Gnaeus Octavius Titinius Capito

Roman Inscription showing the cursus Honorum of Gnaeus Octavius Titinius Capito[1]

Gnaeus Octavius Titinius Capito (- 1st century, - 2nd century) was a Roman eques, officer, and civil servant active during the first and second century AD.

Life

A member of the Titinia gens, he served successfully in the army, later becoming secretary ab epistulis under the Emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan.[2][3] He ended his career of civil servant becoming Praefectus vigilum.[2] He was a friend of Pliny the Younger,[3] with whom he kept up a correspondence.[2] We are left with a letter addressed by him to Pliny, where he advised his friend to devote himself to history, and with the answer of Pliny.[2][4] He also wrote about the deaths of famous men,[3] and was a supporter of literates.[2] Moreover, he honored republican heroes by keeping in his house statues of Cato Uticensis, Brutus, and Cassius[2][3] bearing elogia written by himself.[5]

References

  1. ^ CIL VI, 798 = ILS 1448
  2. ^ a b c d e f Farquhar (2012)
  3. ^ a b c d "Titìnio Capitóne, Gneo Ottavio". Enciclopedia Treccani (in Italian). Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  4. ^ Pliny the Younger, 5.8.
  5. ^ Pauly (1905), p.2450

Sources

  • Guy Edward Farquhar Chilver (2012). "Gnaeus Octavius Titinius Capito". The Oxford Classical Dictionary (4 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199545568.
  • "Elogium (1)". Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (in German). Vol. 5. Leipzig: Georg Wissowa. 1905. pp. 2440–2452.