Bible Dictionaries
Gallio

Holman Bible Dictionary

(gal' lih oh) Personal name of unknown meaning. The deputy or proconsul of Achaia headquartered in Corinth, where his judgment seat has been discovered. Certain Jews brought Paul before Gallio seeking to get Roman punishment of him. They charged that Paul advocated an unlawful religion (Acts 18:12-17 ). Gallio refused to involve himself in Jewish religious affairs, even ignoring the crowd's beating of Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue.

Gallio was the son of Marcus Annaeus Seneca, a Spanish orator and financier, and the elder brother of Seneca, the philosopher and tutor of Nero. Lucius Junius Gallio, a rich Roman, adopted Gallio, naming him Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeus. Gallio's name appears on an inscription at Delphi that refers to the 26th acclamation of Claudius as emperor. This places Gallio in office in Corinth between A.D. 51,53. He was apparently proconsul from May 1,51, to May 1,52, though dates a year later are possible. The date gives evidence from outside the Bible for the time Paul was in Corinth and founded the church there.

Finding the climate at Corinth unhealthy, Gallio apparently welcomed the opportunity to return to Rome, where he counseled Nero until he and Seneca joined a conspiracy against the emperor. First Seneca died; then Nero forced Gallio to commit suicide about A.D. 65. See Achaia; Corinth; 1,2Corinthians; Paul; Roman Empire.