Besides these cognomens, we meet bulent tribune of the plebs, who was defended by
with some other sumames belonging to freedmen M.
with some other sumames belonging to freedmen M.
William Smith - 1844 - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities - c
C.
168, became ac-
carry over from Italy to Sicily the legions which quainted with the crimes perpetrated in connection
were destined for the African war ; but the sol- with the worship of Bacchus. (Liv. xxxix. 11-13. )
diers of the twelfth legion rose in mutiny, and 2. The daughter of Ser. Sulpicius Paterculus,
drove him away with a shower of stones, demanding and the wife of Q. Fulvius Flaccus. She was de-
to receive, before they quitted Italy, the rewards clared to be the chastest woman in Rome, and was
which they had been promised in Greece. At the therefore selected, in B. c. 113, to dedicate the
conclusion of the civil war Sulla purchased at a statue of Venus Verticordia, who was believed to
small sum some of the confiscated estates of the turn the minds of women from vice to virtue. (Val.
Pompeian party, and appears in consequence to Max, viii. 15. § 12; Plin. H. N. vii. 35. )
have incurred no small degree of obloquy. He 3. The wife of Lentulus Cruscellio. Her hus-
died during a journey in B. c. 45; and, according band was proscribed by the triumvirs in B. C. 43,
to Cicero (ad Fam. ix. 10, xv. 17), people were too and fled to Sex. Pompeius in Sicily, whither
glad to hear of his death to trouble themselves | Sulpicia followed him, against the wish of her
about the inquiry whether he had perished by the mother Julia. (Val. Max. vi. 7. $ 3; Appian, B. C.
hands of robbers, or had fallen a victim to excessive | iv. 39. )
indulgence in the pleasures of the table. (Cic. pro 4. SULPICIA PRAETEXTATA, the wife of Crassus,
Sulla, passim ; Sall. Cat. 17, 18 ; Dion Cass. xxxvi. I is mentioned at the commencement of the reign of
27 ; Cic. de Fin. ii. 19 ; Caes. B. C. iii. 51, 89; Vespasian, A. D. 70. (Tac. Hist. iv. 42. )
Appian, B. C. i. 76 ; Cic. ad Att. xi. 21, 22, de SULPICIA. (TIBULLUS. )
Off. ii. 8. ) Sulla left behind him a son P. Sulla SULPICIA, a Roman poetess who flourished
## p. 945 (#961) ############################################
SULPICIUS.
945
SULPICIUS.
name.
towards the close of the first century, celebrated respect. He calls him, on one occasion 'vir
for sundry my amatory effusions, addressed to her praestanti literarum scientia,” and on another,
husband Calenus. Their general character may be • homo memoriae nostrae doctissimus," (Gell. ii.
gathered from the expressions of Martial, Ausonius, 16, iv. 17, xiii. 17, xv. 5. ) There are two poems
and Sidonius Apollinaris, by all of whom they are in the Latin Anthology, purporting to be written
noticed. Two lines from one of these productions by Sulpicius of Carthage, whom some writers
have been preserved by the scholiast upon Juvenal, identify with the above-named Sulpicius A polli-
Sat. vi. 536. (artial. Ep. x. 35—38 ; Auson. Epi- naris. One of these poems consists of seventy-two
log. Cent. Nupt. ; Sidon. A pollin. Curm. ix. 260 ; lines, giving the argument of the twelve books of
Anthol. Lat. iï. 251, ed. Burmann, or No. 198, Virgil's Aeneid, six lines being devoted to each
ed. Meyer. )
book (Anthol. Lat. Nos. 222, 223, ed. Meyer ;
We find in the collected works of Ausonius, as Donntus, l'ita Virgilii). The contemporary of
first published by Ugoletus (4to. Parm. 1499, Gellius is probably the same person as the Sulpicius
Venet. 1501), a satirical poem, in seventy hexa- Apollinaris who taught the emperor Pertinax in his
meters, on the edict of Domitinn, by which philoso- youth. (Capitol. Pertin. 1. )
phers were banished from Rome and from Italy SULPICIUS ASPER. (Aster. ]
(Suet. Dom. 10; Gell. xv. 11). It has been fre- SULPICIUS FLAVUS. (Flavus. )
quently reprinted, and generally bears the title SULPI'CIUS LUPERCUS SERVASTUS, a
Satyricon Carmen s. Ecloga de ciclo Domitiuni, or Latin poet, of whom two poems are extant; an
Sutura de corrupto rcipublicae statu temporibus Do elegs, De Cupiditate, in forty-two lines, and a
mitiuni. When closely examined it soon appeared sapphic ode, De V ctustatc, in twelve lines. Both
manifest that it could not belong to the rhetorician poems are printed in Wernsdorf's Poetae Latini
of Bordeaux, but that it must have been written Minores, vol
. iii. pp. 235, &c. 408. Nothing is
by some one who lived at the period to which the known of the author.
