It would appear Trio played a large part in the huge project of building the Temple of the Deified Augustus in Emerita. He was the governor (legatus Augusti) of the province Lusitania for 10 years, from around 21 to 31 AD. During his time there a Lucius Cornelius Bacchus served as his praefectus fabrum (lit. "prefect of engineers"), but was effectively his chief administrative assistant.[1]
The new text from Emerita, as restored by Stylow and Ventura, shows he had served as Fulcinius Trio's mainassistant for 5 of the latter's 10 years as the governor of Lusitania. Since Trio is recorded as consul in line 2, he had clearly left Emerita and returned to Rome by the time Bocchus was honored. Furthermore, according to Stylow and Ventura's proposed restorations, he was not only chief priest of the province (flamen provinciae Lusitaniae: a point already known from his honorific statue at Olisipo) but perhaps also [curator templi Divi] Augusti, superintendent of the Temple of the Deified Augustus, responsible for the oversight of one of the main temples in Emerita itself: either the granite temple in the original forum of the colony or the marble temple in the new forum, constructed under his supervision when he was Fulcinius Trio's assistant. However, serious doubts have now been raised about the plausibility of the restoration [curator templi Divi] Augusti (Fishwick 2011; Saquete Chamizo 2011), and it would be unwise to place too much faith in it.[2]
Cornelius Bocchus's position of flamen provincae lusitaniae was achieved during the suffect consulship of his protector, L. Fulcinius Trio, around 31 or 32, before his fall from grace.
"Bocchus was appointed praefectus fabrum five times, a position he had to exercise in the service of the magistrate cum imperio L. Fulcinius Trio, praetor of Lusitania between the years 21 and 31, when he left for Rome as consul suffectus, although in 35 he committed suicide for being involved in Sejanus' machinations,[3] a circumstance that could advise Bocchus to withdraw from public life and dedicate himself to studies from that date on. L. Fulcinius Trio had to promote the imperial cult and build the Temple of Divus Augustus in the splendid forum of Augusta Emerita, a work that Bocchus would be in charge of as curator templi Divi Augusti,[4] who perhaps, enters his mining businesses, could have controlled the Estremos marble quarries. Bocchus would collaborate with Trio in civil engineering, administrative and perhaps military logistics and his performance in the position of praefectus fabrum up to five times, an unusual occurrence, indicates that he enjoyed the praetor's trust and that he was an efficient man with the ability to management, made in accordance with what is deduced from his Turdetan or Punic family origin, which would guide him to business and explain his influence and power in the southern and Atlantic regions of Lusitania, perhaps coming from deeply rooted economic interests and faily clients in those regions of Turdetan population, judging by their names and anthroponyms."
"The Emeritan inscription indicates that the holder of the curator templi Divi Augusti corresponds to the year 30-31, therefore, that of praefectus fabrum must have been held during the early years of the government of L. Fulcinius Trio in Lusitania, between 21 and 31 AD, without excluding that some of them exercised it in their stage as tribunus militum, position performed previously, towards the end of the second decade of the first century AD. It also seems logical that the municipal career of Bocchus was carried out before the position of praefectus fabrum at the service of Fulcinius Trio, which suggests that it must have been developed in the first half of the 1920s. As before, Bocchus was three years tribunus militum, whose usual age was 25 years old, must have been born in the decade before the change of Era, in the reign of Augustus."
Almagro-Gorbea 2011, p. 38
References
edit- ^ Pohl & Lyons 2016, p. 82: AE 2010, 662=HEp 19, 19=Stylow and Ventura Villanueva 2010:468-489, no. 11, figures 37-38 [photos]: [L(ucio) Cornelio L(uci) f(ilio) Bo]ccho / [pr(aefecto) fabr(um) V L(uci) Fulcini Tr]ionis ⋅ co(n)s(uli) / [curatori templi Divi?] Augusti / [flamini provinc(iae)] Lusitan(iae) / [universi provinc(iae)? co]nventus).
- ^ Pohl & Lyons 2016, pp. 82–83
- ^ Tac. Ann. 6,4; 6,38; Dio. Cas. 58,25
- ^ Almagro-Gorbea 2011, p. 38: Stylow and Ventura (2009, pp. 486-489), have reconstructed the inscription: [L. Cornelius L. f. Bocchus / pr. fabr. V L. Fulcinii Tr]ionisiscos / [curatori templi Divi?] Augusti / [flamini provinc] Lusitan / [Universi Provinc? Co]ventus.
Sources
edit- Almagro-Gorbea, Martín (2011), Lucius Cornelius Bocchus escritor lusitano da Idade de Prata da Literatura Latina (in Spanish), ISBN 9788415069362
- Pohl, John M. D.; Lyons, Claire L., eds. (2016), Altera Roman Art and Empire from Merida to Mexico, ISBN 9781938770357