Publius Memmius Regulus

Publius Memmius Regulus (died AD 63) was a Roman senator during the first century, and served as consul suffectus with Lucius Fulcinius Trio in AD 31, during the reign of the emperor Tiberius.[1][2]

Family background and early life

Regulus was a member of the plebeian Memmia gens. His father was also named Publius. He was a novus homo from the town of Rosceliona in the province of Gallia Narbonensis.

Political career

Tacitus describes Regulus as "a man of dignity, who was a person of influence and good name." He entered his consulship on the Kalends of October, AD 31. His magistracy saw the downfall of Sejanus, whom Regulus personally conducted to prison.[3][4]

After his consulship, Regulus served as praefect of Macedonia and Achaea. During his time in Achaea, Regulus and his son were honored with various statues. After the death of Tiberius, the emperor Caligula ordered Regulus to remove the statue of Jupiter by Phidias at Olympia, and bring it to Rome.

Regulus' wife was Lollia Paulina, a woman of great beauty and considerable wealth. Their son, Gaius Memmius Regulus, was consul in AD 63. Shortly after his accession, Caligula compelled Regulus to divorce Paulina, who in AD 38 became the emperor's third wife. But after six months, the emperor divorced and exiled Paulina.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11]

Regulus was a member of the Sodales Augustales, the Epulones, and the Arval Brethren, all important priesthoods. The emperors respected him for his loyalty. He later withdrew from public life, and died in AD 63, the year of his son's consulship.

References

  1. ↑ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
  2. ↑ Suetonius, De Vita Caesarum, Caligula, 25.
  3. ↑ Fasti Capitolini
  4. ↑ Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus, Roman History, lviii. 9.
  5. ↑ Memmius Regulus by D.C. O’Driscoll
  6. ↑ Flavius Josephus, Antiquitates Judaicae, xix. 1.
  7. ↑ Pausanias, Description of Greece, ix. 27.
  8. ↑ Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Annales, xii. 23.
  9. ↑ Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum, Caligula, 25.
  10. ↑ Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus, Roman History, lix. 12.
  11. ↑ Eusebius, Chronicon.

Sources

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