Gaius Memmius (born c. 70 BC) 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 appointed suffect consul in 34 BC.

Biography

Gaius Memmius was the son of Gaius Memmius. His mother was

Fausta Cornelia Fausta Cornelia (also called Cornelia Fausta) was a daughter of the Roman Dictator Sulla. Biography Early life Fausta and her twin brother Faustus were the children of their father's fourth wife Caecilia Metella. They had one older half-sister, ...

, thus making him a grandson of controversial

Lucius Cornelius Sulla Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (; 138–78 BC), commonly known as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He won the first large-scale civil war in Roman history and became the first man of the Republic to seize power through force. Sulla had t ...

, the former

dictator A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a small clique. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to rule the republic in times ...

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. A

Novus homo ''Novus homo'' or ''homo novus'' (Latin for 'new man'; ''novi homines'' or ''homines novi'') was the term in ancient Rome for a man who was the first in his Roman gens, family to serve in the Roman Senate or, more specifically, to be elected as R ...

, very little is known of his career, and it is unknown whether he was a supporter of

Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Principate ...

or of

Marcus Antonius Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from a constitutional republic into the autoc ...

. He was appointed ''

consul suffectus 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 34 BC, replacing

Lucius Scribonius Libo Several men of plebeian status were named Lucius Scribonius Libo during the Roman Republic and Roman Empire; they were members of the ''gens'' Scribonia. L. Scribonius Libo (praetor 204 BC) Lucius Scribonius Libo was a tribune of the plebs in 216 ...

. He was later appointed

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 ' ...

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

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, sometime after 30 BC. During his tenure as governor, Memmius set up monument honoring himself and three generations of his family, which still survives today.I. Ephesos II. 403. The inscription reads: which translates as:

Sources

* Broughton, T. Robert S., ''The Magistrates of the Roman Republic'', Vol II (1952) * Syme, Ronald
''The Augustan Aristocracy'' (1986)

Clarendon Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

* Mallios Yorgos, ''Ephesus (Antiquity), Monument of Memmius''
Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World, Asia Minor

Biography

Sources

References

Further reading