Aulus Didius Gallus Fabricius Veiento

Aulus Didius Gallus Fabricius Veiento was a Roman senator who played a major role in the courts of several Roman emperors during the first century AD. For his usefulness, Veiento was rewarded with the office of suffect consul three times.

Modern authorities have interpreted the nature of Veiento's role. Older writers, following the insinuations of Dio Casius and Pliny the Younger, tended to ascribe to Veiento a malevolent role. For example, Ronald Syme summarized his career in this sentence: "Veiento began as a dealer in petty patronage, and he ended as a merchant of honor." William C. McDermott has since provided a more balanced evaluation of this figure. This has led more recent writers to evaluate him as "one of the most interesting of his [Domitian's] senatorial amici, frequently but erroneous classified as an informer during the so-called reign of terror."

It is clear from his name that Veiento was related to Aulus Didius Gallus, suffect consul of AD 39 and governor of Roman Britain. Some experts, such as Edmund Groag and Mario Torelli, thought that Veiento was the son or grandson of the governor of Britain. Ollie Salomies has shown that it more likely that Veiento was adopted by Didius Gallus, at some point before Veiento became praetor.

Jones speculates that it was while he was with Didius Gallus that he first met the future emperors, "for Domitian's father and brother commanded two of Claudius's legions in the British invasions."

An action Veiento took while praetor is his first certain appearance in history. According to Dio Cassius, the emperor Nero's favor of charioteers and horsekeepers had resulted with them making unreasonable demands. In response, Veiento replaced them with chariots drawn by trained dogs. This led Brian W. Jones to describe him as "one of the earliest known strike-breakers."

However, the year Veiento was praetor is not fixed. S. J. de Laet proposed 41; both McDermott believed he was praetor in 54; Jones in 1971 pointed out that "there to prevent its being dated to around 60, to some time the end of the Quinquennium Neronis", although in a later publication admitted that 54 was "possible".

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