The gens Galeria 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 ...
family of
Imperial times. The family first rose to prominence under the
Julio-Claudian dynasty, but the most illustrious person of the name was the
emperor
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...
Galerius
Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus (; 258 – May 311) was Roman emperor from 305 to 311. During his reign he campaigned, aided by Diocletian, against the Sasanian Empire, sacking their capital Ctesiphon in 299. He also campaigned across th ...
, one of the heirs of
Diocletian, who reigned from AD 305 to 311, although he cannot have been a direct descendant of the earlier family.
Branches and cognomina
The only surnames associated with the early Galerii are ''Fundanus'' and ''Trachalus'', but it is not known whether they were personal cognomina, or whether they instead represented distinct families within the gens.
Members
*
Galeria Copiola, a dancer during the late Republic. She made her debut in 82 BC, and was retired by 55, but was still living in AD 9, at the age of 104.
*
Gaius Galerius,
prefect of Egypt
During the Roman Empire, the governor of Roman Egypt ''(praefectus Aegypti)'' was a prefect who administered the Egypt (Roman province), Roman province of Egypt with the delegated authority ''(imperium)'' of the Roman emperor, emperor.
Egypt was ...
from AD 16 to 31, during the reign of
Tiberius
Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father ...
; he was the brother-in-law of
Seneca the Elder.
*
Galeria Fundana
Galeria Fundana (c. 40 – aft. 69) was a Roman empress, the second wife of Roman emperor Vitellius.
Biography Early life
Suetonius tells us that Galeria was the daughter of an ex-praetor, and bore two children during her marriage, a son and a ...
, of a praetorian family, was the second wife of the emperor
Vitellius
Aulus Vitellius (; ; 24 September 1520 December 69) was Roman emperor for eight months, from 19 April to 20 December AD 69. Vitellius was proclaimed emperor following the quick succession of the previous emperors Galba and Otho, in a year of ci ...
, who died in AD 69.
*
Publius Galerius Trachalus, a respected orator, he was
consul
Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...
in AD 68, and subsequently advisor to the emperor
Otho
Marcus Otho (; born Marcus Salvius Otho; 28 April 32 – 16 April 69) was the seventh Roman emperor, ruling for three months from 15 January to 16 April 69. He was the second emperor of the Year of the Four Emperors.
A member of a noble Etr ...
. During the reign of Vitellius, he was protected by his relative, Galeria Fundana, the emperor's wife; he may have been
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 ...
of
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
under
Vespasian
Vespasian (; la, Vespasianus ; 17 November AD 9 – 23/24 June 79) was a Roman emperor who reigned from AD 69 to 79. The fourth and last emperor who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty that ruled the Empi ...
.
*
Galerius Valerius Maximianus, emperor from AD 305 to 311.
[''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' vol. II, pp. 981, 982 (" Maximianus II").]
*
Galerius Valerius Maximinus Daza, emperor from AD 310 to 313.
See also
*
List of Roman gentes
The gens (plural gentes) was a Roman family, of Italic or Etruscan origins, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same '' nomen'' and claimed descent from a common ancestor. It was an important social and legal structure in early ...
References
Bibliography
* Gaius Plinius Secundus (
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...
), ''
Historia Naturalis'' (Natural History).
*
Publius Cornelius Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars.
The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...
, ''Historiae''.
* Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (
Quintilian), ''Institutio Oratoria''.
*
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, ''
De Vita Caesarum'' (Lives of the Caesars, or The Twelve Caesars).
* Lucius
Cassius Dio
Lucius Cassius Dio (), also known as Dio Cassius ( ), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history on ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...
, ''Roman History''.
* Aelius Lampridius, Aelius Spartianus, Flavius Vopiscus, Julius Capitolinus, Trebellius Pollio, and Vulcatius Gallicanus, ''
Historia Augusta'' (Augustan History).
* ''
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1849, originally published 1844 under a slightly different title) is an encyclopedia/biographical dictionary. Edited by William Smith, the dictionary spans three volumes and 3,700 ...
'',
William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849).
* Alan K. Bowman, ''Egypt After the Pharaohs, 332 BC-AD 642: From Alexander to the Arab Conquest'', University of California Press (1986, 1996).
* ''The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization'', Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth, Esther Eidinow, eds., Oxford University Press (1998).
{{Refend
Roman gentes