Gaius Aufidius Victorinus was a Roman senator and general of the second century. A friend of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius and the son-in-law of the advocate and orator Marcus Cornelius Fronto, he was twice consul and governor of several Roman provinces.
Career Victorinus came from Pisaurum in Umbria. He was a student of Fronto at the same time as Marcus Aurelius, where their friendship began.Historia Augusta, "Marcus Aurelius", ch. 2
In 155 Victorinus became suffect consul, then from c. 162 to c. 166 he was governor of Germania Superior, where he was commissioned to repulse the invading Chatti, which he did successfully.Géza Alföldy, Konsulat und Senatorenstand unter der Antoninen (Bonn: Rudolf Habelt Verlag 1977), pp. 228f Two letters Fronto wrote to him while governor survive. In the first, Fronto petitions for his help in getting a position for the rhetorician Antoninus Aquila.Fronto, Ad Amicos I.7; translated by C.R. Haines, The Correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto (London: Heineman, 1919), vol. 2 pp. 169f In the second, Fronto updates Victorinus about his two sons, whom Victorinus had left with Fronto while in Germania Superior.Fronto, Ad Amicos I.12; translated by Haines, Correspondence, vol. 2 pp. 171f
After his tenure in Germania Superior, Victorinus became governor of Dacia (168/9), then Hispania Baetica (probably 170/1) and Hispania Tarraconensis (171-172).Alföldy, Konsulat und Senatorenstand, p. 230 Victorinus then held the Proconsulate of Africa (c. 173/5)Alföldy, Konsulat und Senatorenstand, p. 210 and between 177 and 179 was governor of Syria.Alföldy, Konsulat und Senatorenstand, p. 240 In the last year of his tenure as Urban prefect (probably from 179 to 183),Alföldy, Konsulat und Senatorenstand, pp. 287f Victorinus was consul a second time with Commodus as his colleague.
At the death of Marcus Aurelius and the beginning of Commodus' tenure, Victorinus was still in high esteem, but Cassius Dio suggests that Commodus, probably at the instigation of the powerful Praetorian prefect Sextus Tigidius Perennis, sought to kill Victorinus.Dio, Roman History 72.11.1-2
Family Victorinus married Fronto's daughter Gratia.Fronto writes of their betrothal in Ad Amicos II.11; translated by Haines, Correspondence, vol. 1 p. 293 They had at least three sons. One died at the age of three in Germania Superior while Victorinus was governor of that province.Fronto, De nepote Amiss, II; Ad Verum Imp. II.9; both translated by Haines, Correspondence, vol. 2 pp. 223-234. The other two are Marcus Aufidius Fronto (consul ordinarius 199) and Gaius Aufidius Victorinus (consul ordinarius 200).
References
Further reading H.-G. Pflaum, "La carriere de C. Aufidius Victorinus condisciple de Marc Aurele", CRAI, 100 (1956), pp. 189–200