Gallio
Roman senator, brother of the philosopher Seneca, and proconsul of Achaia. Acts says that he refused to hear a charge against Paul at Corinth. An inscription at Delphi that mentions him gives a fixed point for dating Paul’s life.
Acts says that when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia the Jews of Corinth brought Paul before his tribunal, accusing him of persuading people to worship God contrary to the law. Gallio ruled that the matter was a dispute about their own law and not a crime, and dismissed it before Paul could speak (Acts 18:12–17).
A letter of the emperor Claudius cut in stone at Delphi, of which fragments survive, mentions a Gallio whose name the editors complete as Junius Gallio, “my friend and proconsul”; parts of the words for “friend” and “proconsul” are restored. The editors date the letter to AD 52 (Gallio inscription (FD III 4, 286) lines 5–6). That date puts his year of office at 51–52, or possibly 52–53; see Paul Carries the Gospel into Europe for the reckoning. The philosopher Seneca mentions that Gallio began to run a fever in Achaia and took ship at once (Seneca, Moral Letters 104.1). Tacitus, who calls Seneca his brother, shows him in the senate in AD 65, after Seneca’s death, pleading for his own life (Tacitus, Annals 15.73).
In the timeline
- about AD 49 to AD 52, estimated datePaul Carries the Gospel into Europe
With Silas and Timothy, Paul crosses from Asia Minor to Macedonia and founds churches at Philippi, Thessalonica and Corinth. Acts brings him before the proconsul Gallio at Corinth, whose year of office an inscription at Delphi puts at about AD 51–52.
Primary sources
Scripture
Moral Letters to Lucilius
- Seneca, Moral Letters 104.1en.wikisource.org
Annals
- Tacitus, Annals 15.73penelope.uchicago.edu