GLABRIONE ACILIO. - A member of a noble senatorial family, he was consul in AD 91 together with Trajan; he was put to death by Domitian in AD 95 after being forced to fight a lion in a villa at Albano.
It seems that G. perished because of his adherence to Christianity. According to the testimony of Suetonius (Domitianus, 10), Domitian had many senators and ex-consuls put to death, including G., because they were “suspect of innovation.” Dio Cassius (Hist., 67, 14) adds that G. was condemned because he was accused of atheism and of having adopted Jewish customs. Now it is well known that in the early centuries these accusations were directed against Christians converted from paganism, so that G.’s Christianity is very probable. The literary testimonies are then indirectly confirmed by the existence of a Christian epic apparently concerning the family of the Acilii Glabriones, descendants of G., discovered by G. B. De Rossi in the cemetery of Priscilla on the Via Salaria Nova, which dates to the second century.