Paullus Fabius Persicus

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Paullus Fabius Persicus (2/1 BCE - ?(reign of Claudius)) was the only son of Paullus Fabius Maximus and Marcia, a maternal cousin of Augustus and great-niece of Julius Caesar. As such, Persicus was a first-cousin-once-removed of Augustus and a great-great-nephew of Julius Caesar.

Birth and Name[edit]

Paullus Fabius Persicus is believed to have been born in 2 or 1BCE.[1] His cognomen - like the praenomen (Paullus) he shared with his father - was given to him to advertise his natural paternal descent from Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus, who had defeated the last Macedonian monarch, Perseus, in 146BCE.[1]

Life and career[edit]

The first appearance of Persicus is in June of the year 15, when he was co-opted into the Arval Brethren[2] aged c. 15 to replace his then recently deceased father.[1] At around that time, he was also made a member of the College of Pontiffs and of the Sodales Augustales. He subsequently held the posts of quaestor under Tiberius and praetor, though the details of these posts are unknown.[3] His next dated post is in 34, when he became ordinary consul with Lucius Vitellius, the father of the later Roman Emperor, Vitellius.

After his consulship, his next post was proconsul of Asia in the reign of Claudius (c. 44).[4] An edict written by Persicus from his time as proconsul of Asia is extant[5]

He seems to have died sometime in the reign of Claudius.[6]


According to Seneca the Younger, Persicus was a particularly vile person,[7] who owed his career more to his ancestry than to his own merit.[8]

Preceded by
Lucius Salvius Otho and Gaius Octavius Laenas
Consul of the Roman Empire together with Lucius Vitellius
Succeeded by
Quintus Marcius Barea Soranus and Titus Rustius Nummius Gallus


  1. ^ a b c Syme, R. Augustan Aristocracy (1989), p. 416
  2. ^ AE 1947, 52
  3. ^ Braund, D., Augustus to Nero: A Sourcebook on Roman History, 31BC-AD68 (1985), pp. 213-5
  4. ^ Stevenson, G., Power and Place: Temple and Identity in the Book of Revelation (2001), p. 75 [1]
  6. ^ Syme, R. Augustan Aristocracy (1989), p. 417
  7. ^ Seneca, De Beneficiis II.21.5
  8. ^ Seneca, De Beneficiis IV.30