Asprenas

a surname of the Nonii, a consular family under the early emperors. (Comp. Plin. Nat. 30.20.)

1. C. Nonius Asprenas, was a performer in the Trojae lusus under Augustus, and in consequence of an injury which he sustained from a fall in the game, he received a golden chain from Augustus, and was allowed to assume the surname of Torquatus, both for himself and his posterity. (Suet. Oct. 43.)

2. L. Asprenas, a legate under his maternal uncle, Varus, A. D. 10, preserved the Roman army from total destruction after the death of Varus. (D. C. 56.22; Vell. 2.120.) He is probably the same as the L. Nonius Asprenas who was consul A. D. 6, and as the L. Asprenas mentioned by Tacitus, who was proconsul of Africa at the death of Augustus, A. D. 14, and who, according to some accounts, sent soldiers, at the command of Tiberius, to kill Sempronius Gracchus. (Tac. Ann. 1.53.) He is mentioned again by Tacitus, under A. D. 20. (Ann. 3.18.)

3. P. Nonius Asprenas, consul, A. D. 38. (D. C. 59.9; Frontinus, de Aquaeduct. 100.13.)

4. L. Nonius Asprenas and P. Nonius Asprenas are two orators frequently introduced as speakers in the Controversiae (1-4, 8, 10, 11, &c.) of M. Seneca.

appointed governor of Galatia and Pamphylia by Galba, A. D. 70, induced the partisans of the counterfeit Nero to put him to death. (Tac. Hist. 2.9.)