Lucius Vettius

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Lucius Vettius (* probably in Picenum ; † 59 BC in Rome ) was a Roman knight and notorious informer in the 1st century BC. Initially in the service of Cicero , Vettius later denounced several enemies of Caesar during the so-called "Vettius Affair" .

Youth and first denunciations

Vettius probably came from Picenum and served at a young age as an officer in the alliance war under Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo . 89 BC In this activity he stood before Asculum with Strabo's army , presumably together with Lucius Sergius Catilina , Marcus Tullius Cicero and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus . Later he seems to have been a favorite of Sulla , and he got rich from the proscriptions .

Vettius was initially a follower of Catiline, who in 66 BC. Was responsible for the first Catilinarian conspiracy . In 64 BC Vettius joined Catiline when or after this, however, in 63 BC. Chr. Tried to coup again, he changed sides and joined Cicero, for whom he was active as an index , as a "show-off" or "indicator", presumably against payment. In this activity he denounced several of the co-conspirators of Catiline and finally at the beginning of 62 BC. BC also the then Praetor Gaius Iulius Caesar . He was supported in this by the quaestor Novius Niger , who accepted Vettius' complaint, and by Quintus Curius , who at the same time filed a complaint against Caesar in the Senate. Vettius even announced that he would bring a letter from Caesar to Catiline as evidence. Caesar then let play his relationship with Cicero, who testified to his innocence. Thereupon Vettius's property was pledged, he himself was beaten up by the people and finally locked up.

The Vettius affair

Vettius does not appear until the middle of July 59 BC. BC again in tradition, this time as an informer in the service of Caesar, who held the consulate that year . Vettius reported an obviously fictitious murder conspiracy against Pompey, with which the so-called Vettius affair began. The whole action was designed to condemn or intimidate the opponents of Caesar and the triumvirs. Vettius got in touch with Gaius Scribonius Curio , a young nobleman who had campaigned publicly against Caesar and Pompey. Vettius informed him that he was planning an assassination attempt against Pompey and asked for his support. Apparently, Vettius was supposed to be caught doing the deed and then to betray Curio. Curio, however, turned to his father Gaius Scribonius Curio , who passed the bogus murder plot directly to Pompey.

Vettius was then brought before the Senate. At first he stated that he had never had any dealings with Curio, but that was not taken from him. After his life was granted, he spread his story about a conspiracy to kill Pompey, the center of which was the young Curio. The conspirators had commissioned him, Vettius, with the murder of Pompey. He denounced various nobles, including Lucius Lentulus and Quintus Caepio Brutus , the later Caesar murderer. Ineptly he also accused Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus , who was consul with Caesar and supposedly even sent Vettius a dagger. Bibulus, however, had previously uncovered an assassination attempt against Pompey, which made his involvement in such a conspiracy seem absurd. Another mistake was the denunciation of Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paullus , who was a quaestor in Macedonia at the time of the alleged conspiracy and therefore could not have taken part in it. At the end of the hearing, Vettius was initially imprisoned for carrying unauthorized weapons.

Despite these mistakes, Caesar did not give up the matter, but had Vettius brought before the people the next day, where he was to repeat his accusations. Here Vettius got entangled in even more contradictions by adding further alleged conspirators, not mentioned before, to his story: the older Curio and Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus should also have participated in the conspiracy; also Lucius Licinius Lucullus , Marcus Iuventius Laterenis and Gaius Calpurnius Piso Frugi , Cicero's son-in-law, who should also be intimidated. This time he left Brutus out, it was suspected that the relationship between Brutus' mother and Caesar played a role here. After making himself even more implausible, Vettius was imprisoned again. Publius Vatinius , a loyal Caesar, proposed that the alleged conspirators should be tried by a court of law and that Vettius should be rewarded.

However, Lucius Vettius was murdered in prison a few days later. Officially, he had committed suicide, but the public suspected the instigators of the affair and, above all, Caesar, behind the death of Vettius. Although Caesar's actual intention, namely to have his opponents condemned, failed, he achieved a lot: Lentulus, who was appointed for the year 58 BC. Chr. Wanted to run as consul and had good chances, was discredited by the affair and not elected. Others were so intimidated that from then on they no longer appeared against Caesar. Caesar had also achieved his goal of winning Pompey more over to himself. The assessment of the opportunistic and apparently additionally clumsy Vettius is quite unanimous in sources and research: Cicero described him as a perditum hominem , “depraved person”, for the ancient historian Eduard Meyer he was “a very unclean informer” and “obviously a very one lumpy fellow ”.

literature

Used for this article:

Not yet viewed:

  • Walter Allen, Jr .: The “Vettius Affair” once more. In: Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. Volume 81, 1950, pp. 153-163 ( digitized and abstract from JSTOR ).
  • William C. McDermott: Vettius Nahrungsmittel, illegal noster index. In: Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. Volume 80, 1949, pp. 351-367 ( digitized version and abstract from JSTOR).
  • Lily Ross Taylor : The Date and the Meaning of the Vettius Affair. In: Historia . Volume 1, 1950, pp. 45-51.

Remarks

  1. ↑ CIL 01, 709 , 8 up 714. See Conrad Cichorius , Römische Studien , Leipzig / Berlin 1922, pp. 161f.
  2. ↑ Sallust , historiae 1,55,17 Maur.
  3. ↑ Cicero, ad Atticum 2,24,2: “Vettiuslover, illegal noster index”.
  4. ^ Suetonius , Caesar , 17.
  5. ↑ On the dating cf. Taylor, The Date and the Meaning of the Vettius Affair , 1950.
  6. ↑ On the Vettius affair: Cicero, Ad Atticum 2,24,2–24, per L. Valerio Flacco 96, per P. Sestio 132, in Vatinium 24–26; Cassius Dio 38: 9, 2-4; Appian , bellum civile 2,12,43; Plut. Lucull. 42.7f .; Suetonius, Caesar , 20.5 (without naming); Orosius 6,6,7.
  7. ^ Cicero, in Vatinium p. 320.
  8. ↑ Meyer, Caesars Monarchie und das Principat des Pompeius , p. 33; 85.
personal data
SURNAME Vettius, Lucius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman informer
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH uncertain: Picenum
DATE OF DEATH 59 BC Chr.
Place of death Rome