Marcus nonius balbus biography for kids

 

Marcus Nonius Balbus was a Roman senator and proconsul of the late 1st century BC.

He endowed Herculaneum with all sorts of facilities, including paying to rebuild its basilica after an earthquake. For these great favours the townsfolk named him patron of their city and filled the basilica with statues of him and his family, and set up a monument to him in a busy square outside the Suburban Baths.

Marcus Nonius M. f.

Marcus Nonius Balbus was not a native citizen of Herculaneum.

Marcus Nonius Balbus was a Roman senator and proconsul of the late 1st century BC. He endowed Herculaneum with all sorts of facilities.

The Roman Marble Equestrian Statues of Marcus Nonius Balbus, Senior and Junior.

Marcus Nonius Balbus, the great patron of Herculaneum.

This has recently been restored though the statue is a reproduction (the original is in the Naples Archaeological Museum).

‘Balbus’ is a common cognomen in Roman times and literally means ‘stammerer’. Perhaps the man indeed had a stammer, or had stammered at some point in his life, but more likely it was a nickname that he had simply inherited, in the same manner that Roman emperors would sport the cognomen ‘Caesar’.

Evidence from inscriptions reveal further information about the man.

Originally from Nuceria, he had settled in Herculaneum, where he had become a popular benefactor