Editing Ofonius Tigellinus

{{Short description|Roman praetorian prefect (AD c. 10-69)}}
{{confuse|Sophronius of Jerusalem}}
{{redirect|Tigellinus|the genus of spiders|Walckenaeria}}
{{Infobox military person
|name= Ofonius Tigellinus
|birth_date=c.&nbsp;10
|death_date= 69
|birth_place= [[Agrigento|Agrigentum]], [[Sicilia (Roman province)|Sicily]]
|death_place= [[Sinuessa]]
|image= 
|caption= 
|allegiance= [[Roman Empire]]
|serviceyears= 62&ndash;68
|rank= [[Praetorian prefect]]
|unit= 
|commands= [[Praetorian Guard]]
|battles=
|relations=
|laterwork=
}}

'''Ofonius Tigellinus'''<ref>''[[Oxford Classical Dictionary]]'', "[https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.4530 Ofonius Tigellinus]"</ref>{{sfn|Stein|loc=col. 2057}} ({{Circa|10}}&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;69) was a [[Praetorian prefect|prefect]] of the [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] imperial [[bodyguard]], known as the [[Praetorian Guard]], from 62 until 68, during the reign of [[Roman Emperor|emperor]] [[Nero]]. Tigellinus gained imperial favour through his acquaintance with Nero's mother [[Agrippina the Younger]], and was appointed prefect upon the death of his predecessor [[Sextus Afranius Burrus]], a position Tigellinus held first with [[Faenius Rufus]] and then [[Nymphidius Sabinus]].

As a friend of Nero he quickly gained a reputation around Rome for cruelty and callousness. During the second half of the 60s, however, the emperor became increasingly unpopular with the [[plebs|people]] and the [[Roman army|army]], leading to several [[rebellion]]s which ultimately led to his downfall and [[suicide]] in 68. When Nero's demise appeared imminent, Tigellinus deserted him and shifted his allegiance to the new emperor [[Galba]]. Unfortunately for Tigellinus, Galba was replaced by [[Otho]] barely six months after his accession. Otho ordered the execution of Tigellinus, upon which he committed suicide.

== Life ==
Gaius Ofonius Tigellinus,<ref name=Tan>''[[Annals (Tacitus)|Tacitus: The Annals of Imperial Rome]]'' (translated by [[Michael Grant (classicist)|Michael Grant]] • Penguin Classics • 1956/1977)</ref> born in about 10&nbsp;AD, was of humble origin. His family, of [[Greeks|Greek]] (or perhaps Hispanian) descent, were natives of [[Agrigentum]] in Sicily. His father allegedly lived as an exile in [[Scyllaceum]] in Southern Italy,<ref name=Livius>[https://www.livius.org/articles/person/ofonius-tigellinus/ Ofonius Tigellinus: Livius.org]</ref> and Tigellinus may have been born there. In his twenties, he was living in Rome and was in contact with the Imperial Family. In 39, during the reign of [[Caligula]], he was banished from the city.<ref name="Dando-Collins2010">{{cite book|author=Stephen Dando-Collins|title=The Great Fire of Rome: The Fall of the Emperor Nero and His City|url=https://archive.org/details/greatfireofromef0000dand|url-access=registration|year=2010|publisher=Da Capo Press|isbn=978-0-306-81933-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/greatfireofromef0000dand/page/25 25]–}}</ref> He had been accused of adultery with [[Agrippina the Younger]] and [[Julia Livilla]], Caligula's two surviving sisters. His exile was ended by the new emperor, [[Claudius]], in 41,{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} but he was forbidden to enter the Imperial Palace.<ref name=Livius/>

Tigellinus was said by the Roman historian [[Tacitus]] to have had an immoral youth and a vicious old age.<ref name=Thi/> As an adult, he first worked as a merchant in Greece.<ref name=Livius/> Later, he inherited a fortune, bought land in [[Apulia]] and [[Calabria]] on the Italian mainland and devoted himself to breeding racehorses. It was through this profession that he eventually gained the acquaintance and favor of [[Nero]], whom he aided and abetted in his vices and cruelties.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} Settling in Rome in about 60, he became [[praefectus urbi|Urban Prefect]] of the three [[cohortes urbanae|Urban Cohorts]], the city's paramilitary police force. On the death of [[Sextus Afranius Burrus]] in 62, Tigellinus succeeded him as Prefect of the [[Praetorian Guard]].<ref name="Thi">''[[Histories (Tacitus)|Tacitus: The Histories]]'' (Translated by [[Kenneth Wellesley]] • Penguin • 1964/1995)</ref> He persecuted  his successive co-prefects, [[Faenius Rufus]] and [[Nymphidius Sabinus]], to secure his position as one of Nero's closest and most trusted advisors. He also fabricated evidence to justify the murder of Nero's first  wife, [[Claudia Octavia]]. In 64, he made himself notorious for the orgies that he arranged in the Basin of Agrippa.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In July of 64, he was suspected of incendiarism in connection with the [[Great Fire of Rome]]. After the fire had initially subsided it broke out again in Tigellinus' estate in the Amaelian district of the city. This led to the claim by Tacitus that Tigellinus was an arsonist.<ref name=Tan/><ref name="Dando-Collins2010"/>

In 65, during the investigation into the abortive conspiracy of [[Gaius Calpurnius Piso (conspirator)|Gaius Calpurnius Piso]], he and Nero's second wife, [[Poppaea Sabina]], formed a kind of imperial [[privy council]], falsely accusing the [[courtier]] and [[Satyricon|novelist]] [[Petronius|Petronius Arbiter]] of treason. Under house-arrest in the coastal resort of [[Cumae]], Petronius did not wait for a sentence of execution to be passed. Instead, he chose to commit [[suicide]] by repeatedly slitting and rebinding his wrists—apparently over a period of several days, during which he entertained his friends<ref name=Tan/>—until he finally chose to be fatally drained of blood.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In 67 Tigellinus accompanied Nero on his tour of [[Greece]]. He had a role in the death of the famous General [[Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo|Corbulo]], who had also been invited to come to Greece but was ordered to commit suicide.

