Manius Acilius Glabrio (consul 91)


 * This article is about the consul of AD 95. For other persons with this name, see Manius Acilius Glabrio (disambiguation).

Manius Acilius Glabrio was the name of a Roman consul in AD 91, conjointly with Trajan, who was afterwards emperor. He belonged to one of the noblest families of Rome, and no fewer than nine men sharing his name held the consular office. As he was of great strength and activity, he was commanded by Domitian to descend into the arena and fight a huge lion. He slew the animal, and was greeted with so much applause, that he roused the jealousy of the emperor, who first banished, and then put him to death on some false pretext.

According to Suetonius, the emperor caused several senators and ex-consuls to be executed on the charge of conspiring against the empire -- quasi molitores rerum novarum, "as contrivers of revolution" (Domit., c. x), which in Glabrio's case was adhering to the Christian religion. Xiphilinus, speaking of the executions of AD 95, says that some members of the imperial family and other persons of importance were condemned for atheism, as having embraced the Christian faith. After his death, his body was brought to Rome, and buried on the Via Salaria, in the catacomb of Priscilla.