Marcus Munatius Sulla Cerialis

Marcus Munatius Sulla Cerialis (died 219) was a Roman senator, who was active during the early third century AD.

He was governor of Noricum,[1] where he is attested by an inscription[2] dated to around 210/212. He was consul in the year 215 as the colleague of Quintus Maecius Laetus.[3]

Where the family of Cerialis originated is a mystery; Paul Leunissen, in his prosopography of Roman consuls and other officials, includes him in a list of four consuls whose family origins are unknown,[4] although in another passage Leunissen suggests that Cerialis is from the Italian Peninsula.[5] Andreas Krieckhaus notes that his cognomen "Sulla" indicates Sulla Cerialis claimed descent from the Republican dictator Sulla, but offers no suggestion how he is related to him.[6]

Concerning his cursus honorum, only one of his appointments is known: governor of the imperial province of Cappadocia, which he held under the emperor Macrinus from the year 217.[7] Cassius Dio records that he was executed by Elagabalus in 219.[8]

He may be the father of Marcus Munatius Sulla Urbanus, consul in 234.[6]

References

  1. ^ Bernard Rémy, Les carrières sénatoriales dans les provinces romaines d'Anatolie au Haut-Empire (31 av. J.-C. - 284 ap. J.-C.), (Istanbul: Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes-Georges Dumézil, 1989), p. 236
  2. ^ CIL III, 11743
  3. ^ Paul M. M. Leunissen, Konsuln und Konsulare in der Zeit von Commodus bis Severus Alexander (Amsterdam: J.C. Gieben, 1989), p. 136
  4. ^ Leunissen, Konsuln und Konsulare, p. 107 n. 26
  5. ^ Leunissen, Konsuln und Konsulare, p. 359
  6. ^ a b Krieckhaus, "Vater und Sohn, Bemerkungen zu den severischen consules ordinarii M. Munatius Sulla Cerialis und M. Munatius Sulla Urbanus", Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 153 (2005), pp. 283f.
  7. ^ Leunissen, Konsuln und Konsulare, p. 234
  8. ^ Dio, Historiae Romanae LXXIX.4.5
Political offices
Preceded by Consul of the Roman Empire
215
with Quintus Maecius Laetus 		Succeeded by