Publius Sulpicius Rufus

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Publius Sulpicius Rufus (* around 121 BC ; † 88 BC ) was an orator and politician in the Roman Republic , Legatus 89 BC. Chr. For Gnaeus Pompey Strabo during the Social War and tribune v 88th Chr.

Life

Born into a patrician family, Sulpicius probably converted to the plebs after the alliance war in order to be able to run for the tribunate. He belonged to the circle around M. Aemilius Scaurus and was friends with Q. Pompeius Rufus , with which he originally belonged to the optimatic group. However, since Sulpicius later worked with Marius and enforced his legislative proposals through the popular assembly , he is considered a popular politician.

During his tenure, he introduced four rogations : a law to repatriate the exiles, either according to the lex Varia or the lex Licinia Mucia , and one to limit the debt ceiling of senators. These two laws met with no resistance. Only the law to distribute the new citizens and freedmen equally among all tribes ( leges de libertinorum et de novorum civium suffragiis ) snubbed the Senate . This would have allowed the newly elected Italian Allies and the freedmen (see Lex Plautia Papiria ) to overvote the previous voters. The majority of the Senate vehemently opposed Sulpicius' laws. An iustitium was declared by the consuls , but Marius and Sulpicius defended themselves against it by calling their supporters to the forum and the tribune of the people declared the legal standstill to be illegal. In the ensuing fighting, one consul fled the city, the other revoked the iustitium out of fear for his life . Sulpicius' proposal became law, and with a fourth rogation, command of the Mithridatic War was transferred to Marius ( lex de bello Mithridatico ).

Sulla , who had fled Rome as the second consul, was in Nola at the time . He immediately marched on Rome. Marius and Sulpicius found themselves unable to withstand him and left the city. Marius managed to flee to Africa , while Sulpicius was tracked down and killed in a villa in Laurentum ; his head sent to Rome and exhibited in the Roman Forum . According to another version, he was murdered after being betrayed by a slave whom Sulla had promised freedom, but who he then had fallen from the Tarpei Rock . Sulpicius's laws were cashed in.

Judgment on the reforms

Older research suggests that the electoral law should serve to secure the transfer of command to Marius. Accordingly, Marius would have promised financial help to Sulpicius, who, according to the sources, who were not very favorable to him, would have given him financial help. More recent research, however, assumes that the electoral law represented the core of Sulpicius' political program in the succession of Marcus Livius Drusus , for whom he wanted to use Marius as an assistant.

Sulpicius seems to have originally been a moderate reformer who was forced by circumstances to form an alliance with Marius and thus got caught in a spiral of violence typical of the crisis in the Roman Republic. Although he had indicted the Tribune C. Norbanus and resisted the suggestion that judicial decisions be overturned by orders of the people, he did not hesitate to arouse the Julier's displeasure . He opposed the candidacy of Gaius Iulius Caesar Strabo Vopiscus as consul. He had never held the praetur before and was therefore not eligible for election according to tradition.

Sulpicius as a speaker

Cicero says of the speaker Sulpicius : He was by far the most dignified of all the speakers I have heard, and, so to speak, the most tragic; his voice was loud, but sweet and clear at the same time; his gestures were full of grace; his language was quick and verbose, but not superfluous or lengthy; he tried to imitate Crassus , but lacked the grace to do so. Sulpicius did not leave any written speeches. Those bearing his name come from Publius Canutius (or Cannutius). Sulpicius is one of the interlocutors in Cicero's De oratore .

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literature

  • Jochen Martin : The Populars in the History of the Late Republic . Dissertation, Freiburg i. Br. 1965.
  • Christian Meier : Res Publica Amissa. A study on the constitution and history of the late Roman Republic , Frankfurt 1997. (First edition Wiesbaden 1966).
  • Theodor Mommsen : Roman History , Book IV, Chapter 7.
  • Lukas Thommen : The people's tribunate of the late Roman Republic (= Historia . Individual writings. Volume 59). Steiner, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-515-05187-2 (also: Basel, Universität, Dissertation, 1987).

Remarks

  1. ↑ The gens Sulpicia can be viewed as patrician, for the Rufi there are no places that allow a conclusion to be drawn about a plebeian or patrician branch. Only plebeians were allowed to apply for the People's Tribunate.
  2. ↑ Cicero , Brutus 203.
  3. ^ Ernst Badian : Quaestiones Variae. In: Historia . Volume 18, 1969, p. 489 f .; Erich S. Gruen : Lex Varia. In: The Journal of Roman Studies . Vol. 55, 1965, pp. 71-73; Gordon P. Kelly: A History of Exile in the Roman Republic. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge / New York 2006, pp. 94-97.
  4. ↑ Appian , bellum civile 1.56; Plutarch , Marius 34.1; Sulla 8.2.
  5. ↑ Velleius Paterculus 2,19,1.
  6. ↑ Plutarch, Sulla 10.1; Orosius 5.19.6.
  7. ↑ Appian, bellum civile 1.59.
  8. ↑ Jochen Martin : The Populars in the History of the Late Republic , pp. 199-204.
  9. ^ Christian Meier : Res publica amissa , p. 204; Jochen Martin: The Populars in the History of the Late Republic , pp. 200–203; Lukas Thommen : The People's Tribunate of the late Roman Republic , p. 141.
  10. ↑ Cicero, Brutus 226.
  11. ↑ Cicero, Brutus 203.
personal data
SURNAME Sulpicius Rufus, Publius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Politician in the Roman Republic, Legatus and Tribune of the People
DATE OF BIRTH around 121 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 88 BC Chr.
Place of death Laurence