Quintus Varius Severus Hibrida

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Quintus Varius Severus (* between 125 and 120 BC; † after 90 BC) was a politician in the late Roman Republic . The nickname Hibrida or Hybrida is probably a mockery or allusion to its origin.

Life

Quintus Varius Severus Hibrida came from Sucro and was the first senator of the republic to come from the Spanish province. In 90 BC He was elected tribune of the people . With his only law, the lex varia, he turned against the policies of his predecessor, Marcus Livius Drusus . This created courts of justice whose task it was to persecute and condemn those who had incited the allies to revolt against Rome. It appears that Varius was acting on behalf of the knights, or at least they were the beneficiaries of the law.

Violent actions occurred when the law was voted on. When Varius' colleagues interceded , they were threatened by knights, so that the motion was voted and it was accepted. Lucius Calpurnius Bestia and Gaius Aurelius Cotta were among the first to face charges - they went into exile. Soon after, Mark Antony Orator and Quintus Pompey Rufus were indicted. Even Marcus Aemilius Scaurus was accused, but he won popular support and was discharged. In the following year Varius Hibrida was tried and convicted himself, his lex Varia was cashed. He presumably went into exile and died outside Rome.

Judging the law

The lex varia is often presented in research as an "act of revenge by the knights against the politics of Livius Drusus" or as an act "in the interests of the knights [...] against heads of the senate and friends of Livius Drusus". Ernst Badian and Erich S. Gruen, on the other hand, emphasize the enmity between individual statesmen, their supporters and the popular and optimatic group. Then Varius was used for the personal concerns of Quintus Servilius Caepio against Scaurus and his circle. To do this, he used a popular method. He did not have an overall political concept. The positive reaction that his law evoked from the knights was not the aim of his actions, but a side effect.

Single receipts

  1. ↑ Valerius Maximus , 8,6,4.
  2. ↑ Asconius 22.
  3. ↑ Appian 1.37.
  4. ↑ Valerius Maximus 3, 7, 8; De Viris Illustribus 77.11.
  5. ^ Cicero , Brutus 305.
  6. ↑ Jochen Martin : The Populars in the History of the Late Republic , Freiburg 1985, p. 199.
  7. ^ Christian Meier : Populares , in: RE , Suppl. 10, 1965, Sp. 576.
  8. ↑ Gruen, pp. 60-62; Badian, p. 468 f.

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Secondary literature

  • Ernst Badian: Quaestiones Variae . in: Historia 4, 1969, pp. 447-491.
  • Erich S. Gruen: The Lex Varia . In: Journal of Roman Studies 55, 1965, pp. 59–73.
  • Jochen Martin: The Populars in the History of the Late Republic . Dissertation, Freiburg i. Br. 1965.
  • Lukas Thommen : The people's tribunate of the late Roman Republic . Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-515-05187-2 .
personal data
SURNAME Varius Severus Hibrida, Quintus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Varius Severus Hybrida, Quintus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman tribune
DATE OF BIRTH between 125 BC BC and 120 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH after 90 BC Chr.