Gaius Trebonius Proculus Mettius Modestus 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 of the 2nd century AD who held a number of offices in the imperial service, as well as serving as suffect consul in 103 as the colleague of Marcus Flavius Aper. Modestus was a member of the Mettii.

Hans-Georg Pflaum Hans-Georg Pflaum (3 June 1902, Berlin – 26 December 1979, Linz) was a German-born French historian. Life Pflaum, who came from a Jewish family of industrialists, at first studied law in Breslau and Heidelberg, afterwards taking a position in ...

first traced the rise of this family, identifying their origins in

Petelia Petilia or Petelia ( grc, Πετηλία) was a city name found in some ancient works of classical antiquity. It's widely accepted that in antiquity there were two cities with this name, both located in Southern Italy. One of them, Petilia, was ...

, a small

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

-speaking town in

Bruttium 01 or '01 may refer to: * The year 2001, or any year ending with 01 * The month of January * 1 (number) Music * 01'' (Richard Müller album), 2001 * ''01'' (Son of Dave album), 2000 * ''01'' (Urban Zakapa album), 2011 * ''O1'' (Hiroyuki Sawa ...

, whence they emigrated to

Arles Arles (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Arle ; Classical la, Arelate) is a coastal city and commune in the South of France, a subprefecture in the Bouches-du-Rhône department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in the former province of ...

when

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, ...

settled one of their ancestors, a soldier or centurion of his Legio VI, there. Modestus' immediate ancestors were his grandfather, Marcus Mettius Modestus, procurator of Syria, and his father

Marcus Mettius Rufus Marcus Mettius Rufus was a Roman '' eques'' who flourished during the reign of the emperors Domitian and Trajan. He was appointed to a series of imperial offices, including ''praefectus'' or governor of Roman Egypt. Hans-Georg Pflaum first traced ...

, governor of Roman Egypt from the year 89 to 92, which made them prominent members of the '' equites'' order. His entrance into the Senate was facilitated by his uncle Mettius Modestus, suffect consul in 82.Bernard Rémy,
Les carrières sénatoriales dans les provinces romaines d'Anatolie au Haut-Empire (31 av. J.-C. - 284 ap. J.-C.)
' (Istanbul: Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes-Georges Dumézil, 1989), p. 292 A brother Marcus Mettius Rufus is known, who died before he could reach the consulate. Modestus clearly has a polyonymous name, although the identity of Trebonius Proculus has not been investigated, either as the person who adopted Modestus, or as his maternal grandfather.

Marcus Junius Mettius Rufus Marcus Junius Mettius Rufus was a Roman senator, who was active during the reign of Hadrian. He was suffect consul in the '' nundinium'' of April to June 128 with Quintus Pomponius Maternus as his colleague. In the '' Fasti Ostienses'' he is called ...

, suffect consul in 128, has been identified as his biological son.

Career

He may be the same Mettius Modestus Pliny the Younger mentions in a letter to his friend Voconius Romanus. Bernard Remy dates his exile to the year 93, when

Domitian Domitian (; la, Domitianus; 24 October 51 – 18 September 96) was a Roman emperor who reigned from 81 to 96. The son of Vespasian and the younger brother of Titus, his two predecessors on the throne, he was the last member of the Fl ...

punished a number of Senators on the grounds of conspiracy. Apparently the notorious ''

delator Delator (plural: ''delatores'', feminine: ''delatrix'') is Latin for a denouncer, one who indicates to a court another as having committed a punishable deed. Secular Roman law In Roman history, it was properly one who gave notice (''deferre'') t ...

Marcus Aquilius Regulus Marcus Aquilius Regulus was a Roman senator, and notorious '' delator'' or informer who was active during the reigns of Nero and Domitian. Regulus is one of the best known examples of this occupation, in the words of Steven Rutledge, due to "the vi ...

had a role in his exile, for Pliny describes in his letter with obvious delight how Regulus was in fear of Mettius Modestus, now that emperor Nerva recalled him from exile. Two of the offices Modestus held are known. The first, as ''

legatus pro praetore A ''legatus'' (; anglicised as legate) was a high-ranking Roman military officer in the Roman Army, equivalent to a modern high-ranking general officer. Initially used to delegate power, the term became formalised under Augustus as the office ...

'' or governor of

Lycia et Pamphylia Lycia et Pamphylia was the name of a province of the Roman empire, located in southern Anatolia. It was created by the emperor Vespasian (69–79), who merged Lycia and Pamphylia into a single administrative unit. In 43 AD, the emperor Claudius ...

, was from 99 to 102, or before he became consul. The locals memorialized his tenure by erecting a monumental triple-arched gate in

Patara, Lycia Patara ( Lycian: 𐊓𐊗𐊗𐊀𐊕𐊀, ''Pttara''; el, Πάταρα) was an ancient and flourishing maritime and commercial city, capital of Lycia, on the south-west coast of Turkey near the modern small town of Gelemiş, in Antalya Provi ...

(in modern-day

Antalya Province Antalya Province ( tr, ) is located on the Mediterranean coast of south-west Turkey, between the Taurus Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea. Antalya Province is the centre of Turkey's tourism industry, attracting 30% of foreign tourists visi ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

) which still stands. His second office was as

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

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

in 119/120.Eck, "Jahres- und Provinzialfasten der senatorischen Statthalter von 69/70 bis 138/139", ''Chiron'', 13 (1983), p. 152

References

External links

* Kenneth W. Harl, "Patara", ''The Encyclopedia of Ancient History'' (Wiley Online Library) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Trebonius Proculus Mettius Modestus, Gaius 1st-century Romans 2nd-century Romans Mettii Roman governors of Asia Roman governors of Lycia et Pamphylia Suffect consuls of Imperial Rome Proculus Mettius Modestus, Gaius