Lucius Pomponius Flaccus
was a crony of Tiberius,
whom ancient historians noted for indulging the emperor's vices
rather than for any important political or military
accomplishments. In 16 CE,
as the paranoid ruler was launching his reign of terror by
eliminating any suspected political threat, the praetor Drusus
Libo -- a nephew of Augustus' first wife
[Scribonia] -- was charged with sedition for invoking the
spirits of his great-grandfather Pompey & other
dead relatives.
When the distraught suspect committed suicide, Flaccus earned
appointment as consul of Rome for the following year by
proposing
that the date of this suicide be celebrated annually as a day of national
thanksgiving. In 18 CE
he served without distinction as imperial legate to the province
of Moesia in the Balkans, which was thereafter abandoned to the
Dacians. Fifteen years later, after the fall of the praetorian
captain Sejanus, the aging Tiberius entrusted Flaccus to be the
first imperial legate to take control of Syria in more than a
decade simply because he appeared to be a "most agreeable
friend" during a two day drinking bout. Having arrived at
Damascus, he briefly became patron to his old friend, Herod's
impoverished grandson Agrippa,
after Agrippa's own uncle, Antipas,
had dismissed him (35 CE).
Flaccus died within the year.
References:
Tacitus,
Annals
2.28-32;
6.27.
Suetonius, Twelve
Caesars: Tiberius
42.
Josephus, Antiquities
18.150-154.
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