C. Appuleius Decianus
Encyclopedia
Gaius Appuleius Decianus was tribune of the plebs
in 98 BC, known primarily for his connection to politically motivated prosecutions in the Late Roman Republic
.
, lost the case because he expressed sorrow over the killing of the radical tribune Lucius Appuleius Saturninus
. Decianus's commitment to popularist
politics is well-established and consistent. His father was the Publius Decius (praetor
115 BC) who prosecuted Lucius Opimius
for the murder of the popularist leader Gaius Gracchus
. The formation of the name Appuleius Decianus indicates that he was adopted by a member of the gens
Appuleia and perhaps even by Saturninus himself. "Tumultuous efforts" were made during the tribunate of Decianus to avenge the deaths of Saturninus and Servilius Glaucia
.
The trial of Furius was politically motivated; no actual charge is even recorded, but may have been ambitus
(election irregularities). Furius had originally supported Saturninus, but ultimately broke with him as did the majority of the tax-collecting
equestrian order who rejected his plebs
-friendly policies. Growing opposition to Saturninus had compelled Gaius Marius
to renounce him, resulting in his proscription
and death. Furius had proposed a number of post-mortem penalties, such as the confiscation of his property, the destruction of his house, and the rescinding of some of his legislation. The social conflicts that culminated in Saturninus's death continued to play out in the law courts during the 90s. Decianus brought the case against Furius in retaliation, and chose to present it for the judgment of the people (iudicium populi) rather than in the court for which equites acted as judges.
Furius was acquitted. Appian
says that C. Canuleius was the tribune who prosecuted Furius; this may be a textual error
, an additional prosecutor, or a reference to a second trial. A mob, however, took their own revenge on Furius, attacking him and tearing his body to pieces.
, who had just completed his term as curule aedile in 99 BC. Revenge again may be a factor, but less clearly so. Lucius's older cousin of the same name
had been consular colleague in 100 BC when Marius turned against Saturninus. During the 90s and into the mid-80s, the Valerii Flacci tended to be moderate in their political tactics while supporting the popularist Marian-Cinnan faction. Decianus appears to have been unsuccessful in this prosecution as well; Flaccus's career shows no signs of having been hampered.
tribunal for which members of the equestrian order served as judges. The Bobbio Scholiast
notes that Decianus was condemned for his "seditious and tumultuous tribunate," to which may be compared similar remarks by Cicero on Sextus Titius, a tribune the same year as Furius. Decianus's sorrow at the death of Saturninus was used against him, as was the possession by Titius of a bust
of the demagogue; these signs of attachment to a public enemy
even after his death were construed as treasonous
.
After his trial, Decianus fled to Asia and sought refuge with Mithridates VI of Pontus
prior to the First Mithridatic War
. Although exile and flight was the customary response to condemnation, Decianus took the unusual measure of bringing his young son with him, indicating that he had no intention of trying to regain his place in Roman society.
The son, who had the same name, lived in Apollonis but retained his Roman citizenship. Cicero accuses both Deciani of participating in depredations against the free civitas
of Apollonis with Mithridates. This younger Decianus served as an advisor to the L. Valerius Flaccus who governed
Asia in 62 BC, but he was later one of the prosecutors in the case against Flaccus that is the subject of Cicero's defense speech Pro Flacco.
Tribune
Tribune was a title shared by elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. They were sacrosanct, in the sense that any assault on their person was...
in 98 BC, known primarily for his connection to politically motivated prosecutions in the Late Roman Republic
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
.
The case against P. Furius
Decianus attempted to prosecute Publius Furius (tribune in 100 or 99 BC), but according to CiceroCicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
, lost the case because he expressed sorrow over the killing of the radical tribune Lucius Appuleius Saturninus
Lucius Appuleius Saturninus
Lucius Appuleius Saturninus was a Roman popularist and tribune; he was a political ally of Gaius Marius, and his downfall caused a great deal of political embarrassment for Marius, who absented himself from public life until he returned to take up a command in the Social War of 91 to 88...
. Decianus's commitment to popularist
Populares
Populares were aristocratic leaders in the late Roman Republic who relied on the people's assemblies and tribunate to acquire political power. They are regarded in modern scholarship as in opposition to the optimates, who are identified with the conservative interests of a senatorial elite...
politics is well-established and consistent. His father was the Publius Decius (praetor
Praetor
Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties...
