the imperial service. He started as a member of one of the four boards of the vigintiviri, the decemviri stlitibus judicandis; membership in one of these four boards was a preliminary and required first step toward gaining entry into the Roman Senate. A letter from Pliny the Younger to Falco written in 97 helps fix the date he advanced to the next magistracy, plebeian tribune, and indicates Falco was born around the year 70. While tribune, Falco at least once used his prerogative, interceding unsuccessfully for Aulus Didius Gallus Fabricius Veiento, favorite of the hated emperor Domitian and thrice consul, during the stormy session of the Senate when Pliny attacked Publicius Certus. Despite his defense of Veiento, Pliny was not offended by Falco's action, or at least not much for his later letters to Falco are cordial. McDermott dates Falco's tenure as praetor peregrinus to 99 or 100. Birley describes Falco's career as "undistinguished" until he was put in command of the Legio V Macedonica during the First Dacian War (101-2). His actions while commanding the legion earned him dona militaria. Following the conclusion of the war, he was made governor of Lycia et Pamphylia, and then ("unusually", notes Anthony Birley) Judea; Birley speculates that the annexation of territory that became the province of Arabia Petraea "made it desirable to appoint a particularly experienced man to the adjacent province." His consulship followed not long after, which he may have held in absentia. Upon his return to Rome, Falco became the first curator of the Via Traiana. While admitting that this was not a post of major importance, especially for a consular whose earlier and later appointments were so notable, McDermott notes Trajan's concern for roads and other infrastructure, and that the existing Via Appia, which ran through the Pomptine Marshes, was inadequate for traffic. Thus "his charge was really to build the road" and work was completed by the year 112. After a few years without employment, Falco served as governor of Moesia Inferior, where he is attested in 116 and 117. His appointment to govern Britain came soon after; Birley opines that it "must have been one of Hadrian's first acts." Indeed, the Historia Augusta reports that when Hadrian became emperor, he was confronted with a series of rebellions across the empire, which included Britain where "the Britons could not be kept under Roman control". Sheppard Frere puts the