Trebius Germanus

Lucius Trebius Germanus was a governor of Roman Britain in 127, and suffect consul with C. Calpurnius Flaccus, the proconsul of Cyprus in 123, at an uncertain date. He is known from a military diploma published in 1997 that bears the date 20 August 127.[1]

Anthony Birley provides further information on Trebius Germanus. He is mentioned in the Digest, which cites a legal decision Trebius Germanus made while governor of an unnamed province, not necessarily Roman Britain, condemning a slave boy to death for failing to call for help when his owner was murdered.[2] Birley also notes that Trebius Germanus is the member of a small group of three consuls appointed to the office in a ten-year period who share the same gentilicum -- C. Trebius Maximus (cos. suff. 121 or 122) and C. Trebius Sergianus (cos. 132) -- while adding Ronald Syme's observations about "'the obscure Trebii... are the first and last consuls of that name'; elsewhere he called them 'a unique and isolated group'".[3] Birley speculates on the place of origin for these three consulars, finding less prominent Trebii attested in Italy, Spain, Gaul, and Dalmatia, but preferring none of these.[4]

Birley offers a few more speculations about Trebius Germanus. He suggests that his tenure as governor followed immediately on his predecessor, Aulus Platorius Nepos, and lasted three years from 125 to 127; the military diploma would date from towards the end of his tenure. Birley also suggests that he may be the governor in whose name a broken and now lost inscription found at Bewcastle was made.[5] Prior to the discovery of this military diploma, Birley had speculated it might have contained the name of the other three governors then attested under Hadrian -- Nepos, Julius Severus, and Mummius Sisenna, or another consular, C. Nonnius Proculus, who held the consulship at some point between AD 50 and 150.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Johannes Nollé, "Militärdiplom für einen in Britannien entlassenen 'Daker'", Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 117 (1997), pp. 269-274
  2. ↑ Digest 29.5.14; Anthony R. Birley, "A New Governor of Britain (20 August 127): L. Trebius Germanus", Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 124 (1999), pp. 243-248
  3. ↑ Birley, "New Governor", pp. 243f
  4. ↑ Birley, "New Governor", pp. 243-246
  5. ↑ Birley, "New Governor", p. 247
  6. ↑ RIB 995; Birley, The Fasti of Roman Britain, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981), pp. 105f
Preceded by
Aulus Platorius Nepos		 Roman governors of Britain Succeeded by
Uncertain, then Sextus Julius Severus
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