page_title: Gaius Vettius Sabinianus Julius Hospes
section_title: Later career
hierarchical_section_title: Gaius Vettius Sabinianus Julius Hospes / Biography / Later career
caption_attribution_description: English: Own work.
context_page_description: Gaius Vettius Sabinianus Julius Hospes was a Roman military officer and senator. He was born into the equestrian order, possibly in North Africa. He held the traditional series of military, administrative and judicial positions of steadily increasing responsibility which aspiring upper class Romans were expected to progress through, known as the cursus honorum. He had a long and distinguished military and political career under the reigns of the emperors Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Commodus.
  He was appointed a special representative of the Emperor on several occasions. He was governor successively of four turbulent Roman frontier provinces. He acquired a reputation as a capable, if brutal, military commander and suppressed a number of internal and external threats. He was used by the emperors he served under as something of a trouble shooter. He was appointed consul in AD 175 or 176 by Emperor Marcus Aurelius as a reward for his loyalty and ability during a revolt by General Avidius Cassius. Hospes received numerous awards for personal gallantry.
context_section_description: At the beginning of the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, Sabinianus was the senior judge for the Italian regions of Aemilia; Etruria and Liguria. Around 165 Emperor Marcus Aurelius raised a new legion, Legio III Italica, to fight in the Marcomannic Wars and Sabinianus was appointed its first commander as a legatus legionis, senior legionary commander. This was followed by another special appointment, as Legatus Aug. Rationibus putandis trium Galliarum or legate in control of the urban finances of the three Gallic provinces, again reporting directly to the Emperor. This appointment may reflect a growing debt problem in the province, triggered by the demands of the Marcomannic Wars. His next appointment was legatus legionis of another legion, XIV Gemina, together with military and civil jurisdiction over Pannonia Superior, following a Roman defeat in the province in about 170 and the death of the governor. After a brief period in Rome as praefect of the aerarium Saturni (state treasury), he was again posted to the frontier, this time as legatus Augusti pro praetore, imperial governor, of Pannonia Superior, where he served from around 170 to 175. Here he fought in the First Marcomannic War, taking part in several battles against Germanic tribes. For his services Marcus Aurelius rewarded him with a large share of the booty from the campaign.
  During the usurpation of Avidius Cassius in AD 175, Vettius Sabinianus was sent by Marcus Aurelius to take charge of the vexillations (detachments) from Illyricum and defend Rome against a possible advance by Cassius. Positioning himself in Rome, Sabinianus also had to ensure that those within the city opposed to the continued war against the Germans, headed by the family of Lucius Verus, did not take advantage of Cassius' rebellion to undermine imperial authority. As a reward for his loyalty during the crisis, Vettius Sabinianus was appointed consul by the emperor around AD 176. Becoming a consul was the highest honour of the Roman state, and as such candidates were chosen carefully by the emperor. He was then appointed proconsular curator of Puteoli, followed by a tenure as curator aedium sacrarum, curator of the temples, a senior religious position. Next he was appointed legatus Augusti pro praetore (imperial legate) of Dalmatia in AD 177, with instructions to deal with the bandits which infested the areas around modern Albania and Montenegro, which the previous governor Didius Julianus had been unable to eradicate.
  From 179 to 182 Vettius Sabinianus held the post of imperial governor of Tres Daciae, during which he subdued some 12,000 Free Dacians on the border of the province and settled them inside the provincial border. He was probably the governor who fought in a victorious but brutal war against the Buri until 182, which saw the creation of a five mile wide security zone along the borders of the province. This was followed by his posting as imperial legate of the province of Pannonia Superior. The last position Sabinianus is recorded to have held, in around AD 191, was proconsular governor of Africa which, because of the reliance of the city of Rome on its grain, was considered the most important Roman governorship.
caption: Roman Empire at the time of Vettius Sabinianus
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