Tacitus, Dio, and the “Sophist” Maternus

Abstract

The article presents new arguments for identifying Maternus in Tacitus’ Dialogus with the homonymous sophist whose execution under Domitian in c. 91 is mentioned by Dio. Re-examining alleged obstacles to acknowledging identity, it is argued that parallels in Dio show the term “sophist” to be so broadly applicable that it might also include Tacitus’ senator-cum-dramatist. The time gap between “crime” and punishment is shown to correspond closely to what happened in seven other such Domitianic treason trials. Finally, Dio’s epitomes are, when seen together, shown to agree with Tacitus’ depiction of Maternus offending the potentes with his recitation of a script.