Gaius Cornelius Rarus Sextius Naso Explained

Gaius Cornelius Rarus Sextius Naso was a Roman senator active during the last half of the first century AD. He was suffect consul for the nundinium September to December 93 with [...]lis as his colleague;[1] the colleague may be Marcus Tuccius Cerialis, a suffect consul in an otherwise unknown year to whom Pliny the Younger wrote a letter full of tips on delivering a speech.[2]

The existence of Cornelius Rarus is known only through a single inscription of the second century that apparently adorned the Arch of Trajan in Leptis Magna, which is badly damaged.[3] He was proconsular governor of Africa in 108/109,[4] when construction of the Arch began; it was completed during the tenure of his successor, Quintus Pomponius Rufus.[5]

Cornelius Rarus was also a member of the prestigious collegium of quindecimviri sacris faciundis.[3]

Notes and References

  1. [Werner Eck]
  2. Pliny, Epistulae, II.19
  3. http://inslib.kcl.ac.uk/irt2009/IRT523.html IRT 523
  4. Eck, "Jahres- und Provinzialfasten der senatorischen Statthalter von 69/70 bis 138/139", Chiron, 12 (1982), pp. 346f
  5. Kenneth D. Matthews, Jr. Cities in the Sand Leptis Magna and Sabratha in Roman Africa (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1957)