theme refers, that the author was a female (v. 8), SULPICIUS RUFUS. 1. Ser, SULPICIUS
and that she had previously composed a multitude Rufus, was consular tribune three times, namely
of sportive pieces in a great variety of measures. in B. C. 388, 384, and 383. (Liv. vi. 4, 18, 21. )
Ilence many critics, struck by these coincidences, 2. P. SULPICIUS Rufus, tribune of the plebs,
have not hesitated to ascribe the lines in question B. c. 88. He was born in B. c. 124, as he was ten
to the Sulpicia mentioned above, the contemporary years older than Hortensius. (Cic. Brut. 88. ) He
of Martial, and in almost all the more recent col- was one of the most distinguished orators of his
lections of the minor Latin poets they bear her time. Cicero, who had heard him, frequently
In a literary point of view they possess speaks of him in terms of the highest admiration.
little interest, being weak, pointless, and destitute He says that Sulpicius and Cotta were, beyond
of spirit.
(Wernsdorf, Poet. Lat. Min. vol. iii. comparison, the greatest orators of their age.
p. lx. and p. 83. ) The satire is generally appended “ Sulpicius," he states, was, of all the orators I
to editions of Juvenal and Persius. (W. R. ) ever heard, the most dignified, and, 80 to speak,
SULPICIA GENS, originally patrician, and the most tragic. His voice was powerful, and at
afterwards plebeian likewise. It was one of the the same time sweet and clear; the gestures and
most ancient Roman gentes, and produced a suc- movements of his body were graceful; but he ap-
cession of distinguished men, from the foundation peared, nevertheless, to have been trained for the
of the republic to the imperial period. The first forum and not for the stage ; his language was
member of it who obtained the consulship was Ser. rapid and flowing, and yet not redundant or
Sulpicius Camerinus Cornutus, in B. C. 500, only nine diffuse. " (Brut. 55. ) He commenced public life as
years after the expulsion of the Tarquins, and the a supporter of the aristocratical party, and soon
last of the name who appears on the consular Fasti acquired great influence in the state by his splendid
was Sex. Sulpicius Tertullus in a. D. 158. The talents, while he was still young. He was an in-
family names of the Sulpicii during the republican timate friend of M. Livius Drusus, the celebrated
period CAMERINUS CORNUTUS, GALBA, tribune of the plebs, and the aristocracy placed
Gallus, Longus, PATERCULUS, Peticus, PRAE- great hopes in him. (Cic. de Orat. i. 7. ) In B. C.
TEXTATUS, QUIRINUS, Rufus (given below), 94, he accused of majestas C. Norbanus, the tur-
SAVERRIO.
Besides these cognomens, we meet bulent tribune of the plebs, who was defended by
with some other sumames belonging to freedmen M. Antonius and was acquitted. [NORBANUS,
and to other persons under the empire, which are No. 1. ] In B. C. 93 he was quaestor, and in B. C.
given below. On coins we find the surnames Galla, 89 he served as legate of the consul Cn. Pompeius
Platorinus, Proclus, Rufus.
Strabo in the Marsic war. In the following year,
SULPICIANUS, FLAVIUS, the father-in-B. C. 88, he was elected to the tribunate through
law of the emperor Pertinax, was appointed upon the influence of the aristocratical party, The
the death of Commodus praefectus urbi. After consuls of the year were L. Cornelius Sulla and
the murder of his son he became one of the candi- Q. Pompeius Rufus, the latter of whom was a
dates for the vacant throne, when it was exposed personal friend of Sulpicius. (Cic. Lael. 1. ) At
for sale by the praetorians. He was outbid by first Sulpicius did not disappoint the expectations
Didius Julianus, who stripped him of his office but of his party. In conjunction with his colleague,
spared his life at the request of the soldiers. He P. Antistius, he resisted the attempt of C. Julius
was subsequently put to death by Septimius Se- Caesar to become a candidate for the consulship
verus, on the charge of having favoured the pre- before he had filled the office of praetor, and he also
tensions of Clodius Albinus. (Dion Cass. lxxiii. opposed the return from exile of those who had
7, 11, lxxv. 8. )
(W. R. ) been banished. (Cic. Brut. 63, de Harusp. Resp.