115 BC) who prosecuted Lucius Opimius
Lucius Opimius
Lucius Opimius was Roman consul in 121 BC, known for ordering the execution of 3,000 supporters of popular leader Gaius Gracchus without trial, using as pretext the state of emergency declared after Gracchus's recent and turbulent death....
for the murder of the popularist leader Gaius Gracchus
Gaius Gracchus
Gaius Sempronius Gracchus was a Roman Populari politician in the 2nd century BC and brother of the ill-fated reformer Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus...
. The formation of the name Appuleius Decianus indicates that he was adopted by a member of the gens
Gens
In ancient Rome, a gens , plural gentes, referred to a family, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same nomen and claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a stirps . The gens was an important social structure at Rome and throughout Italy during the...
Appuleia and perhaps even by Saturninus himself. "Tumultuous efforts" were made during the tribunate of Decianus to avenge the deaths of Saturninus and Servilius Glaucia
Gaius Servilius Glaucia
Gaius Servilius Glaucia was a Roman politician who served as tribune of the Plebs in 101 BC and praetor in 100 BC. He arranged for the murder of an elected tribune of plebs to make spot for Lucius Appuleius Saturninus who was the next one to become tribune by the votes...
.
The trial of Furius was politically motivated; no actual charge is even recorded, but may have been ambitus
Ambitus
In ancient Roman law, ambitus was a crime of political corruption, mainly a candidate's attempt to influence the outcome of an election through bribery or other forms of soft power...
(election irregularities). Furius had originally supported Saturninus, but ultimately broke with him as did the majority of the tax-collecting
Publican
In antiquity, publicans were public contractors, in which role they often supplied the Roman legions and military, managed the collection of port duties, and oversaw public building projects...
equestrian order who rejected his plebs
Plebs
The plebs was the general body of free land-owning Roman citizens in Ancient Rome. They were distinct from the higher order of the patricians. A member of the plebs was known as a plebeian...
-friendly policies. Growing opposition to Saturninus had compelled Gaius Marius
Gaius Marius
Gaius Marius was a Roman general and statesman. He was elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his dramatic reforms of Roman armies, authorizing recruitment of landless citizens, eliminating the manipular military formations, and reorganizing the...
to renounce him, resulting in his proscription
Proscription
Proscription is a term used for the public identification and official condemnation of enemies of the state. It is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a "decree of condemnation to death or banishment" and is a heavily politically charged word, frequently used to refer to state-approved...
and death. Furius had proposed a number of post-mortem penalties, such as the confiscation of his property, the destruction of his house, and the rescinding of some of his legislation. The social conflicts that culminated in Saturninus's death continued to play out in the law courts during the 90s. Decianus brought the case against Furius in retaliation, and chose to present it for the judgment of the people (iudicium populi) rather than in the court for which equites acted as judges.
Furius was acquitted. Appian
Appian
Appian of Alexandria was a Roman historian of Greek ethnicity who flourished during the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius.He was born ca. 95 in Alexandria. He tells us that, after having filled the chief offices in the province of Egypt, he went to Rome ca. 120, where he practised as...
says that C. Canuleius was the tribune who prosecuted Furius; this may be a textual error
Textual criticism
Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts...
, an additional prosecutor, or a reference to a second trial. A mob, however, took their own revenge on Furius, attacking him and tearing his body to pieces.
The case against L. Valerius Flaccus
Decianus also prosecuted Lucius Valerius Flaccus (suffect consul 86 BC)Lucius Valerius Flaccus (suffect consul 86 BC)
Lucius Valerius Flaccus was the suffect consul who completed the term of Gaius Marius in 86 BC. He was sent as governor in that year to the Roman province of Asia, but was murdered in a mutiny by Fimbria during the turmoil of the Sullan civil wars and the Mithridatic Wars.Flaccus is also known for...
, who had just completed his term as curule aedile in 99 BC. Revenge again may be a factor, but less clearly so. Lucius's older cousin of the same name
Lucius Valerius Flaccus (princeps senatus 86 BC)
Lucius Valerius Flaccus was a consul of the Roman Republic in 100 BC and princeps senatus during the civil wars of the 80s...
had been consular colleague in 100 BC when Marius turned against Saturninus. During the 90s and into the mid-80s, the Valerii Flacci tended to be moderate in their political tactics while supporting the popularist Marian-Cinnan faction. Decianus appears to have been unsuccessful in this prosecution as well; Flaccus's career shows no signs of having been hampered.
