Patrobius
Patrobius (d. 69) was a prominent freedman in the time of ancient Roman Emperor Nero. He and Helius exercised great and pernicious power and influence under Nero. In 66 AD he put on a luxurious show at Puteoli to honor the Armenian king Tiridates. After Galba came to power, Patrobius was executed along with several other of Nero's favorites (Helius, Polyclitus, and Petinus). They were marched in chains around the city before they were publicly executed. According to Plutarch, after Galba's assassination in 69 AD the emperor's severed head was given to Patrobius' former servants, who heaped insults on it and cast it into the "Sestertion" (probably the Sessorium), "where those under condemnation of the emperors were put to death."
Patrobius (d. 69) was a prominent freedman in the time of ancient Roman Emperor Nero. He and Helius exercised great and pernicious power and influence under Nero. In 66 AD he put on a luxurious show at Puteoli to honor the Armenian king Tiridates.[1] After Galba came to power, Patrobius was executed along with several other of Nero's favorites[2] (Helius, Polyclitus, and Petinus).[3] They were marched in chains around the city before they were publicly executed.
According to Plutarch, after Galba's assassination in 69 AD the emperor's severed head was given to Patrobius' former servants, who heaped insults on it and cast it into the "Sestertion" (probably the Sessorium[4]), "where those under condemnation of the emperors were put to death."[5]
References
[edit]- ^ Plutarch, Ian Scott-Kilvert, and C. B. R. Pelling. Rome in Crisis: Nine Lives: Tiberius Gracchus, Gaius Gracchus, Sertorius, Lucullus, Younger Cato, Brutus, Antony, Galba, Otho. London: Penguin, 2010. Print.
- ^ Gregory, A. P. "A Study in Survival: The Case of the Freedman L. Domitius Phaon." Athenaeum 83 (1995): 401. ProQuest. Web. 24 November 2015.
- ^ Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Life of Galba" 17 (ed. Clough 1859; ed. Loeb).
- ^ Plutarch's Lives of Galba and Otho. Translated by E. G. Hardy. London: Macmillan & Co. 1890. p. 49.
Σεσσώριον, rest. Becker [sic]; Σηστέρτιον, Bod. H. i.a. vulg.
See also pages 202–203: "although the word Sessorium does not occur in any other author so early as Plutarch, there can be no reasonable doubt that Bekker is right in reading it here..." - ^ Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Life of Galba" 28 (ed. Clough 1859; ed. Loeb).