Lucius Dasumius Tullius Tuscus

Lucius Dasumius Tullius Tuscus was a Roman senator who was an amici or trusted advisor of the emperors Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He was suffect consul in the nundinium of April to June 152 as the colleague of Publius Sufenas.[1]

He is also known as Lucius Dasumius Tuscus and Lucius Tullius Tuscus.[2]

Family

Olli Salomies has argued, based on the commonalities in the names, membership in the same tribe, Stellatina, and that inscriptions honoring both were dedicated by the same man, P. Tullius Callistio, that Publius Tullius Varro, consul in 127, was Tuscus' birth father. The "Lucius Dasumius" in his name refers to his adoptive father, whom Salomies believes was "certainly related" to Publius Dasumius Rusticus, eponymous consul of 119.[3] The origins of he and his father are considered to be the Etruscan town of Tarquinia, which was assigned to the Stellatina tribe.[4]

Tuscus is considered to be the father of Marcus Dasumius Tullius Varro;[5] the name of his wife, and any other possible children, are unrecorded.

Career

The career of Tuscus is known through an inscription found in Tarquinia.[6] As a teenager, he was a member of the tresviri monetalis, considered by modern scholars the most favored of the magistracies that comprised the vigintiviri. It was usually held either by Patricians or young men favored by the Emperor. Plebeians who held this office usually went on to enjoy successful careers.[7] Evidence of this favor appears shortly afterwards: after serving a term as military tribune in Legio IV Flavia Felix based at Singidunum, Tuscus served as quaestor to the emperor Antoninus Pius, then was legatus or assistant to the proconsul of Africa. These latter two assignments provided him with potential for visibility and introductions to influential people.

After holding the Republican magistracies of plebeian tribune and praetor, Tuscus was prefect of the aerarium Saturni (c. 147-c. 150).[8] While suffect consul he was governor of Germania Superior (c. 152-c. 158)[9] and his term as curator operum publicorum possibly was also simultaneous.[10] His last known office was governor of Pannonia Superior during the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, as the successor of Marcus Nonius Macrinus and predecessor of Marcus Iallius Bassus.[11]

The inscription from Tarquinia also attests that he was a member of the sodales Hadrianales and sodali Antoniniani (the latter most likely after the emperor's death), as well as holding the prestigious sacral office of augur.

References
  1. Werner Eck, "Die Fasti consulares der Regungszeit des Antoninus Pius, eine Bestandsaufnahme seit Géza Alföldys Konsulat und Senatorenstand" in Studia epigraphica in memoriam Géza Alföldy, hg. W. Eck, B. Feher, and P. Kovács (Bonn, 2013), p. 76
  2. Olli Salomies, Adoptive and polyonymous nomenclature in the Roman Empire, (Helsinski: Societas Scientiarum Fenica, 1992), p. 98
  3. Salomies, Adoptive and polyonymous nomenclature, pp. 98f
  4. Géza Alföldy, Konsulat und Senatorenstand unter den Antoninen (Bonn: Habelt Verlag, 1977), p. 307
  5. CIL XI, 1400
  6. CIL XI, 3365 = ILS 1081
  7. Anthony Birley, The Fasti of Roman Britain, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981), p. 5
  8. Alföldy, Konsulat und Senatorenstand, p. 292
  9. Alföldy, Konsulat und Senatorenstand, p. 228
  10. Alföldy dates it to 154. (Konsulat und Senatorenstand, p. 290)
  11. Alföldy suggests the dates of c. 162-c. 166 (Konsulat und Senatorenstand, p. 237)
Political offices
Preceded by
Manius Acilius Glabrio Gnaeus Cornelius Severus,
and Marcus Valerius Homullus
as ordinary consuls		 Suffect consul of the Roman Empire
152
with Publius Sufenas		 Succeeded by
Gaius Novius Priscus, and
Lucius Julius Romulus
as suffect consuls
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