Quick Facts
Biography
Gaius Octavius Tidius Tossianus Lucius Javolenus Priscus was a Roman jurist and senator who flourished during the Flavian dynasty. Many of his judgments are quoted in the Digest, and he served as suffect consul for the nundinium September-December AD 86 with Aulus Bucius Lappius Maximus.
His full name is known from CIL III, 9960, where the second praenomen is written inside the second O of Tossiaano (sic), leading Ollie Salomies to suggest that "Lucius" was "added at some later stage, perhaps erroneously".
Imperial career
Javolenus Priscus' life prior to commanding Legio IV Flavia Felix, stationed near Burnum, is unknown. Anthony Birley notes that his names "Javolenus, Tidius, and Tossianus all point to Umbria, and specifically Iguvium as the origo of our man." However Birley points to Géza Alföldy's argument that he ought to be connected with the Octavii of Nedium in Dalmatia where Javolenus Priscus had been honored. "It therefore seems quite probable that he was born a C. Octavius, and that he received his other names by adoption into an Umbrian family." However, Salomies argues that if he was adopted, "from the order of the names we should surely rather conclude that he was a L. Iavolenus adopted by a C. Octavius."
After serving as the de facto governor of Numidia, he was appointed legate of Legio III Augusta in 83, then served as suffect consul. Birley believes it was in 84 when Javolenus Priscus came to Roman Britain and served as a juridicus, and remained there for two years. Following his service in Britain, he was governor of Germania Superior, then of Syria at the beginning of Trajan's reign, proconsul of Africa in 101/2, and finally a pontifex.
Career as a jurist
Birley notes that Javolenus Priscus' "principal claim to fame was as a jurist." Of the many citations of his legal opinions, one concerns the will of Seius Saturninus, archigubernus ex classe Britannica, a case which must have come before him while he was juridicus in Britain. He was the leader of the Sabinian school, and was the teacher of the jurist Salvius Julianus.