Obedient Unto Death, Fortunes of Death: Secrets of Ephesus series

Character snippets: Quintus Catius Sabinus – Sabina’s father, a Roman magistrate titled Eirenarch, Guardian of the Peace.

Catius was born near Rome to a wealthy equestrian family (upper class, but not an elite Senatorial family). At age 18, he joined the army to begin rising through the ranks and becoming a Senator in the Roman governing body. That became impossible when Nero confiscated the family’s fortune and property.  

At age 27, a friend of his father recommended Catius for the position of Quaestor, a junior magistrate with the provincial governor of Ephesus. There, he met and fell in love with Sabina’s mother, Korinna, the 17-year-old daughter of a local magistrate and a lifelong Christian. He considers her family’s religion eccentric but not a deterrent to their marriage.

A year after the marriage, in 68 AD, Sabina was born, and a year after that, Catius returned to the army to fight under Titus, the son of the new emperor Vespasian. He distinguished himself fighting during the Jewish revolt and the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

Korinna dies in childbirth when Sabina is eight years old, leaving her an only child. Her father is granted leave from the army at age 36. Titus recommends him for the position of Eirenarch, the keeper of the peace, a local magisterial office that also serves as a liaison to the Roman governor. It is usually a limited term at the discretion of each new governor, but his ability to collect information, discern trouble, and identify dissent has kept him serving for 20 years.  

At this point, he has not remarried and has expressed little interest in his daughter. He is unconcerned about Sabina’s unmarried state and takes her care and management of the house for granted. He is a nominal believer in the pagan gods but also employs the logic of the stoics. Sabina’s outlawed Christian faith is dangerous for the family and disastrous for his magisterial position and imperial duties. If Korinna hadn’t extracted a deathbed oath to allow Sabina to continue worshiping her Christian God, he would have forbidden it. He is not a superstitious man, but provoking the ghost of his dead wife by breaking his oath could bring adversity, which he, so far, is not willing to risk.