Marcus Plautius Silvanus

Marcus Plautius Silvanus was a Roman politician and general active during the Principate. He was consul in 2 BC as the colleague of the emperor Augustus. Biography Marcus Plautius Silvanus the son of another Marcus Plautius Silvanus and Urgulania, a close friend of the empress Livia who was of Etruscan descent. It is suggested by Ronald Syme, extrapolating from Tacitus, that it was Urgulania's influence over Livia that allowed Silvanus to climb the cursus honorum, enabling him to reach the consulate in 2 BC alongside Augustus. Silvanus was then made proconsul of Asia in 4-5 AD, followed by appointment as legatus pro praetore of the imperial province of Galatia in 6 AD, where he was involved in suppressing the Isaurians as mentioned in Cassius Dio. He was also a septemvir of the Epulones. Although Silvanus served under Tiberius for the duration of the Great Illyrian Revolt or Bellum Batonianum, Syme suggests that the future emperor had doubts about him, due to his close connection, via his mother, with Livia. Certainly Silvanus does not appear in the histories after the events in Illyricum during AD 6–9. Suppression of the Isaurians