Having started his equestrian career by being chosen as one of the public horse and then as a juryman, Balbus became the personal assistant to a senator. He began his military career in command of Cohort II Lucensium in Lower Moesia, probably in Hadrian’s reign. Then he came to Britain and saw service in the North, Before his final command as prefect of Ala I Cannanefatum in Pannonia. The first civilian Post he held was as imperial procurator responsible for overseeing the census in Galatia & Paphlagonia; next came that of superintendent of roads for the Via Cornetia & Triumphalis. The final post we know of was as imperial procurator for the principality of Chersonessus, in which he distinguished himself by his management of food supplies during a famine. The town council of the chief town, Aelium Coela, on behalf of all the people of Chersonessus (on the Hellespont) had a statue made and, with its base on which an inscription in Greek was carved, took it to be erected in Ephesus. Since Aelium Coela only became a city after Hadrian’s visit of AD123-4, it seems Balbus served with the legion some time in the reigns of Hadrian or Antoninus Pius.