Marcus Vinicius (AD 20 – AD 70) was a Roman military tribune, senator, and one of the earliest known patrician converts to Christianity. A member of the influential Vinicius family and son of the twice-consul Marcus Vinicius and Julia Livilla. In AD 64, Vinicius fell in love with and later married Lygia, a Christian Ligurian princess raised in the household of Aulus Plautius. His growing sympathy toward Christians led him to offer protection to the Apostle Peter during Nero’s persecution following the Great Fire of Rome. Vinicius eventually became a political opponent of Emperor Nero, and supported Galba during the tumultuous Year of the Four Emperors in AD 68.
Biography[]
Marcus Vinicius was born in Rome, Latium, Roman Empire to an equestrian Roman family of raised to senatorial rank. He was the distinguished Roman general and consul Marcus Vinicius, who had served under Emperor Tiberius and Emperor Caligula and had been appointed proconsul of Asia in 38/39. His mother was Julia Livilla, the youngest daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder, thus making him related by blood to the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
In the time of Nero, Marcus Vinicius pursued a military career, serving with distinction in the campaigns of Gaul and Britannia, where he rose to command Legio XIV Gemina. He acquired repute for courage and tactical brilliance, as well as an estate in Sicily. Like many patricians of his era, Vinicius regarded Rome’s conquered peoples as barbarians, yet his military victories, particularly in Britain—where his legion triumphed against foes three times their number—brought him lasting renown.
Vinicius was kin to the courtier and writer Petronius, Nero’s celebrated arbiter elegantiae (“arbiter of taste”), who introduced him to the imperial circle and to the opulence and moral decay of Nero’s Rome.
Return to Rome[]
In 64 AD, he and his tribune Fabius Nerva were ordered to return to Rome after three years of campaigning, and they rode their chariots up a hill to gaze at their home city before re-entering it. When Fabius said that he could not wait to return to his wife and children, Vinicius jokingly derided him as a family man and told him that, on his own return, it wouldn't be sleep that he was looking for. Their conversation was interrupted when a group of Praetorian Guard cavalrymen rode up the hill to greet them, and Captain Flavius informed Vinicius that he was carrying imperial orders. The letter ordered Vinicius and his legion to encamp outside of the city until notified to enter, angering him; however, he had the soldier Tiberius Atronius Felix lashed ten times for sarcastically shouting, "Rome loves her brave soldiers!"; he threatened any other complainer with twenty lashes. Vinicius then set out for the Imperial Palace, barrelling through the streets of Rome (knocking over a civilian's cart in the process) until a guard halted his horses at the palace, upon which he stormed into the palace and demanded an audience with the emperor. When the praetorian Mettius Papinius Geta began to ask him what strategy he used to defeat the Britons, a frustrated Vinicius quipped "We fought them with our bowels. Try it sometime," and then entered Nero's chambers.
Vinicius was then ushered into Nero's court, where he hailed the Emperor. Nero told him that his uncle Petronius was just telling him of his impetuous loyalty, and Vinicius went on to explain that his men had happily agreed to forced marches with the condition that they immediately enter Rome. Nero commended Vinicius on his loyalty to his men, and Petronius suggested that the imperial order might have left out a reason for the legion being told to wait. The Praetorian Prefect Tigellinus, frustrated, explained that imperial orders never came with reasons. Nero called his prefect boorish and told Vinicius that he would encamp his army until the legions from Africa and Asia arrived in Rome, which would be in a matter of hours; they would enter Rome in triumph together the next day. Nero explained that the people of Rome needed a diversion now more than ever, and agreed that Legio XIV Gemina's entry into Rome would raise morale for both the civilians and the soldiers.
His uncle then took him aside to speak with him, catching up with him after his three years of campaigning and inviting him to stay with him before returning to his estate in Sicily. Vinicius told his uncle of his intent to have a full month's relaxation in Rome, and, when Petronius told Vinicius that he wanted to gift him a Hispanian slave girl with cream-colored skin, Vinicius joked that he might stay with him for two months instead. In the meantime, Petronius arranged for Vinicius to stay at Aulus Plautius' countryside estate near his camp, and Vinicius recognized him as an old retired general. As the two walked further, Petronius halted to let Vinicius hear Nero's singing in the other room, telling him that he had to deal with it all day. A curious Vinicius then asked Petronius if it was true that he had killed his wife and his mother, and he then observed that his new wife Poppaea had been elevated from a whore to an empress. Petronius was surprised by Vinicius' "proletarian" remark and told him, "A woman has no past when she mates with a god." However, Petronius explained to Vinicius that there were some in the Roman Senate who wished to replace Nero with General Galba. Vinicius told his uncle that he knew nothing of politics, but declared that, as long as Rome had money to pay its army, it would never fall.
