Lucius Nonius Asprenas (consul 36 BC)
Lucius Nonius Asprenas was a Roman politician and general who fought with Julius Caesar and was elected consul suffectus in 36 BC.
Biography
A novus homo of the late republic, and originally hailing from Picenum,[1] Asprenas was elected to the office of praetor by 47 BC.[2] Although having no obvious connections or political ties to Julius Caesar[3] he held a proconsular command under Caesar in Africa during the civil war, holding the town of Thapsus with two legions in 46 BC.[4] The following year he followed Caesar to Hispania, where he was given a command over the cavalry, possibly as a legate.[5]
During the early years of the Second Triumvirate Asprenas was largely overlooked for military command, but eventually he was given a role in Caesar Octavianus’s war against Sextus Pompeius.[6] He was rewarded for his services with his election as suffect consul in 36 BC.[7] In 31 BC, Asprenas was elected as one of the Septemviri epulones.[8]
He had at least one son, Lucius Nonius Asprenas, who was the father of Lucius Nonius Asprenas, the consul suffectus of AD 6. He also had a daughter, Nonia Polla, who married Lucius Volusius Saturninus.[9]
Notes
- Syme, pg. 92
- Broughton, pg. 286
- Syme, pgs. 63-64
- Broughton, pg. 297; Caesar, Bell. Afr., 80:4
- Broughton, pg. 312
- Syme, pg. 111
- Broughton, pg. 398; Syme, pg. 199
- Broughton, pg. 427
- Syme, Ronald, The Augustan Aristocracy (1986). Clarendon Press. p. 56.
Sources
- T. Robert S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, Vol II (1952).
- Syme, Ronald, The Roman Revolution (1939)