SULPICIÚS APOLLINA'RIS, a contempo- 20 ; Ascon. in Scaur. p. 20, ed. Orelli ; Cic. ad
rary of A. Gellius, was a learned grammarian, Herenn. ii. 28. ) But Sulpicius shortly afterwards
whom Gellius frequently cites with the greatest I joined Marius, and placed himself at the head of
VOL. IIL.
are -
38
## p. 946 (#962) ############################################
946
SULPICIUS.
SULPICIUS.
1
1
1
1
the popular party. The causes of this sudden Cicero was born B. c. 106. The name Lemonia is
change are not expressly stated by the ancient the ablative case, and indicates the tribe to which
writers; but we are told that he was overwhelmed Servius belonged. (Cic. Philipp. ix. 7. ) According to
with debt; and there can be little doubt that he Cicero, the father of Serrius was of the equestrian
was bought by Marius, and that the latter pro- order. (Cic. pro Mur. 7. ) Servius first devoted him-
mised him great wealth as soon as he obtained the self to oratory, and he studied his art with Cicero in
command of the war against Mithridates. The his youth, and also at Rhodus B. c 78, for he accom-
history of the rogations which Sulpicius brought panied Cicero there (Brul. 41). It is said that he
forward in favour of Marius and his party, and was induced to study law by a reproof of Q.
against Sulla, is fully related in the lives of those Mucius Scaevola, the pontifex, whose opinion Ser-
persons. [MARIUS, p. 957; SULLA, 936. ) It is vius had asked on a legal question, and as the pon-
only necessary to state here, that when the law tifex saw that Servius did not understand his
was passed which conferred upon Marius the com- answer, he said that “it was disgraceful for a
mand of the Mithridatic war, Sulla, who was then patrician and a noble, and one who pleaded causes,
at Nola, marched upon Rome at the head of his to be ignorant of the law with which he had to be
army. Marius and Sulpicius had no means of engaged. ” (Dig. 1. tit. 2. 8. 2. § 43. ) Henceforth
resisting him, and were obliged to fly from the jurisprudence became his study, in which he sur-
city. They were both declared public enemies by passed his teachers, L. Balbus and Aquillius Gallus,
the senate, at the command of Sulla, along with and obtained a reputation in no respect inferior to
ten others of their party.
that of the pontifex who reproved him. As an
Marius succeeded in making his escape to orator he bad bardly a superior, unless it were
Africa, but Sulpicius was discovered in a villa, and Cicero himself.
put to death. The slave who betrayed him was Servius was successively quaestor of the district
rewarded with his freedom, and then hurled down or provincia of Ostia, in B. C. 74 (Cic. pro Mur.
from the Tarpeian rock. (Appian, B. C. i. 58, 60 ; 8); aedilis curulis, B. C. 69 ; and during his prae-
Plut. Sull. 10 ; Cic. de Orat. iii. 3, Brut. 63; Liv. torship, B. C. 65, he had the quaestio peculatus (pro
Epit. 77 ; Vell. Pat. ii. 18. )
Mur. 20). In his first candidateship for the con-
Although Sulpicius was such a distinguished sulship, B. c. 63, Servius was rejected, and Servius
orator, he left no orations behind him. Cicero and Cato joined in prosecuting L. Murena, who was
says that he had often heard Sulpicius declare that elected. Murena was defended by Cicero, Hor-
he was not accustomed, and was unable, to write. tensius, and M. Crassus (Oratio pro Murena). In
It is true there were some speeches extant under B. c. 52, as interrex, he named Pompeius Magnus
his name, but they were written after his death by sole, consul. In B. C. 51, he was elected consul
P. Canutius. (Cic. Brut. 56. ) (CANUTIUS. ] Sul. with M. Claudius Marcellus ; and on this occasion
picius is one of the speakers in Cicero's dialogue, Cato was an unsuccessful candidate. (Plut. Cuto,
De Oratore. (Ahrens, Die Drei Volkstribunen, 49. ) There is no mention of any decided part
Tib. Gracchus, M. Drusus, und P. Sulpicius, Leipzig, that Servius took in the war between Caesar and
1836 ; Meyer, Oratorum Romanorum Fragmenta, Pompeius, but he appears to have been a partizan
pp. 343–347, 2d ed. ; Drumann, Geschichte Roms, of Caesar, who, after the battle of Pharsalia, made
vol. ii. pp. 435, 436. )
him proconsul of Achaea, B. C. 46 or 45 ; and Sulpi-
3. P. SULPICIUS Rufus, probably a son orcius held this office at the time when Cicero addressed
grandson of No. 2, was one of Caesar's legates in to him a letter, which is still extant (ad Fum, iv.
