Sextus Tedius Valerius Catullus 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 letter ...

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 ...

active 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

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 ...

from May through November AD 31 as the colleague of

Faustus Cornelius Sulla Lucullus Faustus Cornelius Sulla was a Roman senator who lived during the reign of the emperor Tiberius. He was suffect consul in AD 31 with Sextus Tedius Valerius Catullus as his colleague. Faustus was the son of Sulla Felix, a member of the Arval Brethren ...

. As consul he was usually known as Sextus Tedius or Sextus Tedius Valerius; his ''

gentilicium The (or simply ) was a hereditary name borne by the peoples of Roman Italy and later by the citizens of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. It was originally the name of one's (family or clan) by patrilineal descent. However, as Rome expande ...

'' is spelled Teidius in the ''Fasti Nolani'' () and the ''

Acta Arvalia The ''Acta Arvalia'' were the recorded protocols of the Arval Brothers ''(Arvales fratres)'', a priestly brotherhood ('' sodalitas'') of ancient Roman religion. The ''acta'' were inscribed in marble tablets fastened to the walls of the Temple o ...

''. According to the research of Olli Salomies, Tedius was born "Lucius Valerius Catullus" the son of the homonymous

moneyer A moneyer is a private individual who is officially permitted to mint money. Usually the rights to coin money are bestowed as a concession by a state or government. Moneyers have a long tradition, dating back at least to ancient Greece. They beca ...

, and

adopted Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

by testament by a senator named Sextus Te(i)dius -- a conclusion that "has, of course, been noted by many scholars." Olli Salomies, ''Adoptive and polyonymous nomenclature in the Roman Empire'', (Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 1992), p. 26 Salomies also states that his son was the Valerius Catullus mentioned as a

pontiff A pontiff (from Latin ''pontifex'') was, in Roman antiquity, a member of the most illustrious of the colleges of priests of the Roman religion, the College of Pontiffs."Pontifex". "Oxford English Dictionary", March 2007 The term "pontiff" was late ...

in an inscription found at

Lanuvium Lanuvium, modern Lanuvio, is an ancient city of Latium vetus, some southeast of Rome, a little southwest of the Via Appia. Situated on an isolated hill projecting south from the main mass of the Alban Hills, Lanuvium commanded an extensive view ...

, and who is "almost certainly identical" with the Valerius Catullus mentioned by

Suetonius Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; c. AD 69 – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is a set of biographies ...

as a homosexual partner of the emperor

Caligula Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August 12 – 24 January 41), better known by his nickname Caligula (), was the third Roman emperor, ruling from 37 until his assassination in 41. He was the son of the popular Roman general Germanicu ...

(''Suetonius'' 36.3).

See also

References

Further reading