Lucius Licinius Crassus

Lucius Licinius Crassus (* 140 BC ; † 91 BC ) was a Roman politician of the late Republic , who was primarily known as a speaker.

As a 19-year-old young man, he was a widely admired speaker, became quaestor in the province of Asia and used his stay there for rhetorical and philosophical studies. Returned to Rome, he was 107 BC. BC People's tribune , around 100 BC Curular aedile , 95 BC. Chr. Consul , in the following year proconsul in Gaul (probably Cisalpine Gaul , perhaps also even Narbonese ) 92. Chr. Censor . From an unknown point in time until his death, he was an Augur .

According to his political views, he belonged to the moderate aristocracy; therefore he attacked Gaius Papirius Carbo , the former supporter of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus , in the speech he gave as a 19-year-old youth , spoke 106 BC. For the Servilian law, through which the senators came back into possession of the courts for a short time, Quintus Servilius later defended Caepio when he was in 103 BC. Was accused by the Tribune Gaius Norbanus ; Furthermore, together with his colleague in the consulate, Quintus Mucius Scaevola , he brought in the Lex Licinia Mucia, by which the allies were prohibited from illegally exercising civil rights .

In his house on the Palatine Hill he taught Marcus Tullius Cicero and his brother Quintus in the late 1990s , with a focus on rhetoric and philosophy. In 91 BC In the Senate, Crassus defended the laws of Marcus Livius Drusus aimed at a reconciliation of the Senate and People's Party, but died as a result of the excitement with which he fought his opponent, the consul Gaius Marcius Philippus . He was respected for his eloquence and legal scholarship. In his work De oratore ("About the Speaker"), Cicero lets him appear in conversation with Antonius and others and compares Crassus' oratory in his dialogue Brutus with his own. His most famous trial was the causa Curiana , in which he won the fundamental judgment in a speech battle against Quintus Mucius Scaevola that testaments are to be interpreted according to the will of the author.

The wife of Crassus was Mucia , the daughter of the consul from 117 BC. BC, Quintus Mucius Scaevola (Augur) , and the Laelia. The marriage of Crassus and Mucia had two daughters. The elder Licinia married the praetor from 93 BC. BC, Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica , the younger Licinia was the wife of Gaius Marius the Younger , son of the seven-time consul Gaius Marius .

literature

• Michèle Ducos: Crassus (L. Licinius). In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 2, CNRS Éditions, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-271-05195-9 , pp. 485-486.
• Werner Suerbaum : L. Licinius Crassus. In: Werner Suerbaum (Ed.): The archaic literature. From the beginning to Sulla's death (= Handbook of the Latin Literature of Antiquity. Vol. 1). CH Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-48134-5 , pp. 510-514.

Remarks

1. ^ On the political career of Licinius Crassus see T. Robert S. Broughton : The Magistrates Of The Roman Republic. Volume 2: 99 BC - 31 BC (= Philological Monographs. Vol. 15, Part 2, ZDB -ID 418575-4 ). American Philological Association, New York NY 1952, pp. 4 f., 11, 17.
2. ↑ Francisco Pina Polo : Rome, that's me. Marcus Tullius Cicero. One life. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-608-94645-1 , p. 32.
3. ↑ Cicero , Brutus 211f.