Marcus Lollius

Marcus Lollius perhaps with the cognomen Paulinus (c. 55 BC-2) was a Roman politician, military officer and supporter of the first Roman emperor Augustus.

Lollius was a member of the plebeian gens Lollia. His father was Marcus Lollius, and his mother was perhaps called Paulina. Little is known of his family and early life. It is likely that he was a homo novus or a new man of politics in the late Roman Republic and early Imperial era.

Lollius has been assumed to be the "Marcus" referred to in Appian's Civil Wars. Appian recounts that Lollius was a legate of Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger, who after the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC had been proscribed. Lollius hid himself as a slave and was purchased by a "Barbula" (assumed to be Quintus Aemilius Lepidus), before his identity was revealed by a friend to Lepidus in Rome. Lepidus went to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa who interceded on Lepidus' behalf with Octavian, who then ensured that the name of Lollius was removed from the proscription lists.

Lollius fought in the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, where Lollius interceded before Octavian on behalf of Lepidus, who had been captured while fighting for Mark Antony. As Lollius joined Octavian and as upward Roman mobility depended on patronage, there is a possibility that Lollius and Augustus were close friends before Augustus had eliminated his rivals.

Lollius either served in a political position as a quaestor, aedile, tribune or praetor before being appointed by Augustus as a Roman governor of a province. His first known office was his governorship of Galatia in Anatolia in 25 BC. For Augustus to appoint him as a governor, Lollius must had proven himself as a capable politician. Lollius was the first Roman governor of Galatia in 25 BC. Introducing Roman government and incorporating a new province into the Roman Empire was an important and difficult task for Lollius. Galatia was previously ruled as a kingdom, and their last king, Amyntas, had died. After the death of Amyntas, Lollius travelled from Rome to the Roman East to serve as a governor there and to follow the request of Augustus for integrating Galatia into the Roman Empire.

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