Sextus Palpellius Hister 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 ...

and general who was active during the Principate. He was

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 ...

in the ''

nundinium Nundinium was a Latin word derived from the word '' nundinum'', which referred to the cycle of days observed by the Romans. During the Roman Empire, ''nundinium'' came to mean the duration of a single consulship among several in a calendar year. S ...

'' of March-July 43 with

Lucius Pedanius Secundus __NoToC__ Lucius Pedanius Secundus (d. AD 61) was a Roman senator of the first century. In AD 43, during the reign of Claudius, he was consul ''suffectus'' from the Kalends of March to the Kalends of July, together with Sextus Palpellius Hister. ...

as his colleague. An inscription from

Pietas Julia Pula (; also known as Pola, it, Pola , hu, Pòla, Venetian language, Venetian; ''Pola''; Istriot language, Istriot: ''Puola'', Slovene language, Slovene: ''Pulj'') is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, and the List of cities and town ...

Istria Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; ist, Eîstria; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian, Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; formerly in Latin and in Ancient Greek) is the larges ...

, erected by one Gaius Precius Felix Napolitanus, provides us many details of his '' cursus honorum'', although not in chronological order. Hister began his career as one of the '' decemviri stlitibus judicandis'', one of the four boards that form the '' vigintiviri''; membership in one of these four boards was a preliminary and required first step toward gaining entry into the Roman Senate. His next documented office was military tribune of Legio XIV Gemina, at the time stationed at

Moguntiacum Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Mainz ...

Germania Superior Germania Superior ("Upper Germania") was an imperial province of the Roman Empire. It comprised an area of today's western Switzerland, the French Jura and Alsace regions, and southwestern Germany. Important cities were Besançon ('' Vesontio' ...

. Of the traditional Republican ''cursus'', only the offices of plebeian tribune and praetor are recorded in this inscription, but one can assume that he had also been

quaestor A ( , , ; "investigator") was a public official in Ancient Rome. There were various types of quaestors, with the title used to describe greatly different offices at different times. In the Roman Republic, quaestors were elected officials who ...

. The inscription also attests he was a '' legatus'', which could mean either that he was a governor of an imperial province, or had been a commander of a Roman legion) and governor of a public province. While Hister was a praetor, he also achieved the honor of being a '' comites'' or companion of the emperor

Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusu ...

. One office Hister held not specifically named in the Istrian inscription was governor of the imperial province of

Pannonia Pannonia (, ) was a province of the Roman Empire bounded on the north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia. Pannonia was located in the territory that is now wes ...

; Tacitus is our source for this fact. While the translation of

Alfred John Church Alfred John Church (29 January 1829 – 27 April 1912) was an English classical scholar. Church was born in London and was educated at King's College, London, and Lincoln College, Oxford. He took holy orders and was an assistant-master at Merch ...

and

William Jackson Brodribb William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conques ...

call this governor "P. Atellius Hister", editions of Tacitus more recent than that used by Church and Brodribb call him "Palpellius Hister". Further, P. Atellius Hister is not otherwise attested. Tacitus attests that Palpellius Hister held this post in the year 50, when Vannius, king of the

Quadi The Quadi were a Germanic * * * people who lived approximately in the area of modern Moravia in the time of the Roman Empire. The only surviving contemporary reports about the Germanic tribe are those of the Romans, whose empire had its bord ...

, was driven from his throne and kingdom by Vibilius, king of the

Hermunduri The Hermunduri, Hermanduri, Hermunduli, Hermonduri, or Hermonduli were an ancient Germanic tribe, who occupied an inland area near the source of the Elbe river, around what is now Bohemia from the first to the third century, though they have also ...

, and two sons of Vannius' sister, Vangio and Sido. Although the emperor Claudius declined to intervene in this conflict, he gave orders to Hister to have his legions and some picked

Auxilia The (, lit. "auxiliaries") were introduced as non-citizen troops attached to the citizen legions by Augustus after his reorganisation of the Imperial Roman army from 30 BC. By the 2nd century, the Auxilia contained the same number of inf ...

ries encamped on the banks of the Danube "as a support to the conquered and a terror to the conqueror, who might otherwise, in the elation of success, disturb the peace of our empire."Tacitus, '' Annales'' XII.29

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palpellius Hister, Sextus 1st-century Romans Suffect consuls of Imperial Rome Roman governors of Pannonia