Marcus Junius Silanus Torquatus (consul 19)

Marcus Junius M. f. M. n. Silanus Torquatus was a Roman senator. He was consul in AD 19, with Lucius Norbanus Balbus as his colleague.[1]

Biography

Silanus was a descendant of the noble Roman house of the Junii Silani. His grandfather was Marcus Junius Silanus, consul with the emperor Augustus in 25 BC. Torquatus married Aemilia Lepida, daughter of Julia the Younger, and great-granddaughter of Augustus.[2][3]

Consul for the whole year of AD 19, he and his colleague Norbanus brought forward the lex Junia Norbana, which prevented slaves manumitted by Praetors from receiving the franchise, and precluding their descendants from inheritance. Freedmen under this law came to be known as Latini Juniani.[4]

From AD 36 to about 39, Silanus was proconsul of Africa.[5]

Descendants

Silanus and Aemilia had five children, all of whom suffered as a result of their connection to the imperial family.[6]

  • Marcus Junius Silanus Torquatus (AD 14-54), consul in 46, put to death in order to ensure the succession of Nero, and to prevent him from avenging the death of his brother, Lucius.
  • Junia Calvina (d. after AD 79), married Lucius Vitellius, a brother of the future emperor Vitellius. Accused of incest with her youngest brother, she was exiled by Claudius, only to be recalled ten years later by the emperor Nero.
  • Decimus Junius Silanus Torquatus (d. AD 64), consul in 53, forced by Nero to commit suicide after being accused of boasting of his descent from Augustus.
  • Lucius Junius Silanus Torquatus (d. AD 49), praetor in 48, he was engaged to Octavia, daughter of Claudius. Agrippina spread a rumor that he had committed incest with his sister, as a result of which he was expelled from the Senate and deprived of his office. He committed suicide on the day that Claudius and Agrippina were married.
  • Junia Lepida, who married Gaius Cassius Longinus, and raised her nephew Lucius Junius Silanus Torquatus the younger (50-66), after his father Marcus was murdered.[7]
  • Junia Silana (d. AD 59), died in exile after a feud with Agrippina.[8]

See also
  • Junia (gens)

Notes
  1. Attilio Degrassi, I fasti consolari dell'Impero Romano dal 30 avanti Cristo al 613 dopo Cristo (Rome, 1952), p. 8
  2. Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd Ed. (1970).
  3. Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft.
  4. Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd Ed. (1970).
  5. Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd Ed. (1970).
  6. Ronald Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), pp. 188, 192
  7. Barrett, Anthony, Caligula: The Corruption of Power (Touchstone, 1989), p.viii-ix.
  8. Gemäß R. Hanslik, Iunius 27. I. Silana, in: Der Kleine Pauly, Bd. 2 (1967), Sp. 1561.
Political offices
Preceded by
Gaius Rubellius Blandus,
and Marcus Vipstanus Gallus
as Suffect consuls		 Consul of the Roman Empire
19
with Lucius Norbanus Balbus,
followed by Publius Petronius		 Succeeded by
Marcus Valerius Messala,
and Marcus Aurelius Cotta Maximus Messalinus
as Ordinary consuls
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