SIGERUS AND SATUR: A PROSOPOGRAPHICAL NOTE ON DIO 67.15.1 AND SUET. DOM. 17.2

Abstract

In chapter 17.2 of Suetonius’ Domitianus, there appears a detailed list of the assassins who ended the emperor’s life on 18 September A.D. 96: Maximus, a freedman of the chief chamberlain Parthenius (libertus Partheni); Satur, a decurion of the chamberlains (decurio cubiculariorum); Clodianus, a cornicularius; and an unnamed gladiator (quidam e gladiatorio ludo). With regard to Suetonius’ second individual, some manuscripts of De vita Caesarum record the form Saturius, but the more reliable ones have the form Satur. In the nineteenth century, L. Friedlander identified the conspirator against Domitian called Sigerus mentioned by Dio (67.15.1) with the Satur[ius] of Suetonius. Though he explicitly identified one with the other, it is unclear whether Friedlander wanted to emend the text of Suetonius Dom. 17.2 to Sigerus, or whether he merely thought the two names referred to the same individual. H. Dessau in the first edition of PIR adopted Friedlander’s view that Satur and Sigerus were one and the same. S. Gsell seemed to believe that Friedlander had made a textual emendation of Suetonius. Dessau’s identification in PIR S 500 has been followed by many modern scholars in prosopographical studies, biographies and commentaries.