Gaius Oppius Sabinus Julius Nepos Manius Vibius Sollemnis Severus
senator of the Roman Empire in the first century
Gaius Oppius Sabinus Julius Nepos Manius Vibius Sollemnis Severus was a Roman senator, who was active during the reign of Hadrian. He was suffect consul in an undetermined nundinium between AD 130 and 138. He is known entirely from a dedication on a statue base from Auximum (near Ancona), erected to honor him as the city's patron.
Although the inscription provides a straightforward cursus honorum, the career of Oppius Sabinus remains enigmatic. He was adlected into the Senate by the emperor Hadrian inter tribunicos, or as having held the magistracy of plebeian tribune, which was followed by his tenure as peregrine praetor, elected as the candidate of the same emperor; these two offices, demonstrating the favor of that emperor, obviously are dated before Hadrian's death in the year 138. After completing his term as praetor, Oppius Sabinus was selected as the legatus proconsulis or assistant to the governor of Hispania Baetica, a post commonly held for one year. He returned to Rome, where he was appointed curator of a number of roads: the viae Clodia, Annia, Cassia, Cimina, tria Trajanarum, and Amerina. These comprised the network covering Italy, and his supervision of them occupied his time for two years. Then he accepted a commission as legatus legionis or commander of the Legio XI Claudia, then stationed at Durostorum (Silistra) on the Danube, which kept him from Rome for three years. Oppius Sabinus received another appointment, this time as governor of the imperial province of Lusitania, which was commonly held also for three years.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Gaius Oppius Sabinus Julius Nepos Manius Vibius Sollemnis Severus” is senator of the Roman Empire in the first century. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Gaius, Oppius and Sabinus, not as a finished interpretation.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gaius Oppius Sabinus Julius Nepos Manius Vibius Sollemnis Severus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.