Gnaeus Flavius

Who is Gnaeus Flavius?

Gnaeus Flavius was the son of a freedman and rose to the office of aedile in the Roman Republic.

Flavius was secretary to the consul Appius Claudius, a civil service job paid from the public treasury. The position allowed him to gain a thorough knowledge of Roman law, which had traditionally been a prerogative of the elite. He became the first person to publish an account of legal procedures.

As a result of his high profile, he was elected aedile for 304 BC, one of two magistrates responsible for the maintenance of public buildings, purchase of grain, and regulation of festivals, despite the fact that at the time the sons of freedmen were also regarded merely as libertini. His election shocked the traditional governing elite into enacting voter registration "reforms" designed to curtail the growing voting power of freedmen in Rome. As aedile, Flavius also displayed in the Forum a calendar indicating the dies fasti, those days on which legal business was permitted.