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9. L. Piso Frugi, the annalist, cos. B. C. 133.
10. L. Piso Frugi, pr. about B. c. 113.
11. L Piso Frugi, pr. B. c. 74.
(Comp. Plin. H. N. xviii. 3. ) Many of the
Pisones bore this cognomen alone, but others were
distinguished by the surnames of Cacsoninus and
Frugi respectively. The family first rose from
obscurity during the second Punic war, and from
that time it became one of the most distinguished
families in the Roman state. It preserved its
celebrity under the empire, and during the first
century of the Christian era was second to the im-
perial family alone. The following stemma contains
a list of all the Pisones mentioned in history, and
will serve as an index to the following account.
of most of them it is impossible to ascertain the
descent.
1. CALPURNIUS Piso, was taken prisoner at
the battle of Cannae, B. c. 216, and is said to
have been sent with two others to Rome to
negotiate the release of the prisoners, which
proposition the senate refused to entertain. He
was praetor urbanus in B. C. 211, and on the
expiration of his year of office was sent as pro-
praetor into Etruria B. c. 210. From thence he was
commanded by the dictator, Q. Fulvius Flaccus,
to take the command of the army at Capua ;
but next year (B. C. 209) the senate again en-
trusted Etruria to him. (Liv. xxii. 61, xxv. 41,
xxvi. 10, 15, 21, 28, xyii. 6, 7, 21. ) Piso in
his praetorship proposed to the senate, that the
Ladi Apollinares, which had been exhibited for
the first time in the preceding year (B. C. 212),
should be repeated, and should be celebrated in
future annually. The senate passed a decree to
this effect. (Liv. xxvi. 23; Macrob. Sat. i. 13;
12. C. Piso Frugi, qu. B. C. 58,
married Tullia, the daugh-
ter of Cicero.
Pisones without an Agnomen.
13. Cn. Piso, cos. B. C. 139.
14. Q. Piso, cos. B. C. 135. -
15. Piso, pr. about B. c. 135.
16. Piso, about B. c. 104.
17. C. Piso, cos. B. C. 67.
18. M. Pupius Piso, cos. B. c. 61
19. M. Piso, pr. B. C. 44.
20. Cn. Piso, the conspirator, B. C. 66.
21. Cn. Piso, proqu. B. C. 67.
22. Cn. Piso, cos. B. c. 23.
23. Cn. Piso, cos. B. C. 7;
married Plancina, died A. D. 20.
1
24. L. Piso, cos. A. D. 17.
25. M. Piso
26. L. Piso, cos. A. D. 57.
27. L. Piso, cos. B. C. l.
28. L. Piso, accused and
died, A. D. 24.
29. L. Piso, pr. A. D. 25.
30. C. Piso, the conspirator
against Nero, A. D. 65.
Dube
PIEOFENCE
Calpurnius Galerianus,
killed by Mucianus, A. D. 70.
31. Piso Licinianus, adopted
by Galba, A. D. 69.
32, Piso, A. D. 175.
33. Piso, one of the Thirty
Tyrants, a. D. 260.
COIN REFERRING TO C, PISO, PRAETOR B. c. 211.
BB 2


## p. 372 (#388) ############################################

372
PISO.
PISO.
1
D
Festus, p. 326, ed. Müller, where he is erroneously the son of No. 6, and father-in-law of the dictator
.
called Marcus instead of Caius. ) The establish- Caesar. Asconius says (in Cic. Pis. p. 3, ed.
ment of these games by their ancestor was com- Orelli) that this Piso belonged to the family of the
memorated on coins by the Pisones in later times. Frugi ; but this is a mistake, as Drumann has
Of these coins, of which a vast number is extant, shown (Gesch. Roms, vol. ii. p. 62).
Our prin-
a specimen is annexed. The obverse represents cipal information respecting Piso is derived from
the head of Apollo, the reverse a horseman riding several of the orations of Cicero, who paints him
at full speed, in allusion to the equestrian games, in the blackest colours ; but as Piso was both a
which formed part of the festival.
