GALLIO. - Brother of Seneca; proconsul in Achaia and Corinth: he dismissed the Jews who accused St. Paul, refusing to involve himself in their religious disputes (Acts 18:11-17).
Marcus Annaeus Novatus, the eldest son of the rhetorician Seneca, was given the name Junius Annaeus Gallio after being adopted by Lucius Junius Gallio. Seneca praises his gentleness: “he was very much loved, even by those who were little capable of loving” (Naturales Quaestiones, 4, prol.); Statius calls him *dulcis* (Silvae, 2, 7, 3). Of wide learning, he entered public office while still young and rapidly advanced in his career (Seneca, Dialogues, 12, 7). In 51–52 he was proconsul in Corinth (Delphic inscription; cf. Seneca, Epistles, 104, 1); on his return to Italy he was in poor health.
A capable official and skilled diplomat, he consistently favored a policy of compromise and accommodation. As a typical Roman, he shared the prejudices against the Jews, whom his brother called *gens sceleratissima* (Seneca, fragments, ed. F. Haase, III, p. 427). Before departing for Corinth he had witnessed the disturbances in Rome that prompted Claudius’s expulsion of the Jews (Suetonius, Claudius, 25). This explains his dismissive and contemptuous conduct in Acts 18:11–17. Of weak constitution, he soon fell victim to fever and left Corinth: “It was the season of my lord Gallio, who, when he began to have a fever in Achaia, immediately boarded ship, shouting that the illness was not of the body but of the place” (Seneca, Epistles, 104, 1).
From the Delphic inscription, discovered by L. Bourguet in 1912, it appears that Gallio was appointed proconsul by the Emperor (line 6: “my friend”) in Achaia, then a senatorial province (Suetonius, Claudius, 25); and that Claudius wrote in May–June of 52 (lines 1–3: acclaimed emperor for the 26th time), since by the inauguration of the aqueduct that bears his name (1 Aug. 52: Frontinus, *De aquaeductibus*, I, 13) he had already received the 27th acclamation (inscription, portal of S. Maria Maggiore, Rome). If the Emperor (line 6, reconstruction by A. Deissmann) is replying to a report from Gallio, then Gallio must have arrived in Corinth in May of 51 (E. Jacquier, D. Plooij). In that case he would have remained in Achaia for barely a year and a half. Many scholars do not restrict the period to the 18 months mentioned in Acts 18:11, considering it a general indication (T. Zahn, W. Larfeld); others extend it to about two years (Acts 18:11, 18): from November 50 to August/September 52 (E. Ruffini, A. Tricot, W. M. Ramsay, B. Allo, L. Hennequin).