Marcus Peducaeus Plautius Quintillus

Marcus Peducaeus Plautius Quintillus (died 205) was a Roman noble closely related by birth, adoption, and marriage to the Nerva-Antonine emperors. Through his marriage to Fadilla, the daughter of Emperor Marcus Aurelius and Empress Faustina the Younger, he became the brother-in-law to the future emperor, Commodus.[1] Despite his position, he never became emperor himself. After Commodus was assassinated in 192, he fell out of favor with Septimus Severus during the Year of the Five Emperors. In 205, he killed himself after Septimus issued an order for his execution.

Early life

Plautius was the son of Ceionia Fabia, the daughter of Lucius Aelius, the first adoptive heir of Hadrian who had died before ascending to the throne; his birth father is believed to be Plautius Quintillus, consul in 159. At some point, he was adopted as the heir of Marcus Peducaeus Stloga Priscinus, consul in 141.[2] Through his adopted father, as well as his natural father and mother, he could claim descent from families of the highest nobility.

Antonine era

When Plautius married Annia Aurelia Fadilla, he became son-in-law to Marcus Aurelius and brother-in-law to Commodus. They had two children: a son, (Plautius) Quintillus, and a daughter, Plautia Servilla. In 177, Plautius served as ordinary consul as the colleague of Commodus, and then again with Commodus at an unknown date in his reign (180-192). Plautius was also an Augur. When Marcus Aurelius died in 180, Commodus succeeded him, and Plautius was one of his main advisers.

Year of the Five Emperors

After the assassination of Commodus, in December 192, the civil war that ensued saw five different men assume the throne; Plautius was not one of them. When Septimus Severus, the victor of the civil war, advanced on Rome, Didius Julianus proposed that the Senate and the Vestal Virgins meet Severus' advancing army as supplicants, a proposal Plautius intervened forcefully against.[3]

Plautius afterwards retired to his country villa. In 205, he was the target of a delator or informer, and Septimus ordered his execution. When he heard of the order, Plautius called for his funeral shroud. "What is this?" Plautius asked, observing how tattered it had become with age, "we are late!" Then preparing to take his own life, he burned incense before uttering his last words: "I make the same prayer that Servianus made for Hadrian" — that is, that Severus would one day wish to die, but would be unable to.[3] It is unknown whether Fadilla was still alive then.

Nerva–Antonine family tree

Q. Marcius Barea Soranus

Q. Marcius Barea Sura

Antonia Furnilla

M. Cocceius Nerva

Sergia Plautilla

P. Aelius Hadrianus

Titus
(r. 79–81)

Marcia Furnilla

Nerva
(r. 96–98)

Ulpia[lower-roman 1]

Aelius Hadrianus Marullinus

Flavia[lower-roman 2]

Marciana[lower-roman 3]

C. Salonius Matidius[lower-roman 4]

Trajan
(r. 98–117)

P. Acilius Attianus

P. Aelius Afer[lower-roman 5]

Paulina Major[lower-roman 6]

Lucius Mindius (2)

Libo Rupilius Frugi (3)

Salonia Matidia[lower-roman 7]

L. Vibius Sabinus (1)[lower-roman 8]

Paulina Minor[lower-roman 6]

L. Julius Ursus Servianus[lower-roman 9]

Matidia Minor[lower-roman 7]

Suetonius?[lower-roman 10]

Sabina[lower-roman 3]

Hadrian[lower-roman 5][lower-roman 11][lower-roman 6] (r. 117–138)

Antinous[lower-roman 12]

Julia Balbilla?[lower-roman 13]

C. Fuscus Salinator I

Julia Serviana Paulina

M. Annius Verus[lower-roman 14]

Rupilia Faustina[lower-roman 15][lower-roman 16]

Boionia Procilla

Cn. Arrius Antoninus

L. Ceionius Commodus

Appia Severa

C. Fuscus Salinator II

L. Caesennius Paetus

Arria Antonina

Arria Fadilla[lower-roman 17]

T. Aurelius Fulvus

L. Caesennius Antoninus

L. Commodus

unknown[lower-roman 18]

C. Avidius Nigrinus

M. Annius Verus[lower-roman 15]

Calvisia Domitia Lucilla[lower-roman 19]

Fundania[lower-roman 20]

M. Annius Libo[lower-roman 15]

Faustina[lower-roman 17]

Antoninus Pius
(r. 138–161)[lower-roman 17]

L. Aelius Caesar[lower-roman 18]

Avidia[lower-roman 18]

Cornificia[lower-roman 15]

Marcus Aurelius
(r. 161–180)[lower-roman 21]

