Gnaeus Octavius Titinius Capito (or just Titinius Capito or Capito for short) was a powerful, wealthy and influential civil servant who lived in the Roman Empire during the 1st and 2nd centuries. Titinius Capito had an impressive career working at different levels of the Roman military and government. As a member of the Roman equites (or knight) class, he fittingly joined the army and served with distinction. He eventually transitioned from the military into more bureaucratic roles, achieving the prestigious position of ab epistulis (in effect, the imperial secretary in charge of the Office of Letters). He must have been an effective and impressive administrator of correspondence, for Capito’s long and continuous time as imperial secretary spanned the successive reigns of the emperors, Domitian (r. 81-96), Nerva (r. 96-98) and Trajan (r. 98-117). Eventually, Capito was promoted to the similarly laudable role of Praefectus Vigilum—a position that made him commander of the city guard in Rome, with additional public safety responsibilities like overseeing firefighting and general peacekeeping. He was a busy man, indeed, but Capito was even more interesting for what he did in his free time. Besides being a powerful bureaucrat and administrator, Capito was also a great patron to the arts community in Rome, providing creatives with financial support, advertising, and venue locations to feature art.
Titinius Capito backed multiple genres of art. For one, he was a collector and financial backer of sculptures and statues. Most of all, however, he cherished the literary arts and even dabbled in writing poetry of his own. Capito’s contemporary and friend, Pliny the Younger (c. 61/62-113), wrote of the man’s interest in statues and poetry, stating, “Titinius Capito has obtained permission from the Emperor to set up a statue in the forum to Lucius Silanus…It is indeed Capito’s practice to show respect to famous men, and one must admire the reverence with which he cares for the family busts of Brutus, Cassius, and Cato which he set up in his own home, not being able to do so elsewhere. He also celebrates the lives of his greatest heroes in excellent verse…” (Pliny the Younger, Letters, 1.17).
Titinius Capito gave public readings of his own poetry at his estate, but, more importantly, he also scouted out other established or burgeoning authors and offered them various kinds of assistance. These writers and speakers were invited to use his home as a venue to showcase and orate works of literature. Capito built his project into something akin to a literary organization, regularly hosting authors and their works at scheduled and publicized times. On the public reading events, the aforementioned Pliny the Younger wrote:
“Titinius Capito is giving a reading, which it is my duty—or perhaps my urgent desire—to attend. He is a splendid personality who should be numbered among the shining lights of our generation; a patron of literature and admirer of literary men, whom he supports and helps in their careers. To many who are authors he is a haven of refuge and protection, while he is an example to all…He lends his house for public readings, and is wonderfully generous about attending those which are held elsewhere…He is writing on the deaths of famous men, some of whom were very dear to me; so I feel that I am performing a pious duty in being present at something like their funeral orations when I could not attend their funerals” (Pliny the Younger, Letters, 8.12).
Unfortunately, Titinius Capito’s poetic works have not survived. Yet, his legacy lives on in the respect and admiration that he gained due to his generous and enthusiastic support of the literary and artistic circles in Rome. Moreover, his impressive career as an imperial secretary and the commander of the guard in Rome was more than enough to earn him a place in the annals of history. Warrior, bureaucrat, civil servant, poet, and patron of the arts—Gnaeus Octavius Titinius Capito lived a diverse and interesting life.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Picture Attribution: (Compositional Study, possibly for The Grove of Academe, by Edwin Austin Abbey (1852–1911), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons and the Yale University Art Gallery).
Sources:
- The Letters of Pliny the Younger, translated by Betty Radice. New York: Penguin Classics, 1963, 1969.
- https://oxfordre.com/classics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-4510#acrefore-9780199381135-e-4510
- https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001/acref-9780198662778-e-3820
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/eques
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Office-of-Letters
