Quintus Volusius Saturninus (born AD 25) was a

Roman Senator The Roman Senate ( la, Senātus Rōmānus) was a governing and advisory assembly in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, being established in the first days of the city of Rome (traditionally founded in ...

who lived in the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

during 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. ...

. He was

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 ...

in the year 56 with Publius Cornelius Scipio as his colleague.

Family background

The Volusii, according to

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historiography, Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his t ...

, were an ancient and distinguished Senatorial family who never rose above 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 vario ...

ship until Saturninus' grandfather, Lucius Volusius Saturninus, achieved that distinction. Saturninus' father, also named Lucius Volusius Saturninus, not only acceded to that office, but received a state funeral under 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), ...

Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 un ...

and Cornelia Lentula. Saturninus is known to have an elder brother, Lucius Volusius Saturninus, and a sister, Volusia Cornelia.

Political career

Surviving inscriptions indicate that a burial club of his slaves and freedmen operated a

columbarium A columbarium (; pl. columbaria) is a structure for the reverential and usually public storage of funerary urns, holding cremated remains of the deceased. The term can also mean the nesting boxes of pigeons. The term comes from the Latin "'' colu ...

on the

Appian Way The Appian Way (Latin and Italian language, Italian: ''Via Appia'') is one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient Roman Republic, republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, in southeast Italy. Its importance is ...

describes Saturninus as a man of ''aristocratic status''. The political career of Saturninus is only known from the point he achieved the consulate. In 61–63, he carried out a

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

Gaul Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...

, together with Titus Sextius Africanus and

Marcus Trebellius Maximus Marcus Trebellius Maximus was a Roman senator active during the reign of Nero. He was suffect consul for the '' nundinium'' of May to June 55 AD as the colleague of Seneca the Younger, replacing Publius Cornelius Dolabella. In 61 Trebellius ser ...

. Saturninus and Africanus were rivals; however, they both hated Maximus, who took advantage of their rivalry to get the better of them. Based on inscriptions, the Horrea Volusiana was either built by his paternal grandfather Lucius Volusius Saturninus, suffect consul of 12 BC, or Saturninus himself. An inscription attests that Saturninus was also a member of several Roman priesthoods. These were the ''

sodales Augustales The Sodales or Sacerdotes Augustales (''singular'' Sodalis or Sacerdos Augustalis), or simply Augustales,Tacitus, ''Annales'' 1.54 were an order ('' sodalitas'') of Roman priests originally instituted by Tiberius to attend to the maintenance of t ...

'', the '' sodales Titii'', and the enigmatic Arval Brethren. Another inscription attests to Saturninus' presence at their ceremonies in the year 63.

Family and issue

Saturninus married a woman called Torquata; her name is known to us from the tombstone of one of her slaves. Torquata bore Saturninus the following children: * Son, Lucius Volusius Saturninus, consul in 87 * Daughter, Volusia Torquata; she is thought to have married a Marcus Licinius whose name is inferred from their surmised granddaughter Licinia Cornelia M.f. Volusia Torquata. * Son,

Quintus Volusius Saturninus Quintus Volusius Saturninus (born AD 25) was a Roman Senator who lived in the Roman Empire during the Principate. He was consul in the year 56 with Publius Cornelius Scipio as his colleague. Family background The Volusii, according to Tacitus, ...

, consul in 92

References

Sources

- The Annals of Imperial Rome *G. Rickman, ''Roman Granaries and Store Buildings'', CUP Archive, 1971 * Susan Treggiari, "Family Life among the Staff of the Volusii", ''Transactions of the American Philological Association'', 105 (1974-1975) {{DEFAULTSORT:Volusius Saturninus, Quintus 1st-century Romans Imperial Roman consuls Senators of the Roman Empire Saturninus, Quintus 25 births Year of death unknown