Conservative
senator in the last years of the Roman republic who became a trusted
supporter of the emperor Augustus.
In 43 BCE,
following the
assassination of Julius Caesar,
he was
among those conservative senators proscribed by the new
triumvirs [Octavian, Antony
& Lepidus]. But as the latter concentrated on eliminating Caesar's
assassins, he escaped to Sicily, which Pompey's
youngest
son Sextus had turned into a haven for opponents of Caesar. After Marcus
Agrippa routed Sextus (35 BCE),
Sentius Saturninus threw his support behind Octavian, as the latter
was rallying Roman opposition to Antony & Cleopatra.
As Octavian's fortunes rose, so did those of Saturninus. The grateful
emperor repaid his new ally's loyalty by making him consul of Rome (19 BCE)
& sending him as imperial legate to Syria (9-6 BCE),
where he presided over the trial of Herod's Hasmonean sons, Alexander
& Aristobulus
(7 BCE). His subsequent
actions & fate are lost to history. But at least one of his sons &
a grandson held important posts under Augustus' successors.
References:
Josephus, Antiquities
16.277-282, 344, 367-369; 17.24, 89.
_____, War 1.27
Appian, History of Rome: Civil Wars 4.45; 5.52,
139.
Velleius Paterculus, Roman
History 2.92.
Other resources
on line: