Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus
|Consul of the Roman Empire|
Servingwith Gnaeus Claudius Severus
|Preceded by||Servius Calpurnius Scipio Orfitus and Sextus Quintilius Maximus|
|Succeeded by||Lucius Aurelius Gallus and Quintus Volusius Flaccus Cornelianus|
|Military Governor of Pannonia Inferior|
|Suffect Consul of the Roman Empire|
Servingwith Tiberius Claudius Paullinus
|Preceded by||Junius Rusticus and Lucius Titius Plautius Aquilinus|
|Succeeded by||Marcus Insteius Bithynicus and ignotus|
Antioch, Syria, Roman Empire
|Died||193 (aged 68)|
Rome, Roman Empire
|Spouse(s)||Lucilla (m. 169; d. 182)|
|Children||Lucius Aurelius Commodus Pompeianus|
Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus(c. 125 – 193) was a politician and military commander during the 2nd century in the Roman Empire. A general under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Pompeianus distinguished himself during Rome's wars against the Parthians and the Marcomanni. He was a member of the imperial family due to his marriage to Lucilla, a daughter of Marcus Aurelius, and was a key figure during the emperor's reign. Pompeianus was offered the imperial throne three times, though he refused to claim the title for himself.
A native of Antioch in Syria, Pompeianus was from relatively humble origins. His father was a member of the equestrian order.As indicated by his name, his family first gained Roman citizenship during the reign of Emperor Claudius. Pompeianus was a novus homo ("new man") as he was the first member of his family to be appointed as a senator.
Much of Pompeianus' early life has been lost to history. He participated in the Roman–Parthian War of 161–166 under the command of Emperor Lucius Verus, likely as a legionary commander. Sometime prior to the Parthian campaign, he was elevated to the rank of senator. He served with distinction during the war, earning him appointment as suffect consul for the remainder of the year 162 AD.
Following the completion the Parthian campaign, Emperor Marcus Aurelius appointed him military governor of Pannonia Inferior on the empire's northern frontier along the Danube River.He likely served from 164 until 168. In late 166 or early 167, a force of 6,000 Lombards invaded Pannonia. Pompeianus defeated the invasion with relative ease, but it marked the beginning of a larger barbarian invasion.
Late in 167, the Marcomanni tribe invaded the empire by crossing in Pannonia. Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus planned a punitive expedition to drive the barbarians back across the Danube River, but due to the effects of the Antonine Plague, the expedition was postponed until early 168. Aided by Pompeianus, the two emperors were able to force the Marcomanni to retreat. Pompeianus' military skills earned him the confidence of Marcus Aurelius and he quickly became one of the Emperor's closest advisors.
As the emperors returned to their winter quarters in Aquileia, Lucius Verus fell ill and died in January 169. Marcus Aurelius arranged for his daughter Lucilla, Verus' widow, to marry Pompeianus.As son-in-law to the emperor, Pompeianus became a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. The emperor even offered to name Pompeianus Caesar and his heir, but Pompeianus declined the title. Instead, Pompeianus was promoted and served as the emperor's chief general during the Marcommanic War. Under his guidance, the exiled senator and fellow Parthian war veteran Pertinax was recalled and joined Pompeianus on his military staff.
Pompeianus' successes during the Marcommanic War further distinguished him, with the emperor awarding him a second consulship in 173.He took part in a number of military operations in the Danubian region and was still stationed in the region following the death of Marcus Aurelius.
Marcus Aurelius died in 180 AD, and his 18-year-old son Commodus, Pompeianus' brother-in-law, was proclaimed emperor. Pompeianus tried to persuade Commodus to remain on the Danubian frontier to complete the conquest of the Marcommani, but Commodus returned to Rome in the autumn of 180.
The relationship between the young emperor and the experienced officer quickly deteriorated. In 182, Lucilla, Pompeianus' wife and Commodus' sister, organized a failed assassination attempt against the emperor. Though Commodus executed Lucilla and other members of her family, Pompeianus had not participated in the conspiracy and was spared.Following the conspiracy, Pompeianus withdrew from public life, citing old age, and retired to his estates in Italy. He spent most of his time in the country away from Rome, claiming age and an ailment of the eyes as an excuse.
Commodus was assassinated in 192 AD by members of the Praetorian Guard. Pompeianus returned to Rome once the plot against Commodus succeeded, resuming his seat in the Senate.
Pertinax, who was the urban prefect at the time, offered the throne to Pompeianus, but he declined.The Praetorian Guard then proclaimed Pertinax the emperor, but they assassinated him after only 87 days for attempting to impose order upon the long-undisciplined unit. Senator Didius Julianus bribed the Praetorian Guard to proclaiming him emperor, but had difficulty garnering support within the ranks of his own troops. In a desperate attempt to save himself, Julianus asked Pompeianus to become co-emperor with him. Pompeianus again declined, on the grounds of his advanced years and eye problems. Julianus was executed on the orders of Septimius Severus after ruling for only 66 days.
Pompeianus appears to have died sometime in 193.
His children survived and prospered as members of an important family: they were the grandchildren of Marcus Aurelius. This prestige was dangerous, because the new dynasty of the Severans could have seen them as possible competition. Aurelius, son of Pompeianus, was consul in 209, but was later assassinated at the instigation of Caracalla.Later descendants of Pompeianus would become consuls in 231 and 241.
Russell Crowe's character Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 film Gladiator is loosely based on Pompeianus and others, including Narcissus.
