[1] Barbarus was also a member of the sodales Antoniniani, a religious fraternity which attended to the cult of the emperor Antoninus Pius.
Ronald Syme notes that a Greek inscription from Argos that attests to his filiation as "Sex.
[6] His career began in his teens with the vigintiviri, as one of the tresviri monetalis; assignment to this board was usually allocated to patricians or favored individuals.
Bowersock states that from 162 to 165 Barbarus was a regular attendee to Galen's anatomy demonstrations in Rome; other distinguished Romans in the audience included Lucius Sergius Paullus, consul for the second time in 168 and urban prefect, and Gnaeus Claudius Severus, consul for the second time in 173.
[9] Around the year 164, he became one of the comes Augustalis, the inner circle of advisors in attendance on the Emperor; this was when Barbarus and the empress Faustina escorted Lucilla to Ephesus where she married Lucius Verus.