Titus_Pomponius_Bassus

Titus Pomponius Bassus

Titus Pomponius Bassus

Late 1st/ early 2nd century Roman senator, consul and governor

Titus Pomponius Bassus was a Roman senator who held a number of imperial appointments. He was suffect consul in the nundinium of September–December 94 as the colleague of Lucius Silius Decianus.[1]

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He enters history as the legatus or assistant of the proconsular governor of Asia Marcus Ulpius Traianus in 79/80.[2] Although being a proconsular legate was a posting which could result in a number of influential contacts, fifteen years passed until Bassus acceded to the consulate.

As attested by a military diploma, Bassus was governor of Judaea in 90; he probably took up office in 89.[3] Around the year 94, either after he stepped down from the consulate, or while holding that magistracy in absentia, Bassus began his term as governor of Cappadocia-Galatia; where most terms as governor are about three years, his was prolonged for six years, standing down in the year 100.[4] Upon returning to Rome, he was appointed curator of the alimenta, a program that provided public funds to raise children in need, in Central Italy,[5] and was elected by the council of Ferentinum to be patron of that city.[6]

His last mention in history is as an addressee of Pliny the Younger. Pliny wrote Bassus a letter congratulating his retirement from the Senate, looking forward to a life of leisure and self-education after a career holding "highly distinguished magistracies" and having "commanded armies".[7] This letter probably dates from the year 104 or 105.

It is likely that Lucius Pomponius Bassus, suffect consul in 118, is his son.[2]

References

  1. [1]
    Paul Gallivan, "The Fasti for A. D. 70-96", Classical Quarterly, 31 (1981), pp. 191, 218
  2. [2]
    Bernard Rémy, Les carrières sénatoriales dans les provinces romaines d'Anatolie au Haut-Empire (31 av. J.-C. - 284 ap. J.-C.) (Istanbul: Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes-Georges Dumézil, 1989), p. 197
  3. [3]
    Paul Holder: Roman Military Diplomas V (= Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies Supplement 88), Institute of Classical Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, London 2006, pp. 724–725, Nr. 332, note 4.
  4. [4]
    Werner Eck, "Jahres- und Provinzialfasten der senatorischen Statthalter von 69/70 bis 138/139", Chiron, 12 (1982), pp. 322-333
  5. [5]
    CIL XI, 1147
  6. [6]
    CIL VI, 1492
  7. [7]
    Pliny, Epistulae, IV.23
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