dbo:abstract
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- Publius Cornelius Dexter was a Roman senator and general active during the middle of the second century AD. He was suffect consul for the nundinium July-September 159; the name of his colleague is not known. Dexter is known only from non-literary sources. Older authors, such as Géza Alföldy and Ronald Syme, had thought Dexter's gentilicium was "Cassius", due to a second inscription, despite the fact that the inscription supplied a different praenomen for Dexter. Werner Eck and Peter Weiß have shown, based on further inscriptions in Greek from Cilicia, that Dexter's gentilicium was Cornelius. His name in full, as attested in an inscription from Kesmeburun, is Publius Cornelius Dexter Augus[tanus Alpin]us Bellicus Sollers Metilius [...]us Rutillianus. Olli Salomies, in his monograph on names of Early Imperial Rome, based on similarities with the full name of Marcus Sedatius Severianus, suggests the lacuna before "Rutillianus" may be Nepos Rufinus. Further, a series of elements in his name, "Augustanus Alpin]us Bellicus Sollers" is also duplicated in the names of the Pompeii Sosii. The simplest explanation for these shared names is to conclude Dexter and one of these other individuals were testamentary heirs where the testator required them to adopt his name. (en)
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