Lucius Appuleius Saturninus (q. 104)
🏛️ Career
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100 BCE(aged 33)Tribune of the Plebs ·plebis
Broughton: see 101, Tribunes of the Plebs, on Glaucia. With Glaucia the Praetor and Marius the Consul, he embarked upon a program of popular legislation, and then of illegal seizure of office, which in the end lost him his popularity and even turned Marius against him. His legislation included: 1. a grain law, probably to be dated in 100(3) which set a low price for grain, and was carried over the veto of his colleagues and the violence organized by the Quaestor Caepio (a); 2. a bill for veteran colonies in Sicily, Achaea, Macedonia, and perhaps Africa,(4) giving Marius power to grant citizenship to three non-Romans in each colony (b); 3. an agrarian law to assign Gallic land once held by the Cimbri, which contained a clause providing that senators who did not take the oath to obey it within five days of its passage should lose their place and pay a fine of twenty talents. This bill, carried by violence and against the auspices, caused Metellus Numidicus to leave Rome, and was followed by another bill of Saturninus calling upon Marius to interdict him from fire and water (c). In an attempt to control the government in 99 he secured his own reelection to the tribunate along with L. Equitius, the false Gracchus, and other supporters as Tribunes and Quaestors, but the murder of Glaucia's rival Memmius led to a union of moderate and conservative elements and the declaration of martial law. Marius besieged his former associates on the Capitol, accepted their surrender, and placed them in the Curia Hostilia to await trial, where Saturninus, Saufeius, and Labienus were murdered (d). His property was confiscated (e), his house razed (f), and his laws annulled (g).
Sources (10)
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Broughton, MRR1
- Cic. Brut. 224; Sest. 37; Cat. 1.4; Phil. 8.15; Corn. 2.5, in Ascon. 80 C; Leg. 2.14; Diod. 36.15.3; Liv. Per. 69; Vell. 2.12.6; Val. Max. 9.7.1 and 3; Plut. Mar. 29—30; App. BC 1.28; Flor. 2.4.1-6; Auct. Vir. Ill. 73.5; Oros. 5.17.3-4
- (a) Auct. Ad Herenn. 1.21; cf. 2.17
- (b) Auct. Vir. Ill. 73.5; cf. Balb. 48
- (c) App. BC 1.29—31; Plut. Mar. 29; Liv. Per. 69; cf. Cic. Leg. 3.26; Sest. 37, 101, 130; Dom. 82; P. Red. in Sen. 25, and 37; Cluent. 95; Pis. 20; Planc. 89; Schol. Bob. 111, 168, 174 Stangl; Vell. 2.15.4, cf. 1.15.5, on Eporedia; Val. Max. 3.8.4; Flor. 2.4.2-3; Auct. Vir. Ill. 73.7-8; Oros. 5.17.4
- (d) Cic. Rab. Perd. 7, 18-31, and 35; Liv. Per. 69; Elogium of Marius, above; Plut. Mar. 30.1-3; App. BC 1.32; Flor. 2.4.4-6; Auct. Vir. Ill. 73.9-12; Oros. 5.17.6-10; cf. Cic. Cat. 1.4; Mil. 8, and 14; Schol. Bob. 113f., 174 Stangl; Phil. 8.15; Pro Var. fr. 6, ed. Müller; Brut. 224; Leg. 2.14; 3.20; Caes. BC 1.7.5-5; Vell. 2.12.6; Val. Max. 3.2.18; 8.6.2; 9.15.1; Ascon. 5 C; Suet. Iul. 12.1
- (e) Oros. 5.17.10
- (f) Val. Max. 6.3.1
- (g) Cic. Balb. 48; Leg. 2.14
- (3) The terminus post quem for the grain law of Saturninus is 103, his first tribunate, and the terminus ante quem is his second in 100. The revolt of the slaves in Sicily could have caused a shortage of grain in either year. Caepio could have been Quaestor Urbanus in either year if, as I believe, the Lex Appuleia de maiestate, under which he was accused, was passed in 103 (Auct. Ad Herenn. 1.21; 2.17). Niccolini points out (F T P 200) that Saufeius, killed while Quaestor Urbanus on December 10 (see 99, Quaestors) entered office on December 5, 100, and therefore leaves room for Piso and Caepio to hold these offices in 100. Last (CAH 9.165) favors 103 because the Gracchan analogue came early in the development of the program of C. Gracchus, and so too, does Passerini (Athenaeum 12 [1934] 107-143). But 100 was the year when Saturninus and Glaucia put forth their greatest effort to gain popular support. The price set for the grain is usually read semissibus et tryentibus (5/6 as) rather than senis et trientibus (6 1/3 asses) the modius, the Gracchan price.
- (4) On the African settlements, see 103, Tribunes of the Plebs. It is uncertain whether those in Cercina and Corsica should be dated in 103 or in 100, but the latter is perhaps preferable, since individual settlements were made even though the laws of Saturninus in general were repealed. See Special Commissions, and note 6; cf. Broughton, AJA 52 (1948) 326f.
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Broughton, MRR1
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99 BCE(aged 34)
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