For those of us who are passionate about knowing the ins and outs of the history of the Roman Empire, Lusius Quietus he is one of those characters tinged with a halo of mystery. Despite being largely unknown to the historical sources, which, as we will see later, overlook the vicissitudes of this African general in the service of Trajan, we cannot forget that he lived and died in one of the most crucial moments in history. from Rome. On the day Trajan died, the Roman Empire was at its greatest known extent, but from that day on it began to decline. The key could be the events of those days, today we do not know what would have happened, if instead of Adriano, the reins of the Empire had fallen to Lusio Quieto.
The maximum extension of the Roman Empire, year 117
The Quiet Lusio of Posteguillo.
There is no doubt that we owe the Valencian writer Santiago Posteguillo countless things. Especially the hundreds of afternoons and nights that we have spent absorbed in reading about Ancient Rome. On the other hand, we cannot forget that his job is not to contribute new historical research theses. Ultimately, his books are not history essays. Posteguillo is one of the best specialists in historical novels today. That is to say, he tells us a story set in a certain historical moment, and mixes real characters with fictitious ones, in such a way that it leads us to imagine the events that occurred at a certain moment in our history.
One of the characters in question is Lucius Quietus, whom he collects from historical sources to place him as the right hand of the emperor Trajan. He does this in his trilogy on the Hispanic emperor, and especially takes us to the key moment of Trajan's death, in "The Lost Legion" published in 2016 and which closes the trilogy.
Cover of The Lost Legion by Santiago Posteguillo
The Quiet Lusius of Posteguillo is one of the most important men in the novel, essential for the Roman conquest of Armenia, Mesopotamia or Parthia. Trajan's faithful and trusted man, the one he consults, or the one he puts at the head of the legions for the conquest of Asian territories, and of course the one chosen by him to replace him. With this intention he decides to return to Rome, to convince the senators and the people that the best emperor for the Empire was Lucius Quietus. But Trajan did not achieve his goals, he died in Selinus possibly after receiving some kind of poison, his wife on the emperor's deathbed tore from him the signature so that his successor would be Hadrian. A few months later on the way to his house in Mauritania, Lusio Quieto dies with his men, facing two Roman legions.
The Quiet Lusius of historical sources.
Any historical narrator, and Posteguillo was not going to be different, turns to historical sources to document himself when writing his novel. So it is clear that the Valencian writer's Lusio Quieto should not leave the script established by these.
The first of the historical sources to know the real Lusius Quietus is the Encyclopedia Judaica, written at the beginning of the 20th century as a compendium of the knowledge of the Jewish people from its origins. The part that reveals the future of Lusio Quieto corresponds to the compilation of ancient sources, in this case Seder Olam Rabbah , a chronology of the Hebrew world written in the time of Emperor Hadrian. The loss of several chapters from the Roman era has been verified, even so, some annotations on Lusio have remained, which have been transcribed in the following centuries.
It is not difficult to guess that, in the Jewish sources, Lusius Quietus comes off badly. He was sent by Trajan to put an end to the revolts in Judea, to which he arrived with consular rank and proclaimed governor of said province, showing himself to be bloodthirsty. A detail shows us the arrival of Lusio in Judea:in the named Seder Olam Rabbah, as the war is known as “the Quietus war ”. The people of Judea are subjected by the legions of Lusio Quieto, based on great cruelty with accusations of dishonoring the young Jewish virgins. The same sources rejoice at Quieto's death, after Hadrian's rise to power. In addition, these sources detail an inscription found in Palestine, which names Lusius Quietus, but with attempts to be erased in Hadrian's time. We can well think of the application of a damnatio memoriae .
But the great classical source that tells the story of Lusius Quietus is the Roman History of Dio Cassius , written in Greek in the third century. Said writer has been branded controversial, entering into great contradictions in relation to the relations between the senatorial families and the favorites of the emperors, the equestrians, who in times of the Empire equaled and even surpassed the former in significance. This topic does not seem to influence the events that occurred a century earlier, and therefore we can take into consideration that the most reliable source today for knowledge of the facts is Dion Cassius.
Bust of a Roman black child, it is speculated that it could be Lusius Quietus.
Casius Dio introduces us to Lusio Quietus as a Roman general, Moorish, and governor of Judea in the year 117. The reasons for such designation were the award for services undertaken to the Emperor Trajan. These services begin with his participation in command of a battalion of Moorish soldiers on horseback, which was decisive in ending Decebalus in Dacia, as the reliefs of the Trajan Column in Rome also show us. Later he undertakes with the emperor the conquest of the East, cities like Edessa or Nisibis fall under the control of Rome, thanks to the participation of Lusio Quietus. Like the Judaic tradition, Dion Casio tells us about the repression of Judea after the conquest of Parthia, by the most important man of the emperor Trajan.
Her achievements and conquests of his produced hatred and jealousy and soon brought about his destruction. Without a doubt, this part makes it quite clear that Adriano, after coming to power, eliminated his most important rival. It should be noted that it was not only Lusio who succumbed to the new emperor, he was accompanied by other important men for Trajan, such as Avidius Nigrinus, Publilius Celsus or Cornelio Palma. On the other hand, Dion Casio does not leave the new emperor in a good place after the death of Trajan. Hadrian had not been adopted by Trajan, becoming emperor without having reached any position of relevance, or consul, or governor of any province.
An interesting source that Dion Cassius names for the account of the events that occurred is that of his own father, Cassius Aproprianus, governor of Cilicia in the second part of the 2nd century. According to the same, it used to be reported in the area that, after the death of Trajan, who was known to have been poisoned, a silence was made about it, to introduce the adoption of Hadrian, before Trajan's death. This aspect, according to Cassius Dio, may clarify why the letters from the East to Rome were signed by Plotina and not by Trajan.
In conclusion mode.
It is a pity that such an important part of the history of the Roman Empire is so lacking in written sources. About Hadrian, for example, there is nothing more than the history of him written by himself, little baggage to contradict Dion Cassius. Personally and while waiting for a more clarifying source, I think that what Posteguillo related about Lusio Quieto cannot be branded as false, it is evident that we cannot take it for real either. We will continue to wait for some source to enlighten us on the truth that has occurred. While those of us who are passionate about Trajan, and not so much Hadrian, we will continue to think that with Lusio Quietus, possibly the near future of the Empire would have been different.
I invite you to read the following article on the death of Trajan:
More info:
The Lost Legion, Santiago Posteguillo, Ed. Planeta, 2016
jewishencyclopedia
Roman history, Dion Casio, books LXI-LXX, Antonio Diego Duarte Sánchez translation