Triarius Maternus

Triarius Maternus was a member of a noble family whose members achieved the consulate throughout the Antonine era. It is assumed that he was the son of Aulus Junius Rufinus (consul ordinarius in 153) and a Pomponia whose father was Quintus Pomponius Maternus (suffect consul in 128). His praenomen is unknown while his agnomen Lascivius is only attested in the Historia Augusta, and may be a fictional addition by the author based upon the events of 193 CE.[2] Prior to his consulate in 185, he was attested as a iuridicus of Asturia.[3]

Triarius Maternus was eventually caught up in the aftermath of the assassination of the emperor Commodus and the accession of Pertinax. Unhappy with the elevation of Pertinax, the Praetorian Guard tried to bring Triarius to their camp on January 3, 193, when the oaths to the new emperor were about to be taken by the soldiers, as a rival emperor to Pertinax. He managed to get away from them and fled to Pertinax, but in the confusion he ended up escaping naked. Pertinax then allowed him to leave the city unharmed.[4] It has been hypothesised that Triarius's bid for the imperial throne was engineered by his nephew, the consul in 193, Gaius Julius Erucius Clarus Vibianus, who was possibly involved in the conspiracy to murder Commodus.[5]

Triarius was married to a Procula (most likely Egnatia Procula), and his son was almost certainly Aulus Triarius Rufinus, the consul ordinarius in 210 CE.[6]

• Champlin, Edward, Notes on the Heirs of Commodus, The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 100, No. 2 (Summer, 1979), pp. 288-306 (http://www.jstor.org/stable/293693)