Aulus Didius Gallus Fabricius Veiento

Who is Aulus Didius Gallus Fabricius Veiento?

Aulus Didius Gallus Fabricius Veiento was a Roman politician and an adept in the art of political survival. In AD 62, early in Nero's reign, he was impeached, while Praetor, as the author of Codicilli, mock wills which libelled priests and senators. During Domitian's reign he was active as a delator, while according to Pliny the Younger his appearance as a guest at the table of the emperor Nerva enraged the more respectable guests mentioned in Juvenal, Satire 4, line 127:

which translates as:

The 'monster' to which Juvenal makes Veiento refer was a turbot of unusual size.

A votive inscription of Trajanic date records Veiento's satisfaction of a vow to the goddess, Nemetona, in Moguntiacum. The inscription reads as follows:

which translates as: "A Didius Gallus [F]abricius Veiento, three times a consul, Member of the Board of Fifteen for Conducting the Sacred Rites, Member of the College of Augustales, Member of the College of Flaviales, Member of the College of Titiales, and his Attica willingly satisfied their vow to Nemetona, who deserved it." According to Dessau, Mommsen conjectured that Veiento had gone to Moguntiacum and performed the right to Nemetona when serving as one of the legates who brought the news of his adoption to Trajan in 97.