Quintus Opimius

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Quintus Opimius was a Roman politician and 154 BC Chr. Consul .

Origin and family

Quintus Opimius came from a plebeian Roman family that had not yet been recorded in the fasts ; in any case, senatorial ancestors before Quintus are not proven with certainty. At the 294 BC Quaestor Lucius Opimius Panza, who had fallen in BC, is questionable as to whether he belongs to the family, and his existence is also doubtful. Quintus Opimius, son and grandson of a Quintus (there is no evidence or mention of either), was probably born at the beginning of the 2nd century BC.

Political career

Since nothing is known about Opimius' career up to the consulate and Titus Livius , contrary to his custom, gave him up to 167 BC. Not mentioned in BC, Opimius must have held the lower offices of quaestor and praetor after this point in time. The first office he held and mentioned in the literature was the consulate, into which he and Lucius Postumius Albinus for the year 154 BC. Was chosen. Since Albinus died shortly after taking office, Manius Acilius Glabrio was made available to him as a post- elected suffect consul . In his consulate he was given the supreme command against the Ligurians , who oppressed the Rome-allied city of Massilia , now Marseille . The massiliots had asked Rome for assistance. In particular, the Ligurians attacked the Massiliotic plant towns of Antipolis (now Antibes) and Nicaia (now Nice), which they besieged. Before Rome intervened militarily, the Senate had sent envoys to the Ligurian city of Aigitna, the capital of the Ligurian tribe of the Oxybians , in order to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. However, the Oxybians abused the Roman envoys and were now attacked by the Roman troops under Quintus Opimius. He led his soldiers from Placentia , today Piacenza, over the Ligurian Apennines and slammed the Oxybier in a pitched battle on the River Apron, even before the allied with the Oxybiern Dekieten could come to the rescue this. In a second field battle he then also defeated the Decieten and then conquered Aigitna and severely punished it for violating the ambassadors. The two defeated Ligurian tribes were disarmed and assigned to Massilia as subjects. The Senate did not grant the victorious general a triumphal procession .

Nothing is known about his later life. His son Lucius Opimius was together with Quintus Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus consul of the year 121 BC. Chr.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ G. Meier, RE article Opimius
  2. ↑ Degr. I, 13.50 ff
  3. ↑ Paulys Real-Encyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswwissenschaften, 35th half-volume, Stuttgart, 1989, article Opimius, column 679
  4. ↑ Polybios , XXXIII, 7, 1-3.
  5. ↑ Polybios, XXXIII, 11, 1-3.

Remarks

  1. ^ The volumes of Livy after this period have not survived
personal data
SURNAME Opimius, Quintus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman politician and consul
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 2nd century BC Chr.