Gaius Silius (died AD 24) was a Roman senator who achieved successes as a general over German barbarians following the disaster of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. For this achievement he was appointed consul in AD 13 with Lucius Munatius Plancus as his colleague. However, years later Silius became entangled in machinations of the ambitious Praetorian prefect Sejanus and was forced to commit suicide.
Due to an ambiguity in the Fasti Capitolini, experts such as Mommsen and Attilio Degrassi believed Silius' full name was Gaius Silius Aulus Caecina Largus. However, Arthur and Joyce Gordon pointed out that the form of this name, known as polyonymy, was unusual, preceding any other known example by fifty years, and suggested, based on admittedly less reliable sources, that this entry was more accurately read as two names: Gaius Silius, and Aulus Caecina Largus, the latter an otherwise unknown senator.[1] Although this reading was endorsed by Ronald Syme,[2] it was considered as only a possibility until Diana Gorostidi Pi showed an inscription she called Fasti consulares Tusculani proved these were two distinct individuals.[3]