Gaul. He also served under Caesar as one of his 3). Marcellus, the former colleague of Servius in
legates in the campaign in Spain against Afranius the consulship, was murdered at Peiraeeus during
and Petreius, in B. C. 49; and in the following the government of Servius, who buried him in the
year, B. C. 48, he was rewarded for his services by gymnasium of the Academia, where a marble mo.
the praetorship. In the latter year he commanded nument to his memory was raised. The death of
Caesar's fleet at Vibo, when it was attacked by Marcellus is told in a letter of Servius to Cicero.
C. Cassius Cicero addresses him in B. C. 45 as In B. C. 43 he was sent by the senate, with L.
imperator. It appears that he was at that time in Philippus and L. Calpurnius Piso, on a mission to
Illyricum, along with Vatinius. (Caes. B. G. iv. 22, M. Antonins, who was besieging Decimus Brutus,
B. C. i. 74, iii. 101; Cic. ad Fam. xii. 77. ) in Mutina. Servius, who was in bad health, died
4. Ser. SULPICIUS LEMONIA Rufus, the cele- in the camp of Antonius. Cicero, in the senate,
brated jurist. See below.
pronounced a panegyric on his distinguished friend,
5. Ser. Sulpicius Rufus, the son of No. 4, and on his motion a public funerał was decreed,
was one of the subscriptores of his father's accusa- and a bronze statue was erected to the memory of
tion against Murena in B. c. 63. (Cic. pro Mur. Servius, and appropriately placed in front of the
26, 27.
carry over from Italy to Sicily the legions which quainted with the crimes perpetrated in connection
were destined for the African war ; but the sol- with the worship of Bacchus. (Liv. xxxix. 11-13. )
diers of the twelfth legion rose in mutiny, and 2. The daughter of Ser. Sulpicius Paterculus,
drove him away with a shower of stones, demanding and the wife of Q. Fulvius Flaccus. She was de-
to receive, before they quitted Italy, the rewards clared to be the chastest woman in Rome, and was
which they had been promised in Greece. At the therefore selected, in B. c. 113, to dedicate the
conclusion of the civil war Sulla purchased at a statue of Venus Verticordia, who was believed to
small sum some of the confiscated estates of the turn the minds of women from vice to virtue. (Val.
Pompeian party, and appears in consequence to Max, viii. 15. § 12; Plin. H. N. vii. 35. )
have incurred no small degree of obloquy. He 3. The wife of Lentulus Cruscellio. Her hus-
died during a journey in B. c. 45; and, according band was proscribed by the triumvirs in B. C. 43,
to Cicero (ad Fam. ix. 10, xv. 17), people were too and fled to Sex. Pompeius in Sicily, whither
glad to hear of his death to trouble themselves | Sulpicia followed him, against the wish of her
about the inquiry whether he had perished by the mother Julia. (Val. Max. vi. 7. $ 3; Appian, B. C.
hands of robbers, or had fallen a victim to excessive | iv. 39. )
indulgence in the pleasures of the table. (Cic. pro 4. SULPICIA PRAETEXTATA, the wife of Crassus,
Sulla, passim ; Sall. Cat. 17, 18 ; Dion Cass. xxxvi. I is mentioned at the commencement of the reign of
27 ; Cic. de Fin. ii. 19 ; Caes. B. C. iii. 51, 89; Vespasian, A. D. 70. (Tac. Hist. iv. 42. )
Appian, B. C. i. 76 ; Cic. ad Att. xi. 21, 22, de SULPICIA. (TIBULLUS. )
Off. ii. 8. ) Sulla left behind him a son P. Sulla SULPICIA, a Roman poetess who flourished
## p. 945 (#961) ############################################
SULPICIUS.
