GLABRIONE ACILIUS. - A member of a noble senatorial family, he was consul in 91 A.D. together with Trajan; he was put to death by Domitian in 95 after having been forced to fight a lion in a villa at Albano.

It seems that G. had perished because of his adherence to Christianity. According to the testimony of Suetonius (Domitianus, 10), in fact, Domitian had many senators and consulars put to death, among them G., because they were «molitores rerum novarum». Cassius Dio (Hist., 67, 14) adds that G. was condemned because he was accused of atheism and of having embraced the customs of the Jews. Now it is well known that in the early centuries these accusations were directed against Christians converted from paganism, so that the Christianity of G. is very probable. The literary testimonies then receive an indirect confirmation from the existence of a Christian hypogeum belonging to the family of the Acilii, descendants of G., discovered by G. B. De Rossi in the cemetery of Priscilla on the Via Salaria nuova, which goes back to the 2nd century.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: G. B. De Rossi, L'ipogeo degli Acilii Glabrioni nel cimitero di Priscilla, in Bull. arch. crist., 4th series, 6 (1888-89), pp. 15-66; P. Allard, Storia critica delle persecuzioni, I, Italian trans., Florence 1932, pp. 101-105.

Agostino Amore

@incollection{ec6_glabrione_acilio, author = {Amore, Agostino}, title = {Glabrione Acilio}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {864}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/glabrione-acilio} }

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Glabrione Acilius

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