Talk:Mettia gens

Re: Marcus Mettius Modestus

I wonder if this is another ghost. Bastianni published a fairly complete list of governors of Egypt from 31 BC to AD 299, & Mettius Modestus is not included. Without looking at The Suda, I don't know what to make of its information -- is it reliable? Did the author confuse the name of Mettius Rufus for Modestus? -- but I suspect Epaphroditus was actually the freedman of Rufus. I'm waiting until I have a chance to check both The Suda & any relevant expert commentary. (It's all too easy for a amateur like me to get lost in the weeds.) -- llywrch (talk) 05:30, 17 May 2020 (UTC)

I don't think that Epaphroditus is likely to be the freedman of Rufus, given the chronology. He's supposed to have been a freedman at Rome from the reign of Nero to that of Nerva, a period of around forty years; and if he was a pupil of Archias of Alexandria, who's thought to have lived around the time of Augustus, then Epaphroditus would have been a very old man by Nerva's time (but plausible, if his teacher outlived Augustus by even a few years). Let's say that Rufus, who was governor of Egypt between 88 and 92 (or 100 to 103?), and who had a son old enough to hold the consulship in 103, and his brother, Modestus, who was consul in 82, were born around AD 40 (probably no earlier). Epaphroditus would probably have been an adult, perhaps approaching middle age. Rufus would have been between fourteen and twenty-eight during Nero's reign, and Epaphroditus was a freedman living at Rome before the end of that time. Chronologically he would seem more likely to be a freedman of Rufus' father. Epaphroditus is mentioned in an inscription: CIL VI, 9454, along with Marcus Mettius Germanus, presumably his conlibertus. I checked for additional information on Germanus, but the only other entry was for a Gaius Mettius Germanus, a first-century barber in Liguria.

I find this unfortunately undated inscription from Syria: M(arcus) Mettius / Modestus / [p]roc(urator) Aug(usti), AE 1973, 548. There's no listing of a governor of Syria by this name, but from his surname he seems unlikely to be the governor of Egypt, who is called "Rufus" in AE 2012, 1775. I note that his title is here inferred to be "praefectus", but in AE 2003, 1873 (where his name is inferred), it's clearly given as "procurator". Rufus' article says that his father was procurator of Syria, even though he's not listed among the governors. This probably should be corrected, but I'm not sure how! So I think what we have here is a mistake of province, not of person: rather than "supposed to have been governor of Egypt" it should say "governor of Syria", apparently demonstrated through epigraphy (the original statement may have been based on something said about Epaphroditus). This Marcus Mettius Modestus is the father of the consul Modestus and of Rufus, and, I think, the former master of Epaphroditus. P Aculeius (talk) 16:20, 17 May 2020 (UTC)

P Aculeius I think you're right here, except for one small detail: procurator was not always the title of a governor, but more often than not the person in charge of managing imperial properties in a province. Dealing with all that filthy money & tedious accounting that was beneath the concern of the Senatorial class. (It was also a parallel structure that was intended, in part, to serve as a check on the activities of provincial governors.) So, as you write above, M. Mettius Modestus the Elder was procurator of Syria, one-time owner of Epaphroditus, & father of both M. Mettius Modestus the Younger (the suffect consul), & M. Mettius Rufus (the governor of Egypt). The family had its origins in the Equestrian class, straddled the line between the two aristocratic classes for at least a generation (there might be one or more branches that lurked as Equestrians a while longer) before making a final leap into the Senate. (I'm guessing that Modestus the Younger did not have any children, & focused his attention on the promotion of his nephew & his children.) -- llywrch (talk) 17:26, 17 May 2020 (UTC)