945
SULPICIUS.
name.
towards the close of the first century, celebrated respect. He calls him, on one occasion 'vir
for sundry my amatory effusions, addressed to her praestanti literarum scientia,” and on another,
husband Calenus. Their general character may be • homo memoriae nostrae doctissimus," (Gell. ii.
gathered from the expressions of Martial, Ausonius, 16, iv. 17, xiii. 17, xv. 5. ) There are two poems
and Sidonius Apollinaris, by all of whom they are in the Latin Anthology, purporting to be written
noticed. Two lines from one of these productions by Sulpicius of Carthage, whom some writers
have been preserved by the scholiast upon Juvenal, identify with the above-named Sulpicius A polli-
Sat. vi. 536. (artial. Ep. x. 35—38 ; Auson. Epi- naris. One of these poems consists of seventy-two
log. Cent. Nupt. ; Sidon. A pollin. Curm. ix. 260 ; lines, giving the argument of the twelve books of
Anthol. Lat. iï. 251, ed. Burmann, or No. 198, Virgil's Aeneid, six lines being devoted to each
ed. Meyer. )
book (Anthol. Lat. Nos. 222, 223, ed. Meyer ;
We find in the collected works of Ausonius, as Donntus, l'ita Virgilii). The contemporary of
first published by Ugoletus (4to. Parm. 1499, Gellius is probably the same person as the Sulpicius
Venet. 1501), a satirical poem, in seventy hexa- Apollinaris who taught the emperor Pertinax in his
meters, on the edict of Domitinn, by which philoso- youth. (Capitol. Pertin. 1. )
phers were banished from Rome and from Italy SULPICIUS ASPER. (Aster. ]
(Suet. Dom. 10; Gell. xv. 11). It has been fre- SULPICIUS FLAVUS. (Flavus. )
quently reprinted, and generally bears the title SULPI'CIUS LUPERCUS SERVASTUS, a
Satyricon Carmen s. Ecloga de ciclo Domitiuni, or Latin poet, of whom two poems are extant; an
Sutura de corrupto rcipublicae statu temporibus Do elegs, De Cupiditate, in forty-two lines, and a
mitiuni. When closely examined it soon appeared sapphic ode, De V ctustatc, in twelve lines. Both
manifest that it could not belong to the rhetorician poems are printed in Wernsdorf's Poetae Latini
of Bordeaux, but that it must have been written Minores, vol
. iii. pp. 235, &c. 408. Nothing is
by some one who lived at the period to which the known of the author.
theme refers, that the author was a female (v. 8), SULPICIUS RUFUS. 1. Ser, SULPICIUS
and that she had previously composed a multitude Rufus, was consular tribune three times, namely
of sportive pieces in a great variety of measures. in B. C. 388, 384, and 383. (Liv. vi. 4, 18, 21. )
Ilence many critics, struck by these coincidences, 2. P. SULPICIUS Rufus, tribune of the plebs,
have not hesitated to ascribe the lines in question B. c. 88. He was born in B. c. 124, as he was ten
to the Sulpicia mentioned above, the contemporary years older than Hortensius. (Cic. Brut. 88. ) He
of Martial, and in almost all the more recent col- was one of the most distinguished orators of his
lections of the minor Latin poets they bear her time. Cicero, who had heard him, frequently
In a literary point of view they possess speaks of him in terms of the highest admiration.
little interest, being weak, pointless, and destitute He says that Sulpicius and Cotta were, beyond
of spirit.
(Wernsdorf, Poet. Lat. Min. vol. iii. comparison, the greatest orators of their age.
