Marcus Aemilius Scaurus the Younger

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Marcus Aemilius Scaurus the Younger was a politician of the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC .

Life

He was the son of the politician of the same name Marcus Aemilius Scaurus the Elder and his second wife Caecilia Metella . He lost his father at a young age so that his upbringing was taken over by family friends. Pompey , who was only married to Scaurus' sister Aemilia Scaura for a short time , took a keen interest in the young man's development even after her death.

During the Third Mithridatic War in the years 89 to 63 BC Pompey requested him as his military tribune . During the campaign, Scaurus was responsible for the Judea region , which was shaken at that time by a fratricidal war between John Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II . When Aristobulus 63 BC Was besieged, he asked Pompey through Scaurus for enormous bribes of 8000 kg of silver for intervention. Thereupon Scaurus forced the Nabatean king Aretas III, allied with Hyrcanus . who wanted to take advantage of the chaos of the Hasmonean fratricidal war and besieged Jerusalem, to withdraw. Afterwards, Aristobulus accused Scaurus of blackmail, but Pompey, trusting his brother-in-law, decided to give Judea to competitor Hyrcanus.

While Pompey was conquering Jerusalem , Scaurus chased Aretas to Petra , where he let him go in exchange for a further bribe of 6000 kg of silver.

Scaurus then returned to Rome , where he married Mucia Tertia , who was divorced from Pompey , and in 58 BC. Chr. Aedile and 56 v. Became praetor . His candidacy for the office of consul was unsuccessful because of an indictment of exploitation of his territorial province of Sardinia , in which he was in 55 BC. BC raised the tithe three times. He was successfully defended by Cicero . However, after being charged with bribery the following year, despite Cicero's defense and the affection shown by the people for the magnificent games he organized, he was convicted and exiled.

Pliny the Elder mentions his enormous wealth several times, which among other things comes from the proscriptions of his stepfather Sulla , and criticizes his extravagance, the clearest expression of which was a huge wooden theater . His house, which he built in 74 BC. It is one of the few houses from the pre-neronian period that have survived in Rome.

His son of the same name, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus III. . accompanied his half-brother Sextus Pompeius on the run after his defeat by Agrippa in the sea ​​battle of Mylae (36 BC) , but betrayed him in 35 BC. To Marcus Antonius . After the Battle of Actium , in which he took part at Antony's side, Octavian pardoned him at the request of his mother Mucia Tertia. His son was Mamercus Aemilius Scaurus , with whom the family died out.

swell

  • Flavius ​​Josephus : Jewish antiquities. ("Antiquitates iudaicae"). Fourier Verlag, Wiesbaden o. J.
  • Flavius ​​Josephus: The Jewish War. ("De bello iudaico") . Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, Munich, 2nd edition 1982.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Fragment of the defense speech .
  2. ↑ Cicero , De officiis 2, 57 (Eng.).
  3. ^ Appian : Civil Wars II 24 (Eng.).
  4. ↑ Pliny, Naturals Historia 36, 24.
  5. ↑ Roma Antiqua .
personal data
SURNAME Aemilius Scaurus, Marcus the Younger
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Politician of the Roman Republic
DATE OF BIRTH before 87 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH after 56 BC Chr.