Pallas

Who was Pallas?

Marcus Antonius Pallas was a prominent Greek freedman and secretary during the reigns of the Roman Emperors Claudius and Nero. His younger brother was Marcus Antonius Felix, a procurator of Iudaea Province. According to Tacitus, Pallas and Felix descended from the Greek Kings of Arcadia.

Pallas was originally a slave of Antonia Minor, a daughter of Mark Antony and niece of Emperor Augustus. Pallas took her name when freed. Josephus mentions him as the slave sent by Antonia to deliver evidence to the emperor Tiberius concerning the murder of his son Julius Caesar Drusus by Sejanus. Antonia probably manumitted Pallas between the years of 31 and 37, when he would have passed the minimum age for freedom. He is listed as owning land in Egypt during that period, possibly as a reward for his servitude. When Antonia died in 37, he became the client of her son, Claudius, as tradition dictated at the death of a former master and patron.

As a freedman, Pallas rose to great heights in the imperial government. From the beginning of Claudius' reign, the senate was openly hostile to him, which forced him to centralize powers. The daily maintenance of the empire was too much for one man, so Claudius divided it up amongst his trusted freedmen. Pallas was made secretary of the treasury. He did this job with such efficiency that Cornelius Scipio proposed before the Senate that he be rewarded. The position apparently enabled Pallas to reward himself as well, as he is later listed as one of the richest men of the time by Pliny the Elder. The historians do admit that he never embezzled directly from the imperial account, and his wealth may have come from his financial acumen. Some ancient historians claim that he was able to control the emperor through his high-ranking position, but this is probably not the case. When his brother Felix was recalled to Rome to stand trial for maladministration, Pallas could not prevent him from being banished, though he was at the height of his career. Nor could he prevent his fellow freedman-administrator Polybius from being executed for treason.