An inscription from
Lugdunum (now lost) provides details of his
cursus honorum. Quartinus began his career in the emperor's service as an equestrian
tribune with
Legio III Cyrenaica, which was stationed at
Bostra in
Syria. He pleased the emperor
Trajan, who
adlected him
in splendissimum ordinem, which,
Ronald Syme explains, means that he was "given the
latus clavus and he entered the Senate as
quaestor urbanus". Syme also offers a possible reason for this honor: as tribune in III Cyrenaica, Quartinus participated in the Roman occupation of
Arabia Petraea in the years 105/106. Despite this honor, Quartinus' career was not rapid. After reaching the
praetorship, he was
legate to a
proconsul of
Asia, then
juridicus in
Hispania Tarraconensis, which duties we know he carried out in the years 117 and 119. During a period of
strife with Parthia in 123, Quartinus was commander of a force composed of the legions
II Traiana and III Cyrenaica, and their auxiliaries. He had to serve as governor of
Gallia Lugdunensis before at last acceding to his consulate, over twenty years after he had been promoted to senatorial status.
Werner Eck, in his list of senatorial office-holders for this period, cannot provide a more specific date for Quartinus' tenure in Lugdunensis than "between 123 and 130". Quartinus was also assigned another office in the emperor's service, governor of
Germania Superior, where a
military diploma attests his presence in the province on 16 October 134.
Anthony Birley regards him as possibly serving as governor of
Britain in the mid-130s. The last office Quartinus is known to have held was the proconsular governorship of Asia, at a date estimated by
Géza Alföldy to be 144/145. Admission of Quartinus to the
septemviri epulonum, one of the four major priesthoods of ancient Rome, is no longer accepted; he likely held a minor priesthood of
curio. == References ==