We actually have a pretty good idea of the career of Publius Sulpicius Quirinius. As all up-and-coming Roman leaders were expected to follow the cursus honorum his youth and early magistrates are fairly routine. He was elected consul in 12 BC and when his term was up Augustus appointed him to the governorship of Galatia and Pamphyllia in Turkey. While in Pamphyllia between 5 and 3 BC he defeated a rebel tribe the Homonadenses and was awarded a triumph in 3 BC. He next turns up as a member of the staff of Augustus' grandson, Gaius Caesar, who was Governor of Syria in 1 AD and who died as a result of wounds sustained in a minor skirmish. He was a comrade in arms of Tiberius who became emperor upon Augustus' death.
Alas, there is no room for Quirinius to have been governor of Syria twice. He was a busy man.
Alas, there is no room for Quirinius to have been governor of Syria twice. He was a busy man.