Tried and convicted
The political ineffectuality of Decianus was underscored when he himself was brought to trial after his term ended. The charges remain unspecified in the historical record, but he is most likely to have been brought before the new maiestasLaw of majestas
The Law of Majestas, or lex maiestas, refers to any one of several ancient Roman laws throughout the republican and Imperial periods dealing with crimes against the Roman people, state, or Emperor....
tribunal for which members of the equestrian order served as judges. The Bobbio Scholiast
Bobbio Scholiast
The Bobbio Scholiast was an anonymous scholiast working in the 7th century at the monastery of Bobbio and known for his annotations of texts from classical antiquity...
notes that Decianus was condemned for his "seditious and tumultuous tribunate," to which may be compared similar remarks by Cicero on Sextus Titius, a tribune the same year as Furius. Decianus's sorrow at the death of Saturninus was used against him, as was the possession by Titius of a bust
Bust (sculpture)
A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a person's head and neck, as well as a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is normally supported by a plinth. These forms recreate the likeness of an individual...
of the demagogue; these signs of attachment to a public enemy
Homo sacer
Homo sacer is a figure of Roman law: a person who is banned, may be killed by anybody, but may not be sacrificed in a religious ritual....
even after his death were construed as treasonous
Law of majestas
The Law of Majestas, or lex maiestas, refers to any one of several ancient Roman laws throughout the republican and Imperial periods dealing with crimes against the Roman people, state, or Emperor....
.
After his trial, Decianus fled to Asia and sought refuge with Mithridates VI of Pontus
Mithridates VI of Pontus
Mithridates VI or Mithradates VI Mithradates , from Old Persian Mithradatha, "gift of Mithra"; 134 BC – 63 BC, also known as Mithradates the Great and Eupator Dionysius, was king of Pontus and Armenia Minor in northern Anatolia from about 120 BC to 63 BC...
prior to the First Mithridatic War
First Mithridatic War
The First Mithridatic War was a war challenging Rome's expanding Empire and rule over the Greek world. In this conflict, the Kingdom of Pontus and many Greek cities rebelling against Rome were led by Mithridates VI of Pontus against the Roman Republic and the Kingdom of Bithynia...
. Although exile and flight was the customary response to condemnation, Decianus took the unusual measure of bringing his young son with him, indicating that he had no intention of trying to regain his place in Roman society.
The son, who had the same name, lived in Apollonis but retained his Roman citizenship. Cicero accuses both Deciani of participating in depredations against the free civitas
Civitas
In the history of Rome, the Latin term civitas , according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the cives, or citizens, united by law . It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilities on the one hand and rights of citizenship on the other...
of Apollonis with Mithridates. This younger Decianus served as an advisor to the L. Valerius Flaccus who governed
Roman governor
A Roman governor was an official either elected or appointed to be the chief administrator of Roman law throughout one or more of the many provinces constituting the Roman Empire...
Asia in 62 BC, but he was later one of the prosecutors in the case against Flaccus that is the subject of Cicero's defense speech Pro Flacco.
Selected primary sources
- Marcus Tullius CiceroCiceroMarcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
, Pro Flacco 51, 70ff. (on father and son); Pro RabirioGaius Rabirius PostumusGaius Rabirius Postumus, defended by Cicero in the extant speech Pro Rabirio Postumo, when charged with extortion in Egypt and complicity with Aulus Gabinius. Rabirius was a member of the equites order who lent a very large sum of money to Ptolemy Auletes , king of Egypt. Afterwards, Ptolemy XII...
Perduellionis Reo 24–25. - Valerius MaximusValerius MaximusValerius Maximus was a Latin writer and author of a collection of historical anecdotes. He worked during the reign of Tiberius .-Biography:...
8.1. - Bobbio Scholiast 94–95 in the edition of StanglThomas Stangl----Thomas Stangl was a German classical scholar and text critic. He is found referenced most often for his edition of scholia to Cicero's speeches , especially for his work on Asconius and the Bobbio Scholiast....
(1912).
Selected bibliography
- Gruen, Erich S.Erich S. GruenErich Stephen Gruen is an American classicist and ancient historian. He was the Gladys Rehard Wood Professor of History and Classics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught full-time from 1966 until 2008...
"Political Prosecutions in the 90's BC." Historia 15 (1966) 32–64. - Kelly, Gordon P. A History of Exile in the Roman Republic. Cambridge University Press, 2006, especially pp. 180–181. Limited preview online.