In 68, when Nero's downfall appeared imminent, Tigellinus deserted him, supposedly suffering from 'incurable bodily diseases'. (He possibly had cancer.) With his co-prefect [[Nymphidius Sabinus]], he brought about the defection of the Praetorian Guard. Nymphidius then ordered him to surrender his command.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref name=Plu>''[[Parallel Lives|Plutarch's Lives]]'' (Translated by Bernadotte Perrin • London • 1926/1962) Vol XI Galba, Otho</ref> Under the new emperor, [[Galba]], he managed to save his life by lavishing presents upon [[Titus Vinius]], the favourite of Galba, and his widowed daughter,<ref name=Plu/> whose life Tigellinus had once saved.<ref name=Tan/><ref name="Josephus1997">{{cite book|author=Flavius Josephus|author-link=Josephus|title=The Jewish War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hln5XAuPKa0C&pg=PA303|year=1997|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-99536-9|pages=303–}}</ref>

The next emperor, [[Otho]], upon his accession in January 69, was determined to remove someone who was so intensely hated by the people. At his country estate near the coastal [[spa]] city of [[Sinuessa]],<ref name=Plu/> Tigellinus was given the imperial order to return to Rome. Knowing that he would be facing death, he  attempted to save his life by resorting to bribery - he had vessels anchored in the bay for such an eventuality.<ref name=Plu/> When that failed, he gave the bribe money as a gift to Otho's messenger<ref name=Plu/> and was allowed to hold a farewell party.<ref name=Thi/> Afterwards, on the pretext that he needed to shave before leaving,<ref name=Plu/> he committed suicide by cutting his own throat with a razor.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref name=Thi/><ref name=Plu/>

== Tigellinus in later art ==
*Tigellinus appears as a character in the opera ''Neró i Acté'' (1928) by [[Juan Manén]].<ref name="Manuwald2013">{{cite book|author=Gesine Manuwald|title=Nero in Opera: Librettos as Transformations of Ancient Sources|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cp5k_JpKO6QC&pg=PA236|date=28 May 2013|publisher=De Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-031751-0|pages=236–}}</ref>
*Tigellinus appears in both the 1895 [[The Sign of the Cross (play)|play]] and the 1932 film ''[[The Sign of the Cross (1932 film)|The Sign of the Cross]]''. He is also depicted as a villain in [[Henryk Sienkiewicz]]'s 1895 novel ''[[Quo Vadis (novel)|Quo Vadis]]'' and in the 6-hour 1985 mini-series ''[[A.D. (miniseries)|A.D.]]''.  He appears in the 1934 science fiction novel ''[[Triplanetary (novel)|Triplanetary]]'' by E. E. "Doc" Smith.
*In the 1951 film ''[[Quo Vadis (1951 film)|Quo Vadis]]'', based on the novel, Tigellinus (played by [[Ralph Truman]]) is (unhistorically) stabbed to death by a rebel soldier with the cry of ''A sword from Plautius!'' in the [[Circus of Nero]] when the Roman people revolt against the emperor near the end of the film.
*He is a prominent character in the latter stages of the 1985 novel ''[[The Kingdom of the Wicked]]'' by [[Anthony Burgess]].
*He is the leading character in [[John Hersey]]'s 1972 novel portraying Rome as a police state, ''The Conspiracy''.
*Tigellinus appears in [[Simon Scarrow]]'s 2011 novel ''[[Praetorian (novel)|Praetorian]]'' (taking place in 51&nbsp;AD) as an ''[[optio]]'' (junior officer) of the Praetorian Guard; at the end of the novel, he is promoted to second-in-command to Prefect [[Burrus]], and expects to succeed him after Nero ascends to the throne.

==See also==
*[[Pythias (Roman)]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{EB1911|wstitle= Tigellinus, Sophonius|volume=26|page=967}}
*Tacitus ''Historiae'' [http://latin.packhum.org/loc/1351/4/71/121-131,1142-1152 1.72.2, 1.72.19]
*Tacitus ''Annales [http://latin.packhum.org/loc/1351/5/597/924-934 14.51]
* {{wikicite |reference=[[Arthur Stein (historian)|Stein, Arthur]] (1937), "[[s:de:RE:Ofonius Tigellinus|Ofonius Tigellinus]]", ''[[Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft]]'', volume 17, part 2, columns 2056–2061.|ref={{sfnref|Stein}} }}

{{s-start}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Sextus Afranius Burrus]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Praetorian prefect]]|years=62&ndash;68|with=[[Faenius Rufus]]|with2=[[Nymphidius Sabinus]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Cornelius Laco]]}} 
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tigellinus}}
[[Category:10s births]]
[[Category:69 deaths]]
[[Category:1st-century Romans]]
[[Category:Praetorian prefects]]
[[Category:Suicides in Ancient Rome]]
[[Category:Suicides by sharp instrument in Italy]]
[[Category:Ofonii|Tigellinus]]
[[Category:Ancient Acragantines]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman exiles]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:Praefecti vigilum]]