Lucius Caninius Gallus (consul 2 BC)

Lucius Caninius Gallus (fl. late 1st century BC – early 1st century AD) was a Roman senator who was appointed suffect consul in 2 BC.

Biography

Caninius Gallus was a member of the Plebeian gens Caninia. Originally from Tusculum, he was either the son or grandson of Lucius Caninius Gallus, the consul of 37 BC.^[1]

Beginning his career in the cursus honorum in around 18 BC as a triumvir monetalis, his praetorian career is unknown, although it is speculated that he was an aedile at Tusculum at some point.^[1] In early 2 BC Caninius Gallus was appointed consul suffectus replacing Marcus Plautius Silvanus, and he had the emperor Augustus as his consular colleague for a period of time before Augustus relinquished the consulship in that year. This would indicate that Caninius Gallus was held in some esteem by the ruling regime.

Possibly around AD 8, Caninius Gallus was appointed the proconsular governor of Africa.^[2] Under the following emperor Tiberius, he was the president of the curatores alvei Tiberis et riparum et cloacarum urbis (or officials responsible for maintaining the banks of the Tiber River and the sewers of the city of Rome).

Caninius Gallus was a member of the College of Quindecimviri sacris faciundis.^[3] In 32 AD asked the senate to vote on a resolution about including a new collection of Sibylline oracles in the state’s official collection of Sibylline Books. Although the senate agreed, the emperor Tiberius rebuked Caninius Gallus for being rash and not following correct religious procedures, and the matter was referred to the full college of the Quindecimviri Sacris Faciundis.^[4]

Sources

• Syme, Ronald, "The Augustan Aristocracy" (1986). Clarendon Press. Retrieved 2012-09-21  – via Questia (subscription required)

References

1. Syme, p. 88
2. Syme, p. 370
3. Syme, p. 49
4. Tacitus, Annals, 6:12