While governor of the province called Germania Superior, motivated by a personal grudge against Emperor Domitian, he led a rebellion known as the Revolt of Saturninus, involving the legions Legio XIV Gemina and Legio XXI Rapax, camped in Moguntiacum (Mainz).
Due to the fact Saturninus was subjected to a damnatio memoriae following his defeat and death, it is difficult to reconstruct his life before his revolt.
Ronald Syme has offered a possible cursus honorum for Saturninus, based on inscriptions with erasures of the relevant dates.
He expected his Germanic allies to cross the Rhine to support him, but this was thwarted by a sudden thaw of the river ice, and the revolt was quickly put down by Domitian's generals Lucius Appius Maximus Norbanus and the future emperor Trajan.
The Legio XXI was sent to Pannonia, and Domitian passed a law prohibiting two legions from sharing the same camp.