Titus Flavius Boethus (died 168) 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 active during the reign of

Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good ...

. He is known as being an acquaintance of the physician

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus ( el, Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; September 129 – c. AD 216), often Anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Considered to be on ...

. Boethus 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 one of the '' nundinia'' falling in the later half of 161 with JuliusGeminus Capellianus as his colleague. Boethus had his family origins in Ptolemais in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. His name suggests he is descended from a man whom either the emperor Vespasian or a relative of his gave the Roman citizenship to, but there is no record of any Flavian being governor of Syria. Otherwise there is no known relationship, familial or otherwise, between Boethus and the emperor.

Life

At some point after Galen arrived in Rome in 162, he became the doctor for Boethus' wife and son, and thus became acquainted with the consul. Boethus encouraged Galen to offer public lectures on anatomy, which Galen offered over a three-year period. G.W. Bowersock notes that these lectures were "very much to the taste of the people of that time", and includes in Galen's audience such prominent Senators as Marcus Vettulenus Civica Barbarus consul in 157, Lucius Sergius Paullus consul II in 168, and Gnaeus Claudius Severus consul II in 173. Boethus was appointed governor of the imperial province of

Syria Palaestina Syria Palaestina (literally, "Palestinian Syria";Trevor Bryce, 2009, ''The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia''Roland de Vaux, 1978, ''The Early History of Israel'', Page 2: "After the revolt of Bar Cochba in 135 ...

for the usual term of three years starting around 166. Before he departed, he obtained medical advice to follow while in that eastern province. Despite his advice, Boethus died while governor in 168.Alföldy, ''Konsulat und Senatorenstand'', pp. 241, 195

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flavius Boethus, Titus 1st-century Romans Suffect consuls of Imperial Rome Roman governors of Syria Boethus, Titus 168 deaths Year of birth unknown