Who the political and a personal enemy of the orator, we
L. Piso Frugi was that caused them to be struck, must make great deductions from his description,
cannot be determined. (Eckhel, vol. v. p. 158. ) which is evidently exaggerated. Still, after making
2. C. CALPURNIUS C. F. C. N. Piso, son of every deduction, we know enough of his life to con-
No. 1, was praetor B. c. 186, and received Further vince us that he was an unprincipled debauchee and
Spain as his province. He continued in his pro- a cruel and corrupt magistrate, a fair sample of his
vince as propraetor in B. c. 185, and on his return noble contemporaries, neither better nor worse than
to Rome in 184 obtained a triumph for a victory the majority of them. He is first mentioned in B. C.
he had gained over the Lusitani and Celtiberi. In 59, when he was brought to trial by P. Clodius
B. c. 181 he was one of the three commissioners for plundering a province, of which he had the
for founding the colony of Graviscae in Etruria, administration after his praetorship, and he was
and in B. c. 180 he was consul with A. Postumius only acquitted by throwing himself at the feet of
Albinus. Piso died during his consulship; he the judges (Val. Max. viii. 1. $ 6). In the same
was no doubt carried off by the pestilence which year Caesar married his daughter Calpurnia.
was then raging at Rome, but the people suspected Through his influence Piso obtained the consulship
that he had been poisoned by his wife Quarta for the following year B. c. 58, having for his col-
Hostilia, because her son by a former marriage, league A. Gabinius, who was indebted for the
Q. Fulvius Flaccus, succeeded Piso as consul suf- honour to Pompey. The new consuls were the
fectus. (Liv. xxxix. 6, 8, 21, 30, 31, 42, xl. 29, mere instruments of the triumvirs, and took care
35, 37. )
that the senate should do nothing in opposition to
3. L. CALPURNIUS (Piso), probably a younger the wishes of their patrons. When the triumvirs
son of No. 1, was sent as ambassador to the had resolved to sacrifice Cicero, the consuls of
Achaeans at Sicyon. (Liv. xxxii. 19. )
course threw no obstacle in their way ; but Clo-
4. L. CALPURNIUS C. F. C. n. Piso CAESONINUS. dius, to make sure of their support, promised Piso
His last name shows that he originally belonged the province of Macedonia, and Gabinius that of
to the Caesonia gens, and was adopted by one of Syria, and brought a bill before the people to that
the Pisones, probably by No. 3, as be is indicated effect, although the senate was the constitutional
in the Fasti as C. F. C. N. This Piso brought body to dispose of the provinces. The banishment
dishonour on his family by his want of ability and of Cicero soon followed. Piso took an active part
of energy in war. He was praetor in B. c. 151, and in the measures of Clodius, and joined him in
obtained the province of Further Spain, but was celebrating their victory. Cicero accuses him of
defeated by the Lusitani. He was consul in B. C. transferring to his own house the spoils of Cicero's
148 with Sp. Postumius Albinus, and was sent to dwellings. The conduct of Piso in support of
conduct the war against Carthage, which he carried Clodius produced that extreme resentment in the
on with such little activity that the people became mind of Cicero, which he displayed against Piso on
greatly discontented with his conduct, and he was many subsequent occasions. At the expiration of
superseded in the following year by Scipio. (Ap- his consulship Piso went to his province of Mace-
pian, Hisp. 56, Punic. 110–112. )
donia, where he remained during two years, B. C.
