Quintus Volusius Saturninus

For his son, see Quintus Volusius Saturninus (consul 92).

Quintus Volusius Saturninus (born AD 25^[1]) was a Roman Senator who lived in the Roman Empire during the Principate. He was consul in the year 56 with Publius Cornelius Scipio as his colleague.^[2]

Family background

The Volusii, according to Tacitus, were an ancient and distinguished Senatorial family who never rose above the praetorship until Saturninus' grandfather, Lucius Volusius Saturninus, achieved that distinction.^[3] Saturninus' father, also named Lucius Volusius Saturninus, not only acceded to that office, but received a state funeral under the Emperor Nero and Cornelia Lentula.^[4] Saturninus is known to have an elder brother, Lucius Volusius Saturninus, and a sister, Volusia Cornelia.^[5]

He inherited the great Villa dei Volusii near Lucus Feroniae which had been in the family since the 1st c. BC and was probably acquired by the emperor after his death.^[6]

Political career

Surviving inscriptions indicate that a burial club of his slaves and freedmen operated a columbarium on the Appian Way.^[7] Tacitus describes Saturninus as a man of aristocratic status.

The political career of Saturninus is only known from the point he achieved the consulate. In 61–63, he carried out a census in Gaul, together with Titus Sextius Africanus and Marcus Trebellius Maximus. Saturninus and Africanus were rivals; however, they both hated Maximus, who took advantage of their rivalry to get the better of them.^[8] Based on inscriptions, the Horrea Volusiana was either built by his paternal grandfather Lucius Volusius Saturninus, suffect consul of 12 BC, or Saturninus himself.^[9]

An inscription attests that Saturninus was also a member of several Roman priesthoods.^[10] These were the sodales Augustales, the sodales Titii, and the enigmatic Arval Brethren. Another inscription attests to Saturninus' presence at their ceremonies in the year 63.^[11]

Family and issue

Saturninus married a woman called Torquata; her name is known to us from the tombstone of one of her slaves.^[12] Torquata bore Saturninus the following children:^[13]

• Son, Lucius Volusius Saturninus, consul in 87
• Daughter, Volusia Torquata; she is thought to have married a Marcus Licinius whose name is inferred from their surmised granddaughter Licinia Cornelia M.f. Volusia Torquata.^[14]
• Son, Quintus Volusius Saturninus, consul in 92