Stay with Plautius[]
Vinicius and Fabius then arrived at Plautius' estate, where they introduced themselves to Plautius and his wife Pomponia Graecina, who were both honored to meet the famed general. Pomponia invited the two men to be bathed and changed after their long journey, and, while the two men bathed, they noticed a tall and muscular servant, Ursus, whom Vinicius had stand up tall. The 6'7-tall servant impressed Vinicius, who offered to introduce him to the arena as a gladiator and make him wealthy; when Ursus said that he did not fight, Vinicius told him that he could probably kill 50 Nubians in a minute with just one arm. However, Ursus said that it was a sin to kill, and he then left the room. Vinicius then laughed with Fabius, claiming that Ursus had grown so fast that his brain hit the top of the stable, making him half-witted.
After leaving the bath, Vinicius walked into the courtyard and spotted a beautiful servant girl lighting candles. Vinicius approached her while speaking poetically of how she resembled Aphrodite the second she met Mars, attempting to seduce her with this comparison. She introduced herself as Lygia, and, when Vinicius told her that he would sacrifice 20 white doves to commemorate the moment they met, she told him that his sacrifice would be in vain. Vinicius then complimented Plautius on choosing the right slave market, claiming that she had both beauty and wit. However, she revealed that there were no slaves at Plautius' household, and that she was actually his daughter. Vinicius then apologized, saying that, in the three years he spent in Britain and Gaul, the only women he was used to were barbarians. Lygia told Vinicius that she had heard that the Britons and Gauls had beautiful women, and, when Vinicius condescendingly mentioned that the British women covered themselves in deer fat, Lygia countered by saying that they had an understandable desire to be warm. He then compared the Gaulish women's hair to the frazzled ends of rope, and he then felt Lygia's hair and told her that they did not have beautiful hair as she did. She then said that the Gaulish women were diligent, and she went on to rebuff Vinicius after he said that he should be decorated; she said that she had to decorate the table.
At dinner, Vinicius described how, facing a Britonnic army three times the size of the Roman army, his spearmen formed a Macedonian phalanx, and the Britons hurled themselves at the Roman spears like meat. He then asked Lygia if she could understand his strategy, but she said that she only saw the desire to defend one's home. Vinicius attempted to explain that they were not defending their homes, but revolting against Rome, and he asked Lygia how a general's daughter could not be amazed at her legions' victories. Lygia responded by saying that she was not a Roman, but a Lygian; Pomponia then revealed to Vinicius that Lygia was their adopted daughter and was originally named Cellina, but insisted on being called "Lygia". She had been captured during Plautius' campaign in Lygia, as her father, the King of the Lugii, had assigned her as a hostage.
Shortly after, Paul of Tarsus came to the table and was warmly greeted by the family, which brought him and the Roman soldiers into the salon to talk. Paul introduced himself to Vinicius as a rabbi, and, when Vinicius said that he was a thick-sculled soldier and asked what, by Jupiter, a rabbi was, Paul grew uncomfortable. Before Paul could begin to describe it, Plautius told Vinicius that it meant a teacher of philosophy, and Paul, amused, told Lygia that, all this time, he had been teaching her philosophy. Vinicius then crudely said that he never had the time to learn philosophy, and "Lovely women shouldn't have the time to think that deeply." Vinicius then attempted to convince Lygia to show him the garden, but Fabius reminded him that he had to inspect the troops. Vinicius excused himself, but he promised to be back early in the morning, and he asked Lygia to stay up for him. While he was gone, Paul talked with the Plautii and told Lygia that, if he could convert Vinicius and Fabius, then he could convert all of Rome. Lygia said that Paul would need to work a miracle, but Paul accepted the task.
When Vinicius returned in the morning, he found Lygia drawing the sign of the Christian icthys (fish), and he asked her if she had drawn her impression of him (a "fish") while thinking of him. However, she said that it had nothing to do with him, and Vinicius then said that it wasn't right for a beautiful artist to be by herself. When he claimed that she had stayed up for him, she said that she was awake because she couldn't sleep, and Vinicius then offered to take her to his uncle's home to enjoy the festivities, and also invited her to attend his triumph. However, she refused, admitting that, while she liked Vinicius' looks, she did not like what he was saying; when Vinicius asked who had been gossiping about him, Lygia said that she was using the words that came out of his mouth to judge him. She said that she grew sick of hearing him talk about conquest, but he attempted to claim that conquest was the only method of "uniting and civilizing the world". She then explained that there was a gentler and more powerful way to do so, without bloodshed, war, slaves, and triumphs, and that Paul had explained the way to her. When Vinicius called Paul a "beggar-faced philosopher" and said that he shouldn't be filling her "luscious little head with that nonsense," she began to walk away. Vinicius then said that he wished that she was a slave so that he could have bought her, but she angrily rejected his advances and claimed that the many female slaves at his estate represented the false security in his heart and soul.
Gallery[]
