ABSTRACT
The choice of governor fell on a most experienced and distinguished senator, Aulus Didius Gallus, who had been cos suff. in 39, and there is evidence that he actually asked for the appointment. This information comes from Quintilian (AD 35-95), a famous teacher of rhetoric, in his book Institutio Oratoria which has as its theme the education of the orator. As an example of irony, he quoted comments by Domitius Afer (vi. 3. 68) on the complaints of Gallus when he was appointed to a province for which he had canvassed. The confirmation that this was Britain is the statement on the tombstone of Quintus Veranius, his successor as governor (see p. 104 below), which tells us that he was appointed to Britain-cum non petierit (‘without having sought it’)—which seems to be a tart comment on Didius Gallus. But how this came about is not immediately obvious. He could have asked to succeed Scapula before the guerilla campaign became serious. Then having been given the post on the governor’s unexpected death, he found on his arrival that conditions on the western frontier had seriously deteriorated. By then Gallus had led a very full career, although his cursus honorum is only known from a fragment of an inscription erected in his honour from Olympia.2
