Ovinius Gallicanus (''floruit'' 293317) was a senator of 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 Mediter ...

, probably the first Christian

Roman 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 ...

. In 293 or 300 he was the ''

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

'' of

Teanum Sidicinum Teano ( Teanese: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Caserta, Campania, southern Italy, northwest of Caserta on the main line to Rome from Naples. It stands at the southeast foot of an extinct volcano, Rocca Monfina. Its St. Clement's ...

. On 4 August 316 he is attested as ''

praefectus urbi The ''praefectus urbanus'', also called ''praefectus urbi'' or urban prefect in English, was prefect of the city of Rome, and later also of Constantinople. The office originated under the Roman kings, continued during the Republic and Empire, an ...

'' of Rome, as successor to Gaius Vettius Cossinius Rufinus, and kept the office at least until 15 May 317, the year he was also consul, to be succeeded by Septimius Bassus. He might be identified with the Gallicanus who gave some lands to the church of Saints Peter, Paul, and John the Baptist in Ostia.

Bibliography

* "Ovinius Gallicanus 3", ''

Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire ''Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire'' (abbreviated as ''PLRE'') is a work of Roman prosopography published in a set of three volumes collectively describing many of the people attested to have lived in the Roman Empire from AD 260, the date ...

'', Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, 1992, , p. 383. * ''Abhandlungen der sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, philologisch-historische Klasse'', Akademie-Verlag, 1850, p. 39. *Champlin, Edward. "Saint Gallicanus (Consul 317)". ''Phoenix'' 36, 1 (1982): 71–76 . * Moncur, David, and Peter J. Heather (eds.), ''Politics, Philosophy, and Empire in the Fourth Century: Select Orations of Themistius'', Liverpool University Press, 2001, , p. 58. * Hedrick, Charles W., ''History and Silence: Purge and Rehabilitation of Memory in Late Antiquity'', University of Texas Press, 2000, , p. 55. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ovinius Gallicanus 3rd-century Romans 4th-century Romans Imperial Roman consuls Urban prefects of Rome Ovinii