Overview
Marcus Lollius Paullinus Decimus Valerius Asiaticus Saturninus (69/70 – after 134) was a prominent Roman Senator who was a powerful figure in the second half of the 1st century and first half of the 2nd century. He is also known by the shorter form of his name, Decimus Valerius Asiaticus.
Family background and early life
Saturninus was of Allobrogian and Roman ancestry. He was the son of Decimus Valerius Asiaticus and Vitellia the daughter of the emperor Vitellius from his wife Galeria Fundana. His father served as a Legatus of Gallia Belgica, and later became the governor of that province in the reign of the emperor Nero. The father of Saturninus became powerful through wealth and the skilful exploitation of imperial patronage.
The family of his father were originally from Vienna, Gallia Narbonensis. Saturninus was the grandson of the consul Decimus Valerius Asiaticus and his wife Lollia Saturnina, whose younger sister Lollia Paulina was the third wife of the emperor Caligula. Saturninus was a grandson of Decimus Valerius Asiaticus and Lollia Saturnina. The name of Saturninus reveals paternally he is related to the Valeria, and Lollia gens.
Despite the presence of Lollii Paulini on his father's side, Olli Salomies argues that "surely the collocation of his names points to the conclusion that they are due to a (testamentary) adoption; the adopting parent may, of course, well have been a relative of the grandmother, since ... adoptive sons and fathers were in fact often closely related."
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
