Marcus Plautius Silvanus (Praetor 24)

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Marcus Plautius Silvanus lived in the 1st century and was a member of the respected Roman gens Plautia . He was a son of the consul of the same name from 2 BC. BC , held the praetur in the year 24 and, as praetor urbanus, was responsible for the ordinary jurisdiction in and around the city of Rome .

In the same year his second wife Apronia was killed in a fall from a window. Lucius Apronius , the father of the deceased, suspected his son-in-law of the murder of his husband and charged him directly with Emperor Tiberius because of his high position . Presumably due to the fact that the accused himself held a high office in the judiciary, the emperor personally initiated the death investigation. He had Marcus Plautius Silvanus brought before him for an opinion. Here the widower explained that his wife had thrown herself out of the window with suicidal intent without being noticed. Tiberius, who took the version for a protective claim, went to the crime scene himself. The crime scene findings suggested a violent confrontation and thus objectively contradicted the praetor's description. The emperor informed the senate , to which he had granted criminal jurisdiction over persons of senatorial rank as a privilege, of the incriminating investigation result. Marcus Plautius Silvanus had died before a jury could be constituted under the chairmanship of an incumbent consul . In view of his hopeless situation, he had had his veins opened after he had been unable to do so himself. Previously, his politically and socially influential grandmother Urgulania had delivered him a dagger that unmistakably symbolized the call to commit suicide.

Follow-up proceedings were initiated against Numantina, the first wife of Marcus Plautius Silvanus. She was accused of bringing her divorced husband to action through the use of magic. The process ended in an acquittal.

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Remarks

  1. ^ Werner Eck : Plautius [II 13]. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 9, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01479-7 , Sp. 1117.
  2. ^ Max Kaser : Roman legal history. 2nd, revised edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1976, ISBN 3-525-18102-7 , p. 108.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Plautius Silvanus, Marcus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman senator, Praefectus urbi
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 24
Place of death Rome