Marcus Antonius Orator and his quaestors: positions of imperium bearer and the order of lower magistrates’ service under him

Abstract

The article examines controversial questions about what positions Marcus Antonius Orator held in 102-100 BC and in what order were the quaestors Caius Norbanus and Aulus Gabinius under him as the bearer of the imperium. The following historical reconstruction is proposed: sent in 102 BC in the position of praetor to Cilicia to fight pirates, M. Antonius continued his mission in 101 BC in the status of proconsul of the province of Asia. The Greek designation for the office of Anthony στραταγὸς ἀνθύπατος (IGRP 4.1116) is interpreted as a «proconsul». In the same 101 BC to him, the governor of Asia, Aulus Gabinius arrived as a quaestor (and not in 102 BC, as is often stated in historiography), who, most likely, remained with him in the status of proquestor for the 100th year. It doesn’t not look possible for the author to determine the year of questorship of C. Norbanus under M. Antonius and assumptions in the scientific literature about 102, 101, 100 and 99 BC years are rejected in the article. According to the author, the questorship of Norbanus occurred some year earlier than 103 BC; at the same time dating to 113 BC is practically excluded. There are more reasons to believe that in the chronological period from the pro-praetorian powers of M. Antonius in 113 to his mission in Cilicia he was endowed with an empire in some year and had C. Norbanus as a quaestor, but due to the «silence» of the sources, it is not possible to establish this year.