Publius Annius Asellus Explained

Publius (or Gaius) Annius Asellus was a senator of Ancient Rome who had not been included in the census—that is, avoided a correct reckoning of his true wealth—and died, leaving his only daughter to be his heir (or heres). We know of him almost entirely from a single anecdote of Cicero's in his In Verrem. Scholars do not agree on whether we ought to understand this to have been a deliberate obfuscation or a simple coincidence owing to the timing of the census.^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]}

The property, however, was seized by Verres, the praetor urbanus, on the grounds that such a bequest was in violation of the Lex Voconia, and regardless of the fact that it had not been reckoned in the census as being above the threshold to qualify as being in scope for that law.^{[7] [8]}

Notes and References

1. Book: Evans , John K. . War, Women and Children in Ancient Rome . Taylor & Francis. Routledge Revivals. 2014. 12. English. 9781317810285 .
2. Book: Nicolet , Claude . Claude Nicolet. The World of the Citizen in Republican Rome. University of California Press. 1980. 72. English. 9780520063426.
3. Book: Gruen , Erich S. . Erich S. Gruen. The Last Generation of the Roman Republic. University of California Press. 2023. 204. English. 9780520342033.
4. Book: Parkin , Tim G. . Old Age in the Roman World: A Cultural and Social History. Johns Hopkins University Press. 2003. 386–387. English. 9780801871283.
5. Book: Keith , Alison . Keith. Alison. Klein. Florence. Fabre-Serris. Jacqueline . Jacqueline Fabre-Serris. Identities, Ethnicities and Gender in Antiquity. Cicero's Verres, Verres's Women. De Gruyter. 2021. 77. English. 9783110719949.
6. Book: Hallett , Judith P. . Judith P. Hallett. Fathers and Daughters in Roman Society: Women and the Elite Family. Princeton University Press. 2014. 96. English. 9781400855322.
7. [Cicero]
8. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities s.v. Voconia Lex