Gaius Proculeius

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Proculeius prevents Cleopatra from suicide, painting by Jean-Eugène-Charles Alberti (1810)

Gaius Proculeius (* probably before 56 BC) was a rich Roman knight and influential friend of the Emperor Augustus .

Life

Coin finds suggest that Gaius Proculeius was the son of Lucius Proculeius . The Horace commentator Porphyrio states that he loved his brothers Scipio and Murena so much that after they lost their property in the Roman Civil War, he shared his own property with them. The brother named Murena with his cognomen is the consul of 23 BC. BC, Aulus Terentius Varro Murena , who was probably more of a stepbrother of Proculeius. In addition, the historian Rudolf Hanslik considers Proculeius to be older than the consul of 23 BC because of the passage in Horace. BC, so that he was to be regarded as a son from the first marriage of the same mother. Terentia , the wife of Augustus' friend Gaius Maecenas , was a stepsister of Proculeius.

When Octavian (as Augustus is called before his accession to the throne) suffered a heavy defeat in a sea battle (36 BC ) during his long and eventful war against Sextus Pompeius during a landing maneuver near Tauromenium (Sicily), he wanted to be in a seemingly hopeless situation to be killed by Proculeius. Fortunately for him, however, Proculeius refused to fulfill this wish, because Octavian finally managed to land on the Italian coast by boat.

Since some coins were discovered by Proculeius on the island of Kephallenia , it can be assumed that he participated in the victorious battle of Actium (September 2, 31 BC) against Marcus Antonius at Octavian's side and then with some ships to Kephallenia was sent. When Octavian marched against Egypt (30 BC) to finally defeat his former triumvirate colleague, Proculeius accompanied him. According to Plutarch's melodramatic portrayal of Antony's death, the Roman general allegedly advised his lover, the Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII , to trust Octavian's friends, especially Proculeius, before he passed away in her arms in the room of her locked mausoleum near Alexandria. Shortly after Antony's death (August 1, 30 BC), Proculeius appeared in front of the tomb on behalf of Octavian to get hold of the queen alive if possible. Octavian was afraid that Cleopatra could burn herself with her treasures piled up in the mausoleum and allegedly intended to take her along on a triumphal procession . But Cleopatra did not let Proculeius in, but negotiated with him through the locked door, because she wanted to get the promise that her children could rule in Egypt in the future. Proculeius said goodbye with encouraging words, but without any sure promises, reported to Octavian and soon returned with Gaius Cornelius Gallus . While he was negotiating again with Cleopatra at the locked door, Proculeius and two servants were able to enter the mausoleum via a ladder through an open window. He surprised the queen, who was talking to Cornelius Gallus through the door, and was able to wrest the dagger with which she tried to stab herself in the first shock. Cleopatra was captured and from then on closely guarded by the released Epaphroditus . A few days later Cleopatra managed to put an end to her life.

The politically not ambitious Proculeius never held a public office, but he continued to enjoy great favor with the new Princeps. Therefore he dared to call Valerius Largus, the accuser of the after his conviction in 26 BC. By suicide, to publicly revile Cornelius Gallus. Furthermore, the sharp and cynical litigator Cassius Severus was not allowed to enter the house of Proculeius.

Emperor Tiberius later claimed in the Senate that Augustus had considered marrying off his daughter Julia to Proculeius after the untimely death of her husband Marcus Claudius Marcellus (23 BC). If Augustus actually had such plans, he refrained from them in any case, because he instead wed his daughter to his friend and outstanding Admiral Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa .

Because of an ailment in his stomach, the reclusive Proculeius finally committed suicide by drinking gypsum paste. He left a son.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Porphyry to Horace , Odes 2, 2, 5f.
  2. ↑ R. Hanslik (see Lit.), Col. 72f.
  3. ↑ Pliny the Elder , Natural History 7, 148; see. Appian , Civil Wars 5, 464–467 and Cassius Dio 49, 5, 3–5; J. Bleicken, Augustus , 1998, p. 223f.
  4. ^ Roman Provincial Coinage I 1359-1362.
  5. ^ Plutarch , Antonius 77, 7.
  6. ↑ Plutarch, Antonius 78, 4-79, 6; Cassius Dio 51, 11, 3-5; on this J. Brambach, Kleopatra , 1996, p. 324f .; C. Schäfer, Cleopatra , 2006, p. 242.
  7. ↑ Cassius Dio 53, 24, 2.
  8. ↑ Quintilian , Institutio oratoria 6, 3, 79.
  9. ↑ Tacitus , Annals 4, 40, 6.
  10. ↑ Pliny, Natural History 36, 183.
  11. ^ Quintilian, Institutio oratoria 9, 3, 68.
personal data
SURNAME Proculeius, Gaius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman politician
DATE OF BIRTH before 56 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH after 23 BC Chr.