5. L. CALPURNIUS L. F. C. n. Piso CAESON1- 57 and 56, plundering the province in the most
NUS, son of No. 4, was consul B. c. 112 with shameless manner. In the latter of these years
M. Livius Drusus. In B. c. 107 he served as the senate resolved that a successor should be
legatus to the consul, L. Cassius Longinus, who appointed, and accordingly, to his great mortifica-
was sent into Gaul to oppose the Cimbri and their tion and rage, he had to resign the government in
allies, and he fell together with the consul in the B. C. 55 to Q. Ancharius. In the debate in the
battle, in which the Roman army was utterly de- senate, which led to his recal and likewise to that
feated by the Tigurini in the territory of the of Gabinius, Cicero had an opportunity of giving
Allobroges. [LONGINUs, No. 5. ) This Piso was vent to the wrath which had long been raging
the grandfather of Caesar's father-in-law, a circum- within him, and accordingly in the speech which
stance to which Caesar himself alludes in recording he delivered on the occasion, and which has come
his own victory over the Tigurini at a later time. down to us (De Provinciis Consularibus), he poured
(Caes. B. G. i. 7, 12; Oros. v. 15. )
forth a torrent of invective against Piso, accusing
6. L. CALPURNIUS Piso CAESONINUS, son of him of every possible crime in the governinent of
No. 5, never rose to any of the offices of state, and is his province. Piso on his return, B. c. 55, com-
only known from the account given of him by Cicero plained in the senate of attack of Cicero, and
in his violent invective against his son (No. 7). justified the administration of his province, where-
He had the charge of the manufactory of arms at upon Cicero reiterated his charges in a speech (In
Rome during the Marsic war. He married the Pisonem), in which he pourtrays the whole public
daughter of Calventius, a native of Cisalpine Gaul, and private life of his enemy with the choicest
who came from Placentia and settled at Rome ; words of virulence and abuse that the Latin lan-
and hence Cicero calls his son in contempt a semi-guage could supply. Cicero, however, did not
Placentian. (Cic. in Pis. 36, 23, 26, 27. ) [Cal venture to bring to trial the father-in-law of Caesar.
VENTIUS. ]
In B. c. 50 Piso was censor with Ap. Claudias
7. L. CALPURNIUS C. F. L. n. Piso CAESONINUS, | Pulcher, and undertook this office at the request of
a


## p. 373 (#389) ############################################

PISO:
873
PISO.
Caesar. At the beginning of the following year, Piso and his two sons that Horace addressed his
H. C. 49, Piso, who had not yet laid down his cen- epistle on the Art of Poetry, and there are no suffi-
sorship, offered to go to Caesar to act as mediator; cient reasons for rejecting this statement, as has been
but the aristocratical party would not hear of any ac- done by some modern writers. Respecting these
commodation, and hostilities accordingly commenced. two sons we only know that the elder was called
Piso accompanied Pompey in his flight from the Lucius (Anon. ad Hor. Ar. Poët. 366), but
city; and although he did not go with him across neither of them can be identified for certain with
the sea, he still kept aloof from Caesar. Cicero ac- any of the Pisones mentioned history.
cordingly praises him, and actually writes to Atticus, 9. L. CALPURNIU8 Piso FRUGI, consul B. C.
"I love Piso” (Cic. ad Att. vii. 13, a. , ad Fum. 133. His descent is quite uncertain, since neither
xiv. 14). Piso subsequently returned to Rome, the Fasti nor coins mention the name of his father.
and though he took no part in the civil war, was From his integrity and conscientiousness he received
notwithstanding treated with respect by Caesar. the surname of Frugi, which is perhaps nearly
On the murder of the latter, in B. c. 44, Piso equivalent to our “man of honour," but the exact
exerted himself to obtain the preservation of the force of which is explained at length by Cicero
laws and institutions of his father-in-law, and was (Tusc. iii. 18). Piso was tribune of the plebs,
almost the only person that dared to oppose the B. C. 149, in which year he proposed the first law
arbitrary conduct of Antony. Afterwards, how- for the punishment of extortion in the provinces
ever, he appeared as one of the most zealous ad- (Lex Calpurnia de Repetundis, Cic. Brut. 27, Verr.
herents of Antony ; and when the latter went to iii. 84, iv. 25, de Off. ii. 21). In B. c. 133 he was
Cisalpine Gaul, at the end of the year, to prosecute consul with P. Mucius Scaevola, and was sent into
the war against Decimus Brutus, Piso remained at Italy against the slaves. He gained a victory over
Rome, to defend his cause and promote his views. them, but did not subdue them, and was succeeded
At the beginning of the following year, B. C. 43, he in the command by the consul P. Rupilius (Oros.
was one of the ambassadors sent to Antony at v. 9; Val. Max. ii. 7. § 9). Piso was a staunch
Mutina. After this time his name does not occur. supporter of the aristocratical party; and though
(Orelli, Onom. Tull.