Marcus Nonius Balbus

Marcus Nonius Balbus the Younger was a Roman official who lived in the first century BCE, during the time of Augustus. He was a prominent public figure in the ancient Campanian town of Herculaneum, where he sponsored public infrastructure, and in whose ruins numerous statues and at least eleven inscriptions honouring him have been found.

Origins and career Marcus Nonius and his family, the Balbi – a branch of the plebeian gens Nonia – were from the town of Nucera, and therefore a part of the Roman tribe Menenia. He was the son of a father of the same name, and a mother named Viciria Archais, daughter of Aulus, from Rusellae in Etruria. Balbus the younger was the first member of his family to rise from equestrian to senatorial class. At some point he married Volasella Tertia, an Etruscan woman thought to be from a senatorial family. As Octavian's ally, Balbus would go on to hold the office of praetor, probably in 30 BCE. While still a young man, or middle An equestrian statue of Marcus Nonius Balbus depicted as a young man, excavated from the ruins of Herculaneum. Several equestrian statues of Balbus have been found. According to inscriptions, one of these was donated by "the people of Herculaneum"; another by the people of his former hometown, "the Nucerians his fellow townsfolk".

An extraordinary funerary altar was set up on a sea-side terrace in Herculaneum to honour Balbus after his death, with an inscription by the town council declaring several public honours to be given to Balbus posthumously:

Balbus's descendants and freedmen were also prominently mentioned in public inscriptions.