anecdotes regarding him survive and help to give an understanding of Roman life in the first century.

Life

Nonianus was descended from Gaius Servilius Geminus the

praetor Praetor ( , ), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected '' magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to discharge vari ...

, who had renounced his

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.Syme, "Servilius Nonianus", p. 409 His father was Marcus Servilius, consul in AD 3 and his mother the daughter of the Nonius whom

Mark Antony Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from a constitutional republic into the au ...

proscribed over the possession of a gem. 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 ...

ar governor of

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 46–47.

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

recounts several anecdotes concerning Nonianus. One was that he was terribly worried about losing his sight and to prevent this, Nonianus wore a lucky charm around his neck consisting of the two

Greek letters The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as we ...

alpha and

rho Rho (uppercase Ρ, lowercase ρ or ; el, ρο or el, ρω, label=none) is the 17th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 100. It is derived from Phoenician letter res . Its uppercase form uses the sa ...

. Pliny reports that the charm worked. Another anecdote was that his daughter was cured of an illness with goats' milk, as advised by the family doctor Servilius Democrates. The poet

Persius Aulus Persius Flaccus (; 4 December 3424 November 62 AD) was a Roman poet and satirist of Etruscan origin. In his works, poems and satires, he shows a Stoic wisdom and a strong criticism for what he considered to be the stylistic abuses of his ...

revered Nonianus like a father, according to the historian

. Nonianus married Considia; their daughter Servilia Considia married the senator

Quintus Marcius Barea Soranus Quintus Marcius Barea Soranus was a Roman senator who lived in the reign of Nero. He was suffect consul in 52, but later attracted the hatred of Nero, and upon being condemned to death committed suicide. He was associated with a group of Stoics ...

. This marriage and the admiration Persius had for him, led Syme to suspect Nonianus was part of the

Stoic Stoic may refer to: * An adherent of Stoicism; one whose moral quality is associated with that school of philosophy * STOIC, a programming language * ''Stoic'' (film), a 2009 film by Uwe Boll * ''Stoic'' (mixtape), a 2012 mixtape by rapper T-Pain * ...

circle of the

Principate The Principate is the name sometimes given to the first period of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in 27 BC to the end of the Crisis of the Third Century in AD 284, after which it evolved into the so-called Dominate. ...

. Tacitus dates the death of Servilius Nonianus to 59, contrasting his elegant life to another senator who died that year,

Domitius Afer Gnaeus Domitius Afer (died 59) was a Roman orator and advocate, born at Nemausus ( Nîmes) in Gallia Narbonensis. He flourished in the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero. He was suffect consul in the '' nundinium'' of September to ...

, who possessed the same genius yet was a provincial.

Historical work

Servilius Nonianus wrote a book on the history of Rome but the work is not extant. Even its title is unknown. According to

and Quintilian this work was considered a very important reference book on Roman history, especially for those historians who belonged to the senatorial party. It is considered to be the leading Roman history between the works of

and Tacitus. Quintilian writes that Servilius Nonianus used publicly to read his own work, ''Recitationes''. Several scholars have suggested Tacitus drew on Servilius Nonianus for his history of the first Imperial period, along with the historian

Aufidius Bassus Aufidius Bassus was a renowned Roman historian and orator who lived in the reign of Augustus and Tiberius. Bassus was a man much admired in Rome for his eloquence. He drew up an account of the Roman wars in Germany. Uncertainty in his health perh ...

. The period covered by Nonianus' history is unknown. It is considered probable that Nonianus also covered the reign of the emperor Tiberius. Pliny the Younger records the anecdote that during one of the public ''recitationes'' of Nonianus, the emperor Claudius, who was strolling nearby, was so attracted by the applause that he asked who was reading, and joined the audience.Pliny the Younger, ''Epistulae''
I,13,3

References

Sources

* Olivier Devillers: ''Tacite et les sources des Annales''. Leuven 2003. * Michael M. Sage: "Tacitus’ Historical Works: A Survey and Appraisal," ''

Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt , commonly referred to by its German acronym, ''ANRW'', or in English as ''Rise and Decline of the Roman World'', is an extensive collection of books dealing with the history and culture of ancient Rome. Akin to a journal and published in various ...

'', Vol. II.33.2. Berlin-New York 1990, pp. 851–1030. * Ronald Syme, ''Tacitus.'' 2 volumes. Oxford 1958. * Ronald Syme
"The Historian Servilius Nonianus"
''Hermes'', 92 (1964), pp. 408ff. {{DEFAULTSORT:Servilius Nonianus, Marcus 59 deaths 1st-century historians 1st-century Romans Imperial Roman consuls Latin historians Nonianus, Marcus Year of birth unknown