Faustina Minor[lower-roman 21]

C. Avidius Cassius[lower-roman 22]

Aurelia Fadilla[lower-roman 17]

Lucius Verus
(r. 161–169)[lower-roman 18] (1)

Ceionia Fabia[lower-roman 18]

Plautius Quintillus[lower-roman 23]

Q. Servilius Pudens

Ceionia Plautia[lower-roman 18]

Cornificia Minor[lower-roman 24]

M. Petronius Sura

Commodus
(r. 177–192)[lower-roman 21]

Fadilla[lower-roman 24]

M. Annius Verus Caesar[lower-roman 21]

Ti. Claudius Pompeianus (2)

Lucilla[lower-roman 21]

M. Plautius Quintillus[lower-roman 18]

Junius Licinius Balbus

Servilia Ceionia

Petronius Antoninus

L. Aurelius Agaclytus (2)

Aurelia Sabina[lower-roman 24]

L. Antistius Burrus (1)

Plautius Quintillus

Plautia Servilla

C. Furius Sabinus Timesitheus

Antonia Gordiana

Junius Licinius Balbus?

Furia Sabina Tranquillina

Gordian III
(r. 238–244)

(1) = 1st spouse
(2) = 2nd spouse
(3) = 3rd spouse
  Reddish-purple indicates emperor of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty
  lighter purple indicates designated imperial heir of said dynasty who never reigned
  grey indicates unsuccessful imperial aspirants
  bluish-purple indicates emperors of other dynasties
dashed lines indicate adoption; dotted lines indicate love affairs/unmarried relationships
Small Caps = posthumously deified (Augusti, Augustae, or other)

Notes:

Except where otherwise noted, the notes below indicate that an individual's parentage is as shown in the above family tree.

Sister of Trajan's father: Giacosa (1977), p. 7.
Giacosa (1977), p. 8.
Levick (2014), p. 161.
Husband of Ulpia Marciana: Levick (2014), p. 161.
Giacosa (1977), p. 7.
DIR contributor (Herbert W. Benario, 2000), "Hadrian".
Giacosa (1977), p. 9.
Husband of Salonia Matidia: Levick (2014), p. 161.
Smith (1870), "Julius Servianus".
Suetonius a possible lover of Sabina: One interpretation of HA Hadrianus 11:3
Smith (1870), "Hadrian", pp. 319–322.
Lover of Hadrian: Lambert (1984), p. 99 and passim; deification: Lamber (1984), pp. 2–5, etc.
Julia Balbilla a possible lover of Sabina: A. R. Birley (1997), Hadrian, the Restless Emperor, p. 251, cited in Levick (2014), p. 30, who is sceptical of this suggestion.
Husband of Rupilia Faustina: Levick (2014), p. 163.
Levick (2014), p. 163.
It is uncertain whether Rupilia Faustina was Frugi's daughter by Salonia Matidia or another woman.
Levick (2014), p. 162.
Levick (2014), p. 164.
Wife of M. Annius Verus: Giacosa (1977), p. 10.
Wife of M. Annius Libo: Levick (2014), p. 163.
Giacosa (1977), p. 10.
The epitomator of Cassius Dio (72.22) gives the story that Faustina the Elder promised to marry Avidius Cassius. This is also echoed in HA "Marcus Aurelius" 24.
Husband of Ceionia Fabia: Levick (2014), p. 164.
Levick (2014), p. 117.

References:

DIR contributors (2000). "De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and Their Families". Retrieved 2015-04-14.
Giacosa, Giorgio (1977). Women of the Caesars: Their Lives and Portraits on Coins. Translated by R. Ross Holloway. Milan: Edizioni Arte e Moneta. ISBN 0-8390-0193-2.
Lambert, Royston (1984). Beloved and God: The Story of Hadrian and Antinous. New York: Viking. ISBN 0-670-15708-2.
Levick, Barbara (2014). Faustina I and II: Imperial Women of the Golden Age. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-537941-9.
Smith, William, ed. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

References

Anthony Richard Birley, Marcus Aurelius, revised edition (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1999), p. 182
Olli Salomies, Adoptive and Polyonymous Nomenclature in the Roman Empire (Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 1992), p. 101
Anthony Richard Birley, Septimius Severus: the African emperor, second edition (London: Routledge, 1999), p. 165

Sources

Albino Garzetti, From Tiberius to the Antonines: a history of the Roman Empire AD 14-192 (1974)
Alan K. Bowman, Peter Garnsey, Dominic Rathbone, The Cambridge ancient history, Volume 11, second edition (2000)
Livius article on Fadilla

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