Titus Aius Sanctus 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 Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

'' eques'', who held several important imperial appointments then was later promoted to senatorial rank. Sanctus was

consul suffectus The consuls were the highest elected public officials of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC). Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum''an ascending sequence of public offices to which politicians aspire ...

around 185. Paul Leunissen suggests that Sanctus came from the Italian Peninsula, speculating Sanctus was from

Campania Campania is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy located in Southern Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian Peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islan ...

Fergus Millar Sir Fergus Graham Burtholme Millar, (; 5 July 1935 – 15 July 2019) was a British ancient historian and academic. He was Camden Professor of Ancient History at the University of Oxford between 1984 and 2002. He is among the most influentia ...

speculates that Sanctus was

Commodus Commodus (; ; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was Roman emperor from 177 to 192, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father Marcus Aurelius and then ruling alone from 180. Commodus's sole reign is commonly thought to mark the end o ...

' teacher of rhetoric, whom the ''

Historia Augusta The ''Historia Augusta'' (English: ''Augustan History'') is a late Roman collection of biographies, written in Latin, of the Roman emperors, their junior colleagues, Caesar (title), designated heirs and Roman usurper, usurpers from 117 to 284. S ...

'' calls ''Ateus'' or ''Attius Sanctus''. An inscription on a ''

cippus A () was a low, round, or rectangular pedestal set up by the Ancient Romans for purposes such as a milestone or a boundary post. They were also used for somewhat differing purposes by the Etruscans and Carthaginians. Roman cippi Roman cippi w ...

'' found at Rome provides the later portion of his ''

cursus honorum The , or more colloquially 'ladder of offices'; ) was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The comprised a mixture of ...

''. The first attested appointment Sanctus held was '' ab epistulis Graecis'' or secretary of his Greek language correspondence; according to Millar this post formed part of the immediate entourage of the emperor. This was followed by an appointment as ''procurator rationis privatae'', which was followed by promotion to '' a rationibus'', the top post in the imperial secretariat. Sanctus was then appointed ''

praefectus ''Praefectus'', often with a further qualification, was the formal title of many, fairly low to high-ranking, military or civil officials in the Roman Empire, whose authority was not embodied in their person (as it was with elected Magistrates) b ...

'' or governor of

Roman Egypt Roman Egypt was an imperial province of the Roman Empire from 30 BC to AD 642. The province encompassed most of modern-day Egypt except for the Sinai. It was bordered by the provinces of Crete and Cyrenaica to the west and Judaea, ...

; Giudo Bastiani dates his tenure from 179 to 180. At some point after he returned from Egypt, Sanctus was adlected ''inter praetores'' by the emperor Commodus into the Senate. He is next attested as '' praefectus aerari'', which was followed by his ascension to the consulate. Aius Sanctus was appointed to ''procurator alimentorum'', which Leunissen dates to around 185/186; it is unclear whether he held this appointment before or after his consulate, although most men Leunissen lists in this appointment held it afterwards.Leunissen, ''Konsuln und Konsulare'', p. 319

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