Centurion to Senator?

[Lucius Galerius Falconius]

If a plebeian, became a legionary (100 BC to 180 AD I know, pretty broad), rose through the ranks, standard bearer, optio, centurion, primus pilus and maybe even praefectus castrorum, I know a high ranking official could grant this veteran equestrian rank, but could he gain senatorial rank and become a senator? Would he go straight to praetor or something or start at quaestor?

So is it possible for a primus pilus or praefectus castrorum, to retire, granted equestrian rank, run for office(which office), be elected, become a senator, and THEN become a tribune or legatus? Or is all this improbable?

[Robert Vermaat]

Hi Lucius Galerius Falconius,

Welcome to the forum. Please enter your real name into your signature (that's in your profile). It's a forum rule.

[Tarbicus]

Why not just work all the way up the ranks and become praefectus castrorum, and be senior or at least equal to a tribune? Better still, get to be one and assigned to Egypt, where they commanded legions to avoid any potential rebellious senators getting out of hand.

What is the latest thinking on the seniority of tribune versus praefectus castrorum? Any different to this:
Companion to the Roman Army on Google Books

[Carlton Bach]

Theoretically it is possible. After Augustus, he would need to have either friends in the Senate or imperial protection (you can't just stand for election during the Principate), or he would have to be adlected to the Senate without an election. Before, he'd need powerful allies or he'd never get close to being voted in.

As to it being probable, though, I think that is the bigger problem. The first and second century is not a good time for that kind of meteoric career. You're much better placed either in the first century BC (when warlords rewarded loyal followers with senatorial honours) or the third and fourth (when military and administrative careers from shop floor to management were much more usual and even some emperors started out as common footsloggers). I'm not sure we actually know of anyone who made a career like this, and it certainly was not common. Given the evidence from the era points to the central role of favouritism and connections in military careers, it is hard to see how relyiong on merit alone would get you anywhere much - especially in peacetime.

Your best bet is the Late Republic. The importance of warfare to politics becomes central, soldiers have a claim to protection and rewards from their leaders, and a trustworthy and competent man could well be worth rewarding with high commands and senatorial rank if his patron wins big (Marius, Sulla, Pompey and Caesar, maybe Crassus, Lucullus, Lepidus and their ilk would have had that kind of pull). At that time, though, there wasn't anything like a regular military career.

Out of interest - does anyone know of any Roman we reliably
know to have made this kind of career in the Principate? (I don't mean centurionate to Senate - there's enough evidence favourite sons made centurion quickly - but literally from common gregalis to senatorial aristocracy)

[D B Campbell]

Out of interest - does anyone know of any Roman we reliably know to have made this kind of career in the Principate? (I don't mean centurionate to Senate - there's enough evidence favourite sons made centurion quickly - but literally from common gregalis to senatorial aristocracy)

I must confess that I cannot think of a single example from the Principate of a centurion making the meteoric leap to Senate. In my experience, the centurion's career culminated (for a favoured few) in the equestrian procuratorships or the Prefecture of the Guard.

Can anyone name a centurion who became a Senator? :?

[Tarbicus]

Can anyone name a centurion who became a Senator? :?

Vorenus in HBO's Rome...... :wink:

[Graham Sumner]

Can anyone name a centurion who became a Senator?

Vorenus in HBO's Rome......

See Ross Cowan's article in Ancient Warfare 2. 'The Real Pullo and Vorenus'.

He names one Gaius Fuficius Fango a centurion who, like Vorenus in the series, became a local magistrate before being enrolled in the Senate by Caesar and who eventually became governor of Africa!

Graham.

[Dan Diffendale]

Gaius Fuficius Fango

enrolled in the Senate by Caesar

Must have felt sorry for the fellow with a name like that!

[Ross Cowan]

For Fuficius Fango and Decidius Saxa, another possible centurion made senator by Caesar, see R. Syme, The Roman Revolution (1939), 79.

For a third cent. AD centurion who rose to become praetorian prefect and then consul (AD 261), see the career of Petronius Taurus Volusianus (ILS 1332), but note that he was an equestrian when he became consul.

R

[Matthew Amt]

He names one Gaius Fuficius Fango a centurion who, like Vorenus in the series, became a local magistrate before being enrolled in the Senate by Caesar and who eventually became governor of Africa!

Is it possible that this man did not rise from a grunt, but was a direct appointment to the centurionate from the equestrian order? I don't know how early that practice might have started. It would help explain the rest of his career.

Valete,

Matthew

[D B Campbell]

Vorenus in HBO's Rome...... :wink:

lol

For a third cent. AD centurion who rose to become praetorian prefect and then consul (AD 261), see the career of Petronius Taurus Volusianus (ILS 1332), but note that he was an equestrian when he became consul.

Interesting example, Ross.
Of course, the empire of Valerian and Gallienus was a very different place from the Principate.

I guess, between you, you've proved Carlton's observation:

You're much better placed either in the first century BC (when warlords rewarded loyal followers with senatorial honours) or the third and fourth AD (when military and administrative careers from shop floor to management were much more usual and even some emperors started out as common footsloggers).

Th original question was (sensibly) limited to AD 180. I've still never heard of a Principate centurion clawing his way to senatorial status. (Not sure that he'd have wanted to, either.)

[M. CVRIVS ALEXANDER]

Dio 52.25.6-7 expresses the low view of rank and file soldiers who should not be allowed into the higher echelons of the society: [quote]“Indeed, some knights should be received into the senate, even if they have seen service only as company commanders in the citizen legions, except such as have served in the rank and file. For it is both a shame and a reproach that men of this sort, who have carried faggots and charcoal, should be found on the roll of the senate; but in the case of knights who began their service with the rank of centurion, there is nothing to prevent the most notable of them from belonging to the senate.â€

[Sardaukar]

I seem to recall that there was possibility of winner of major military awards (civic crown for example) to be elevated to senate according to Sulla's laws.
There is even good chance that Caesar himself was elevated to senate under those laws after winning civic crown in Mitylene even when underage for magistrate (according to some theories about when Caesar entered senate)...since that part of Sulla's laws was not changed later, I think.

[Lucius Galerius Falconius]

Awesome answers guys!