Lucius Caesennius Sospes

Lucius Caesennius Sospes was a Roman senator of the 1st-2nd centuries AD, and through his mother, Flavia Sabina, a cousin of the Roman emperors Titus and Domitian. He is known primarily from an inscription found in Pisidian Antioch.

According to Ronald Syme, he acquired his unusual cognomen Sospes ("safe and sound") most probably from an event during his childhood. His father Lucius Caesennius Paetus, consul in 61, had been surprised by the Parthian advance in the Roman–Parthian War. While retreating before the enemy Paetus had sent his wife and Lucius Caesennius (Syme estimates he was four years of age at the time) to safety in the fortress of Arsamosata; for a while the Parthians besieged the fortress. "An event in the life of a man or a family may be visibly commemorated by the choice of a cognomen," Syme observes.

Sospes was the son of Paetus and Flavia, and the brother of Lucius Junius Caesennius Paetus, consul in 79; the inscription at Pisidian Antioch attests he was a member of the Roman tribe of Stellatina. His senatorial career likely began in his teens as one of the tresviri aere argento auro flando feriundo, a prestigious position usually allocated to patricians or young men with powerful patrons; as nephew of the late Vespasian, he likely fell into the latter category.

This was followed by Sospes serving as military tribune of the Legio XXII Primigenia which was stationed in Pannonia at the time; while serving as a junior officer in the legion, Sospes "received the decorations appropriate to a legate of praetorian rank, expedit(ione) Suebic(a) et Sarm(atica)." Syme explains he earned these awards from actions in Domitian's campaigns in Pannonia around 92, in response to the Sarmatians and Suebi having invaded that province and destroying Legio XXI Rapax.

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