Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus

Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus or Gallio was a Roman senator and brother of famous writer Seneca. He is best known for his impartial judgment of a legal case involving Paul the Apostle in Corinth.

Life

Gallio (originally named Lucius Annaeus Novatus) was the son of the rhetorician Seneca the Elder and the elder brother of Seneca the Younger, was born in Corduba (Cordova) in 1 about the beginning of the Christian era.

He was adopted by Lucius Junius Gallio, a rhetorician of some repute, from whom he took the name of Junius Gallio. His brother Seneca, who dedicated to him the treatises De Ira and De Vita Beata, speaks of the charm of his disposition, also alluded to by the poet Statius (Silvae, ii.7, 32). It is probable that he was banished to Corsica with his brother, and that both returned together to Rome when Agrippina selected Seneca to be tutor to Nero. Towards the close of the reign of Claudius, Gallio was proconsul of the newly constituted senatorial province of Achaea, but seems to have been compelled by ill-health to resign the post within a few years. He was referred to by Claudius as "my friend and proconsul" in the Delphi Inscription circa 52.