Lucius Licinius Sura, son of Lucius and ascribed to the Sergia tribe, was born in Tarraco

(Tarragona), where his family settled in the Augustan age after leaving the native Celsa. By
calculating the development of the political career provided by the epigraphic sources (CIL II, 4508
and 4536; CIL VI, 1444; AE 1923, 33) his year of birth could be established between 55 and 56 AD
about.
Under Vespasian he was probably admitted (adlectus) to the Senate and was therefore in charge of
the maintenance and surveillance of the city streets (IVvir viarum curandarum) and quaestor of the
province of Achaea. After this office he was recommended by the emperor to hold the plebeian
tribunate and the praetura. He also served as a legatus Augusti pro praetore in the province of
Gallia Belgica (93-95 AD) during the Principate of Domitian, under which he was probably a
suffect consul.
Under Trajan, he was, probably between 96 and 101 AD, legatus Augusti pro praetore of Lower
Germany and member of the consilium principis in both expeditions against the Dacians, also
playing, on the occasion of the first expedition (101-102 AD), the role of ambassador to Decebalus
with Tiberius Claudius Livianus to deal with the terms of surrender of the Dacian king. In this war
scenario, he got the highest military honors (eight gold spears, eight silver banners, two wall
crowns, two valley crowns, two rostral crowns and two gold crowns). His involvement in the
bellum Dacicum is also testified on several reliefs of the Trajan's Column (scenes VI, X, XL, XLII,
LXI and CIV).
Sura held the ordinary consulate twice: on 102 with Lucius Iulius Ursus Servianus and on 107 with
Quintus Sosius Senecio, both his friends. He was patronus of the colonies of his native Tarraco and
Barcino (Barcelona).
He was also a friend of Martial and Pliny the Younger. The first one, in the Epigrammaton, between
85 and 92 AD he dedicated three compositions to Sura (I 49; VI 64; VII 47). The second one recalls
him in the Epistulae (II 1, 2; IV 30; VII 27). Above all he had a strong bond of friendship with his
fellow countryman Trajan. The trust that the emperor placed on Sura never failed, not even when he
became aware of rumors about a plot involving his friend, as Cassius Dio recalls in the Historia
Romana (LXVIII 15-16).
Sick for some time (Epigr. VII 47), Sura most likely died between 108 and 109 by what can be
deduced from epitome of Cassius Dio's Roman History by John Xiphilinus the Younger (234, 22-
235, 6). Trajan honored his friend by paying him a public funeral and a statue (HR LXVIII 15, 4-6).
The death of Sura was the chance for the princeps to build a bath complex (Thermae Suranae) near
the house of his deceased friend on the Aventine Hill, mentioned by Martial (Epigr. VI 64, 12-13).
Sura was part of a "party" of rich and powerful Hispanics who, both in Hispania and in Rome,
began weaving political and economic ties from the time of Augustus. Its abstention to choosing
sides, during the crisis of 69 AD, in the dispute between Galba and Othon, was quite key for the
Flavians, who, once leading the Empire, showed their gratitude to this group of senators by greatly
increasing their political and economic influences.
The prestige of the “Hispanic clan” reached its apex with Sura, who was decisive both for Trajan's
accession to the throne, as the anonymous Epitome de Caesaribus (XIII 6) recalls, and for the
elevation of Hadrian too, who, as the Historia Augusta (III 10) reports, during his first consulate
(108 AD) was announced by Sura himself the will of Trajan to name him his successor. A
masterpiece of political strategy that gave rise to the saeculum Hispanum for Rome and the Empire
and for which Sura can be considered, taking up the fortunate definition of the German historian
Hans-Georg Pflaum, a real “emperors’ maker” (“Kaisermacher”).

Main bibliography
J. Bennett (1997), Trajan, Optimus Princeps. A Life and Times, Routledge, London.
F. Des Boscs-Plateaux (2005), Un parti hispanique à Rome? Ascension des élites hispaniques et
pouvoir politique d’Auguste à Hadrien (27 av. J.-C.-138 ap. J.-C), Casa de Velàzquez, Madrid, pp.
496-502.
R. Etienne (1965), Les empereurs romains d'espagne: actes du colloque organise a madrid du 31
mars au 6 avril 1964, par A. Piganiol et H. Terrasse avec le concours de R. Etienne , Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris.
P. Le Roux (1982), “Les sénateurs originaires de la province d’Hispania Citerior au Haut-Empire
romain”, in Epigrafia e ordine senatorio. Atti del colloquio internazionale AIEGL (Roma, 4-20
maggio 1981), 5, pp. 445-446.