ABOUT SEX. VIBIUS GALLUS OF AMASTRIS

Sex. Vibius Gallus, trecenarius, primus pilus and praefectus castrorum legionis XIII Geminae, a highly decorated soldier who had served under Domitian and Trajan, chose to settle down in the small Greek polis of Amastris in the province of Pontus et Bithynia. His descendants and wider family are to be found among the elites of this city and at least one other, Abonuteichos, holding high office, sponsoring buildings, granting benefactions. It is generally assumed that Vibius Gallus was an Amastrian by birth and that, after completing his military service, he chose to return and settle in his home city. This paper attempts to disprove this assumption. It discusses his military career, his family, the language of his inscriptions and details of the several monuments set up by himself and his family, in order to show that he was originally from one of the Western provinces and that his choice of Amasra as his home turned him into the ancestor of a new family among the elites of a Greek city.