Gaius Caristanius Fronto
1st century Roman soldier, senator and consul / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gaius Caristanius Fronto was a Roman soldier and equites whom Vespasian promoted to the Roman Senate for his loyalty to the latter in the Year of Four Emperors (AD 69).[1] He was appointed suffect consul in AD 90 as the colleague of Quintus Accaeus Rufus.[2]
In the words of G.L. Cheesman, Caristanius Fronto came of a family "of Italian origin, but had never risen into prominence there. One of its members was presumably enrolled in the army during the civil wars, and included among the veterans settled in the 'colonia' at Antioch", that is Antioch in Pisidia[3] Other inscriptions there attest to an ancestor with a similar name, Gaius Caristanius Fronto Casesianus Julius.[4] Casesianus Julius was the representative of Publius Sulpicius Quirinius, the titular duumvir of the colonia, and Cheesman surmises that Casesianus Julius participated in the war against the Homonadesians who had settled in the Taurus Mountains between Attaleia and Ikonion, a war that Quirinius brought to a successful conclusion. Cheesman dates Quirinius' role in this conflict to between 8 and 6 BC, which gives an approximate date for Caseianus Julius.[5]