p. lx. and p. 83. ) The satire is generally appended “ Sulpicius," he states, was, of all the orators I
to editions of Juvenal and Persius. (W. R. ) ever heard, the most dignified, and, 80 to speak,
SULPICIA GENS, originally patrician, and the most tragic. His voice was powerful, and at
afterwards plebeian likewise. It was one of the the same time sweet and clear; the gestures and
most ancient Roman gentes, and produced a suc- movements of his body were graceful; but he ap-
cession of distinguished men, from the foundation peared, nevertheless, to have been trained for the
of the republic to the imperial period. The first forum and not for the stage ; his language was
member of it who obtained the consulship was Ser. rapid and flowing, and yet not redundant or
Sulpicius Camerinus Cornutus, in B. C. 500, only nine diffuse. " (Brut. 55. ) He commenced public life as
years after the expulsion of the Tarquins, and the a supporter of the aristocratical party, and soon
last of the name who appears on the consular Fasti acquired great influence in the state by his splendid
was Sex. Sulpicius Tertullus in a. D. 158. The talents, while he was still young. He was an in-
family names of the Sulpicii during the republican timate friend of M. Livius Drusus, the celebrated
period CAMERINUS CORNUTUS, GALBA, tribune of the plebs, and the aristocracy placed
Gallus, Longus, PATERCULUS, Peticus, PRAE- great hopes in him. (Cic. de Orat. i. 7. ) In B. C.
TEXTATUS, QUIRINUS, Rufus (given below), 94, he accused of majestas C. Norbanus, the tur-
SAVERRIO.
Besides these cognomens, we meet bulent tribune of the plebs, who was defended by
with some other sumames belonging to freedmen M. Antonius and was acquitted. [NORBANUS,
and to other persons under the empire, which are No. 1. ] In B. C. 93 he was quaestor, and in B. C.
given below. On coins we find the surnames Galla, 89 he served as legate of the consul Cn. Pompeius
Platorinus, Proclus, Rufus.
Strabo in the Marsic war. In the following year,
SULPICIANUS, FLAVIUS, the father-in-B. C. 88, he was elected to the tribunate through
law of the emperor Pertinax, was appointed upon the influence of the aristocratical party, The
the death of Commodus praefectus urbi. After consuls of the year were L. Cornelius Sulla and
the murder of his son he became one of the candi- Q. Pompeius Rufus, the latter of whom was a
dates for the vacant throne, when it was exposed personal friend of Sulpicius. (Cic. Lael. 1. ) At
for sale by the praetorians. He was outbid by first Sulpicius did not disappoint the expectations
Didius Julianus, who stripped him of his office but of his party. In conjunction with his colleague,
spared his life at the request of the soldiers. He P. Antistius, he resisted the attempt of C. Julius
was subsequently put to death by Septimius Se- Caesar to become a candidate for the consulship
verus, on the charge of having favoured the pre- before he had filled the office of praetor, and he also
tensions of Clodius Albinus. (Dion Cass. lxxiii. opposed the return from exile of those who had
7, 11, lxxv. 8. )
(W. R. ) been banished. (Cic. Brut. 63, de Harusp. Resp.
SULPICIÚS APOLLINA'RIS, a contempo- 20 ; Ascon. in Scaur. p. 20, ed. Orelli ; Cic. ad
rary of A. Gellius, was a learned grammarian, Herenn. ii. 28. ) But Sulpicius shortly afterwards
whom Gellius frequently cites with the greatest I joined Marius, and placed himself at the head of
VOL. IIL.
are -
38
## p. 946 (#962) ############################################
946
SULPICIUS.
SULPICIUS.
1
1
1
1
the popular party. The causes of this sudden Cicero was born B. c. 106. The name Lemonia is
change are not expressly stated by the ancient the ablative case, and indicates the tribe to which
writers; but we are told that he was overwhelmed Servius belonged. (Cic. Philipp. ix. 7. ) According to
with debt; and there can be little doubt that he Cicero, the father of Serrius was of the equestrian
was bought by Marius, and that the latter pro- order. (Cic. pro Mur. 7. ) Servius first devoted him-
mised him great wealth as soon as he obtained the self to oratory, and he studied his art with Cicero in
command of the war against Mithridates. The his youth, and also at Rhodus B. c 78, for he accom-
history of the rogations which Sulpicius brought panied Cicero there (Brul. 41). It is said that he
forward in favour of Marius and his party, and was induced to study law by a reproof of Q.
against Sulla, is fully related in the lives of those Mucius Scaevola, the pontifex, whose opinion Ser-
persons. [MARIUS, p. 957; SULLA, 936. ) It is vius had asked on a legal question, and as the pon-
only necessary to state here, that when the law tifex saw that Servius did not understand his
was passed which conferred upon Marius the com- answer, he said that “it was disgraceful for a
mand of the Mithridatic war, Sulla, who was then patrician and a noble, and one who pleaded causes,
at Nola, marched upon Rome at the head of his to be ignorant of the law with which he had to be
army. Marius and Sulpicius had no means of engaged. ” (Dig. 1. tit. 2. 8. 2. § 43. ) Henceforth
resisting him, and were obliged to fly from the jurisprudence became his study, in which he sur-
city. They were both declared public enemies by passed his teachers, L. Balbus and Aquillius Gallus,
the senate, at the command of Sulla, along with and obtained a reputation in no respect inferior to
ten others of their party.
