Cornelius Repentinus 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 active in the 2nd century AD. He held a number of positions during the reigns of emperors Marcus Aurelius,

Commodus Commodus (; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was a Roman emperor who ruled from 177 to 192. He served jointly with his father Marcus Aurelius from 176 until the latter's death in 180, and thereafter he reigned alone until his assassination. ...

and Didius Julianus, which included

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 ...

and Urban prefect of Rome. Repentinus was the son of

Sextus Cornelius Repentinus Cornelius Repentinus was a Ancient Rome, Roman Roman senate, Senator who was active in the 2nd century AD. He held a number of positions during the reigns of emperors Marcus Aurelius, Commodus and Didius Julianus, which included suffect consul and ...

, was prefect of the Praetorian Guard during the reign of Roman emperors Antoninus Pius (reigned 138–161) and Marcus Aurelius (reigned 161–180).

Career

At some point before 193, when the emperor Commodus was assassinated, Repentinus acceded to the suffect consulate. Paul Leunissen suggests this was around the year 188. Leunissen is one of many scholars who suggest that a headless and fragmentary inscription recovered in El Kef in Tunisia provides details of Repentinus' cursus honorum. (This identification has been questioned in a recent article by Werner Eck.) Leunissen argues that this inscription not only confirms that Repentinus was consul and urban prefect, but that during the co-reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus Repentinus was curator of the

Via Flaminia The Via Flaminia or Flaminian Way was an ancient Roman road leading from Rome over the Apennine Mountains to ''Ariminum'' (Rimini) on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, and due to the ruggedness of the mountains was the major option the Romans had ...

(which would be between 177 and 180), then after an unknown appointment (possibly commander of a legion) he served as governor of the imperial province of

Lusitania Lusitania (; ) was an ancient Iberian Roman province located where modern Portugal (south of the Douro river) and a portion of western Spain (the present Extremadura and the province of Salamanca) lie. It was named after the Lusitani or Lusita ...

. Leunissen dates the tenure of this governor, regardless of his identity with Repentinus, possibly from 185 to 188. In the first months of 193, Repentinus married the daughter of Didius Julianus, Didia Clara. When the emperor Pertinax was murdered on 28 March, according to the ''

Historia Augusta The ''Historia Augusta'' (English: ''Augustan History'') is a late Roman collection of biographies, written in Latin, of the Roman emperors, their junior colleagues, designated heirs and usurpers from 117 to 284. Supposedly modeled on the sim ...

'', Julianus and Repentinus were outside the senate house where they had been summoned, finding the doors were locked. Two tribunes informed the pair that Titus Flavius Claudius Sulpicianus was at the camp of the Praetorian Guard seeking their support to become emperor; Repentinus was one of a group who encouraged Julianus to compete for the purple, and the tribunes led them to the camp where Julianus outbid Sulpicianus and became emperor. One of his first acts was to appoint Repentinus urban prefect. Despite the fact that Julianus was never secure on the throne, Repentinus remained a firm supporter of his father-in-law his entire reign; reportedly he and the

praetorian prefect The praetorian prefect ( la, praefectus praetorio, el, ) was a high office in the Roman Empire. Originating as the commander of the Praetorian Guard, the office gradually acquired extensive legal and administrative functions, with its holders be ...

Titus Flavius Genialis were the only two with Julianus at the end.''Historia Augusta'', "Didius Julianus"
8.6
/ref> The fate of Cornelius Repentinus and his wife after the death of his father-in-law are unknown.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Repentinus, Cornelius Romans from Africa 2nd-century Romans Roman governors of Lusitania Suffect consuls of Imperial Rome Urban prefects of Rome Repentinus, Sextus