Gaius Trebonius

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Gaius Trebonius (* around 90 BC ; † 43 BC ) was a Roman general and politician. He was also one of Caesar's murderers .

Life

Trebonius came from a rather insignificant knightly family , but was encouraged by Caesar , who had recognized the young man's organizational talent. So he was a homo novus . In 58 BC As quaestor , Trebonius was against the adoption of Publius Clodius Pulcher by a plebeian . Three years later, as a tribune of the people , he enforced in the Lex Trebonia that Crassus became governor in Syria and Pompey in Spain . He also requested that Caesar's command in Gaul be extended for another five years. As a legate of Caesar in Gaul from 54 BC Until 49 BC He distinguished himself as a capable general, especially during the siege of Massilia .

After the outbreak of civil war and the capture of Rome by Caesar, he became city ​​praetor in the capital. In 47 BC Caesar sent him to Spain, where he was supposed to remove the last remains of the republican resistance. However, since he could not achieve any military success against the leaders of the opposing party, Gnaeus and Sextus Pompeius as well as Titus Labienus , he was soon replaced.

In 45 BC As consul suffectus in Gallia Narbonensis , he tried to concoct a conspiracy with a circle of close confidants of Caesar with the aim of murdering the dictator . According to Plutarch , he even tried to win Mark Antony , who was at the same time in Narbo , for the plan, which ultimately was not carried out.

Why the once loyal follower of Caesar turned away from his patron is not entirely clear. Perhaps out of personal disappointment, perhaps out of fear of the Juliers' excessive power, he joined the circle of conspirators around Brutus and Cassius . On the Ides of March 44 BC They stabbed him in front of a Senate meeting . In this conspiracy, Trebonius was given the task of engaging Marcus Antonius in a conversation before the meeting so that he could not rush to help Caesar.

After the act, which the assassins declared as tyrannicide , Trebonius left Rome relatively quickly in order to take up his rightful governor in the province of Asia . Because the Caesar murderers Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus had also been assigned provinces, namely Macedonia and Syria , the conspirators controlled almost the entire east of the Roman Empire.

Trebonius, however, was soon captured, tortured and killed in Smyrna by the consular Publius Cornelius Dolabella , who regarded Syria as his rightful province and had to cross Asia on the way there .

Trebonius was also active as a writer and had a correspondence with Cicero .

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ The bursary of Trebonius has mostly been dated to the year 60 in research. However, FX Ryan has shown in detail that Trebonius was probably more like 58 quaestor ( The Quaestorship of Trebonius in Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 140, 1997, pp. 414-416; online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ).@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.uni-koeln.de  
  2. ↑ Plutarch, Antonius 13: 1-3.
personal data
SURNAME Trebonius, Gaius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman general and politician
DATE OF BIRTH around 90 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 43 BC Chr.