Everything about Lusius Quietus totally explained
Lusius Quietus was a
Roman general and
governor of
Iudaea in
117.
Life
Originally a
Moorish prince, Lusius Quietus was the son of a tribal lord from unconquered
Morocco. Lusius' father and his warriors had supported the Roman legions in their attempt to subdue
Mauretania Tingitana (northern Morocco) during
Aedemon's revolt in
46. This useful ally, on a notoriously difficult frontier, was honoured with the gift of Roman citizenship. Lusius served as an auxiliary officer in the Roman cavalry, recruiting from free tribes of
Morocco. Emperor
Domitian rewarded him with equestrian rank but later dismissed him for insubordination. Since practically every officer of calibre had been mistreated by this paranoid ruler this commended rather than harmed Lusius in the eyes of his brother officers. In due course it was one of these, a legionary commander from
Hispania Baetica called
Trajan, who occupied the throne. Lusius served as Trajan's cavalry commander during the tough
Dacian campaigns (his barehead
Berber cavalry can be seen on
Trajan's column in
Rome). He was made a senator, a governor of
Iudaea Province and even appointed consul. The high profile of cavalry in the war against Parthia further strengthened his standing, while a brilliant rearguard action, which saved the whole army from destruction, made Lusius the darling of the legions. According to
Heinrich Graetz, only the quick action of
Hadrian, supported by
Trajan's widow, prevented Lucius being acclamed emperor on the death of
Trajan.
Hadrian had the infantry under Lusius' command quietly disarmed, but the North African cavalry proudly refused to surrender their arms and abandon their heroic commander. They had to be slaughtered to a man before
Hadrian was in position to order the execution of his rival. Lusius was clearly an exceptional general, and although it seems unlikely that he'd have made a better ruler than
Hadrian, the wisdom of the Roman meritocracy is abundantly clear.
During the
emperor's
Parthian campaign the numerous
Jewish inhabitants of
Babylonia revolted, and were relentlessly suppressed by Quietus, who was rewarded by being appointed governor of Iudaea, also shocked by revolts.
In consequence of this war, the Rabbis forbade the garlanding of brides on their wedding-day and the study of
Greek literature (the latter prohibition probably being intended to cause a rupture with the
Jews of the
diaspora in
Cyprus,
Cyrene, and
Egypt, with whom the rebellion had really originated). The confused
Talmudic accounts imply that a cruel persecution took place under Quietus which exposed Jewish
virgins to dishonor, while the "Hegemon" with whom
R. Gamaliel came into official relations was the governor of Judea himself. Talmudic tradition relates further that the Roman general who caused the Jews such misery at this time was suddenly executed. The sources, indeed, appear to indicate
Marcius Turbo as this general, but they more probably refer to Quietus, and the tradition contains a reminiscence of the fact that Lusius Quietus was recalled by
Hadrian and executed shortly afterward as a possible rival. An inscription found in Palestine seems originally to have contained the name Quietus, which was perhaps later erased at the command of Hadrian.
African Connection
Quietus has been cited in Pan-African, and
afrocentric literature as being a "black Roman". The basis for this is the fallacy that "all" Africans were black; however evidence suggests that Mauretania was in fact a
Berber, as opposed to a sub-Saharan African, kingdom. In turn the name Lusius shares some resemblence to the name Lusus, legendary founder of
Lusitania.
Bibliography
- Bartolomeo Borghesi, Œuvres, i. 500;
- Heinrich Graetz, Geschichte. 3d ed., iv. 116 et seq., 407 et seq.;
- Emil Schürer, Geschichte 3d ed., i. 617, 666-670;
- Prosopographia Imperii Romani, ii. 308, No. 325;
- Adolf von Schlatter, Die Tage Trajans und Hadrians, p. 90, (Gütersloh, 1897.)
- Michael Brett and Elisabeth Fentress. The Berbers p54-55. Blackwell, 1996. ISBN 978-0631207672
Further Information
Get more info on 'Lusius Quietus'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://lusius_quietus.totallyexplained.com">Lusius Quietus Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