that of the pontifex who reproved him. As an
Marius succeeded in making his escape to orator he bad bardly a superior, unless it were
Africa, but Sulpicius was discovered in a villa, and Cicero himself.
put to death. The slave who betrayed him was Servius was successively quaestor of the district
rewarded with his freedom, and then hurled down or provincia of Ostia, in B. C. 74 (Cic. pro Mur.
from the Tarpeian rock. (Appian, B. C. i. 58, 60 ; 8); aedilis curulis, B. C. 69 ; and during his prae-
Plut. Sull. 10 ; Cic. de Orat. iii. 3, Brut. 63; Liv. torship, B. C. 65, he had the quaestio peculatus (pro
Epit. 77 ; Vell. Pat. ii. 18. )
Mur. 20). In his first candidateship for the con-
Although Sulpicius was such a distinguished sulship, B. c. 63, Servius was rejected, and Servius
orator, he left no orations behind him. Cicero and Cato joined in prosecuting L. Murena, who was
says that he had often heard Sulpicius declare that elected. Murena was defended by Cicero, Hor-
he was not accustomed, and was unable, to write. tensius, and M. Crassus (Oratio pro Murena). In
It is true there were some speeches extant under B. c. 52, as interrex, he named Pompeius Magnus
his name, but they were written after his death by sole, consul. In B. C. 51, he was elected consul
P. Canutius. (Cic. Brut. 56. ) (CANUTIUS. ] Sul. with M. Claudius Marcellus ; and on this occasion
picius is one of the speakers in Cicero's dialogue, Cato was an unsuccessful candidate. (Plut. Cuto,
De Oratore. (Ahrens, Die Drei Volkstribunen, 49. ) There is no mention of any decided part
Tib. Gracchus, M. Drusus, und P. Sulpicius, Leipzig, that Servius took in the war between Caesar and
1836 ; Meyer, Oratorum Romanorum Fragmenta, Pompeius, but he appears to have been a partizan
pp. 343–347, 2d ed. ; Drumann, Geschichte Roms, of Caesar, who, after the battle of Pharsalia, made
vol. ii. pp. 435, 436. )
him proconsul of Achaea, B. C. 46 or 45 ; and Sulpi-
3. P. SULPICIUS Rufus, probably a son orcius held this office at the time when Cicero addressed
grandson of No. 2, was one of Caesar's legates in to him a letter, which is still extant (ad Fum, iv.
Gaul. He also served under Caesar as one of his 3). Marcellus, the former colleague of Servius in
legates in the campaign in Spain against Afranius the consulship, was murdered at Peiraeeus during
and Petreius, in B. C. 49; and in the following the government of Servius, who buried him in the
year, B. C. 48, he was rewarded for his services by gymnasium of the Academia, where a marble mo.
the praetorship. In the latter year he commanded nument to his memory was raised. The death of
Caesar's fleet at Vibo, when it was attacked by Marcellus is told in a letter of Servius to Cicero.
C. Cassius Cicero addresses him in B. C. 45 as In B. C. 43 he was sent by the senate, with L.
imperator. It appears that he was at that time in Philippus and L. Calpurnius Piso, on a mission to
Illyricum, along with Vatinius. (Caes. B. G. iv. 22, M. Antonins, who was besieging Decimus Brutus,
B. C. i. 74, iii. 101; Cic. ad Fam. xii. 77. ) in Mutina. Servius, who was in bad health, died
4. Ser. SULPICIUS LEMONIA Rufus, the cele- in the camp of Antonius. Cicero, in the senate,
brated jurist. See below.
pronounced a panegyric on his distinguished friend,
5. Ser. Sulpicius Rufus, the son of No. 4, and on his motion a public funerał was decreed,
was one of the subscriptores of his father's accusa- and a bronze statue was erected to the memory of
tion against Murena in B. c. 63. (Cic. pro Mur. Servius, and appropriately placed in front of the
26, 27.