Except where otherwise noted, the notes below indicate that an individual's parentage is as shown in the above family tree.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good Emperors, and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace and stability for the Roman Empire. He served as Roman consul in 140, 145, and 161.
The 160s decade ran from January 1, 160, to December 31, 169.
The 170s decade ran from January 1, 170, to December 31, 179.
Commodus was Roman emperor jointly with his father Marcus Aurelius from 176 until his father's death in 180, and solely until 192. His reign is commonly considered to mark the end of the golden period of peace in the history of the Roman Empire known as the Pax Romana.
Lucius Aurelius Verus was Roman emperor from 161 until his death in 169, alongside his adoptive brother Marcus Aurelius. He was a member of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty. Verus' succession together with Marcus Aurelius marked the first time that the Roman Empire was ruled by multiple emperors, an increasingly common occurrence in the later history of the Empire.
Pertinax was a Roman soldier and politician who ruled as Roman emperor for the first three months of 193. He succeeded Commodus to become the first emperor during the tumultuous Year of the Five Emperors.
Marcus Didius Julianus was Roman emperor for nine weeks from March to June 193, during the Year of the Five Emperors.
Annia Aurelia Galeria Lucilla or Lucilla was the second daughter and third child of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and Roman Empress Faustina the Younger. She was the wife of her father's co-ruler Lucius Verus and an elder sister to later Emperor Commodus. Commodus ordered Lucilla's execution after a failed assassination and coup attempt when she was about 33 years old.
Marcus Statius Priscus Licinius Italicus was a Roman senator and general active during the reigns of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. Contemporary sources refer to him as Marcus Statius Priscus or simply Statius Priscus. He was consul for the year 159 as the colleague of Plautius Quintillus; Priscus was one of only two homines novi to attain the ordinary consul in the reigns of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius.
The Marcomannic Wars were a series of wars lasting over a dozen years from about 166 until 180 AD. These wars pitted the Roman Empire against, principally, the Germanic Marcomanni and Quadi and the Sarmatian Iazyges; there were related conflicts with several other barbarian peoples along both sides of the whole length of the Roman Empire's northeastern European border, the river Danube. The struggle against the Germans and Sarmatians occupied the major part of the reign of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, and it was during his campaigns against them that he started writing his philosophical work Meditations.
Cornelius Repentinus was a Roman Senator who was active in the 2nd century AD. He held a number of positions during the reigns of emperors Marcus Aurelius, Commodus and Didius Julianus, which included suffect consul and Urban prefect of Rome.
Marcus Valerius Maximianus was an important Roman general of the period of the Marcomannic Wars during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. He was born in the Roman colony of Poetovio, where his father, also called Marcus Valerius Maximianus, was a local censor and priest. He was decorated for services in the Parthian war of Lucius Verus and was appointed by Marcus Aurelius to ensure the armies in Pannonia were supplied by boats on the Danube.
The Roman–Parthian War of 161–166 was fought between the Roman and Parthian Empires over Armenia and Upper Mesopotamia. It concluded in 166 after the Romans made successful campaigns into lower Mesopotamia and Media and sacked Ctesiphon, a Parthian capital.
The reign of Marcus Aurelius began with his accession on 8 March 161 following the death of his adoptive father, Antoninus Pius, and ended with his own death on 17 March 180. Marcus first ruled jointly with his adoptive brother, Lucius Verus. They shared the throne until Lucius' death in 169. Marcus was succeeded by his son Commodus, who had been made co-emperor in 177.
Marcus Ummidius Quadratus Annianus (138–182) was a Roman Senator and the nephew of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. He was involved in an unsuccessful plot to assassinate his cousin the Emperor Commodus, which led to his execution afterwards.
Ummidia Cornificia Faustina was a wealthy Roman noblewoman, an heiress and the niece of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
The gens Ceionia was a Roman family of imperial times. The first member of the gens to obtain the consulship was Lucius Ceionius Commodus in AD 78. The rise of this family culminated in the elevation of the emperor Lucius Verus, born Lucius Ceionius Commodus, in AD 161.
Gaius Arrius Antoninus was a Roman senator and jurist active in the last half of the second century AD, who held a number of offices in the emperor's service. The date when he was suffect consul is not attested, but has been estimated to be around AD 173. Edward Champlin includes him, along with Gaius Aufidius Victorinus and Tiberius Claudius Julianus, as "marked out as a special intimate of Fronto's." Champlin notes that while Victorinus received five of the surviving letters of the rhetor Fronto, "as the beloved pupil and son-in-law", Antoninus received four, taking "the place of Fronto's son."
Publius Tarrutenius Paternus was a Roman eques who flourished during the reign of emperor Marcus Aurelius. He achieved several military successes, during which he was appointed to praetorian prefect, and led to his adlection into the Roman Senate. Paternus was accused of treason by Aurelius' successor, his son Commodus, and executed.
Lucius Julius Vehilius Gratus Julianus was a soldier and an eques who held a number of military and civilian appointments during the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus. Julianus received honors two separate times for his military service.
|Preceded by|| Military Governor of Pannonia Inferior |
and Lucius Titius Plautius Aquilinus
as suffect consuls
| Consul of the Roman Empire |
with Tiberius Claudius Paullinus
Marcus Insteius Bithynicus,
as suffect consuls
Sextus Calpurnius Scipio Orfitus,
and Sextus Quintilius Maximus
as ordinary consuls
| Consul of the Roman Empire |
with Gnaeus Claudius Severus
Lucius Aurelius Gallus,
and Quintus Volusius Flaccus Cornelianus
as ordinary consuls