Gaius Antistius Vetus (consul 6 BC)

{{short description|Roman senator}}

File:Augustus denarius 16 BC 2280302.jpg

Gaius Antistius Vetus was a Roman senator active during the early Roman Empire, and a consul in 6 BC as the colleague of Decimus Laelius Balbus.Alison E. Cooley, The Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy (Cambridge: University Press, 2012), p. 458

Biography

Antistius was the son of Gaius Antistius Vetus, consul in 30 BC.Ronald Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), p. 425 Between 26 and 24 BC, Antistius participated in the Cantabrian Wars, serving with the Emperor Augustus for most of the campaign as a legate. Together with his colleague Gaius Firmius, they fought a difficult campaign to subdue the Gallaeci tribes of the more remote forested and mountainous parts of Gallaecia bordering the Atlantic Ocean, defeating them only after a series of severe battles,Paulus Orosius, Historiae Adversus Paganos, 6: 21, 2. though the details of this particular campaign remain unknown.

Due to the Emperor's illness, Antistius commanded the five legions of Rome at the Siege of Aracillum in 25 BC. Antistius served with Augustus at Amaya, Bergida, and Monte Vindio, and after the successful campaign, went on to become the provincial governor (Proconsul) of Hispania Citerior.

Antistius began his political career as a triumvir monetalis in 16–15 BC.Syme, Augustan Aristocracy, p. 52 He returned to Rome to serve as consul, in 6 BC, and later he served as the Proconsul of Asia in either AD 2/3 or 3/4, assisted by his oldest son Gaius Antistius Vetus.K. M. T. Atkinson, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/4434578 "The Governors of the Province Asia in the Reign of Augustus"], Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, 7 (1958), p. 328

His sons, Gaius and Lucius, became Roman consuls in the years 23 and 26 respectively. Velleius Paterculus notes that he was still living in AD 30.Velleius Paterculus, II.43, 4

See also

References