Quintus Pompeius Sosius Priscus was a Roman senator active in the mid-second century AD, who held a number of offices in the emperor's service. Priscus served as ordinary consul for the year 149 as the colleague of Lucius Sergius Salvidienus Scipio Orfitus.[1] His life is known entirely from inscriptions.
Priscus was the son of Quintus Pompeius Falco, consul of 108, and Sosia Polla.[2] Earlier writers had confused him with his son, Quintus Pompeius Senecio Sosius Priscus, but a fragmentary inscription from Rome allowed experts to separate the evidence pertaining to each.[3] By his lifetime, his branch of the Sosii had been granted Patrician status.
The complete name of Priscus has not come down to us. One inscription does preserve a large enough portion to indicate that he had a number of elements lacking from his father's name, but were passed on to his own son:[4]
Some elements of his name are shared with other known men, suggesting that each of these men were involved in a testimony adoption, where in return for an inheritance Priscus assumed the adoptor's name. (Other elements may be shared with men about whom no trace has survived to our time.)
The cursus honorum of Priscus can be recovered from two inscriptions: the fragmentary one from Rome mentioned above, and one from Bononia in Aemilia.[6] If we can trust the order of offices on this inscription to reflect the order they were held, his first recorded office was sevir equitum Romanorum of the annual review of the equites at Rome. Next was his membership as one of the tresviri monetalis, the most prestigious of the four boards that comprise the vigintiviri; assignment to this board was usually allocated to patricians or favored individuals. He then became a quaestor, which provided the office holder admission to the Senate.[7] This was followed by his admission to the Roman priesthoods of sodales Hadrianales then the College of Pontiffs; the latter may have transpired prior to his accession to the consulate. He was also made a member of the sodales Antoniniani around that time. As a member of the Patrician order, Priscus acceded to the consulate two years after he was praetor.
After his consulate, Priscus became a member of the comites of emperor Marcus Aurelius. During this period, he was also proconsular governor of Asia for the term 163/164; according to Géza Alföldy, his son served as his legatus or assistant.[8] If the restoration of the inscription from Rome can be trusted, Priscus also was decorated with dona militaria, possibly as a staff officer; McDermott suggests that this "was at the time of the northern wars between 167 and 180. I suspect his duties were less warlike than those of his co-eval son-in-law Pontius."[9]
Priscus is known to have had at least two children:[10]