No More Learning

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superseded in the following year by Scipio.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


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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. vol. ii. p. 123, &c. ; Caes. B. C. he would not look over their crimes, as his law
i. 3 ; Dion Cass. xl. 63, xli. 16 ; Appian, B. C. ii. against extortion shows, still he was as little
14, 135, 143, iii. 50, 54, &c. )
disposed to tolerate any invasion of their rights
8. L. CALPURNIUS L. f. L. N. Piso CAESONI- and privileges. He therefore offered a strong op-
NUS, the son of No. 7, must have been born during position to the measures of C. Gracchus, and is
the civil war between Caesar and Pompey (B. C. especially mentioned as a vehement opponent of the
49—48), as he was eighty at the time of his death lex frumentaria of the latter (Cic. pro Font. 13,
in A. D. 32 (Tac. Ann. vi. 10). He was consul Tusc. iï. 20). He is called Censorius by several
B. C. 15, with M. Livius Drusus Libo, and after ancient writers ; and though the date of his censor-
wards obtained the province of Pamphylia ; from ship is uncertain, it may perhaps be referred to
thence he was recalled by Augustus in B. c. 11, in B. c. 120. Piso left behind him orations, which
order to make war upon the Thracians, who had had disappeared in Cicero's time, and Annals,
attacked the province of Macedonia. After a which contained the bistory of Rome from the
struggle which lasted for three years he subdued earliest period to the age in which Piso himself
the various Thracian tribes, and obtained in con- lived. This work, which, according to Cicero's
sequence the triumphal insignia. The favour which judgment (Brut. 27), was written in a meagre
Augustus had shown to Piso, he continued to re- style, is frequently refered to by ancient writers.
ceive from his successor Tiberius, who made him Piso was, in Niebuhr's opinion, the first Roman
praefectus urbi. He was one of the associates of writer who introduced the practice of giving a ra-
Tiberius in his revels, but had nothing of the cruel tionalistic interpretation to the myths and legends
and suspicious disposition of the emperor. Although in early Roman history. (Comp. Niebuhr, Hist.
he spent the greater part of the night at table, and of Rome, vol. i. pp. 235, 237, vol. ii. p. 9; Lach-
did not rise till midday, he discharged the duties mann, De Fontibus T. Livii, p. 32 ; Krause, Vitae
of his office with punctuality and diligence ; and et Fragm. Hist. Roman. p. 139 ; Liebaldt, De L.
while retaining the favour of the emperor, without Pisune Annalium Scriptore, Naumburg, 1836. )
condescending to servility, he at the same time 10. L. CALPURNIUS Piso FRUGI, the son of
eamed the good-will of his fellow-citizens by the No.
9, and a worthy inheritor of his surname,
integrity and justice with which he governed the served with distinction under his father in Sicily,
city. Velleius Paterculus, who wrote his history in B. c. 133, and died in Spain about B. c. 111,
while Piso held the praefecture of the city, pro- whither he had gone as propraetor. (Cic. Verr. iv.
nounces a glowing eulogy on his virtues and merits. 23 ; Val. Max. iv. 3. $ 10; Appian, Hisp. 99. )
He died, as we have already stated, in A. D. 32, il. L. CALPURNIUS Piso FRUGI, the son of
and was honoured by a decree of the senate, with No. 10, was, like his father and grandfather, a man
a public funeral. He was a pontiff at the time of of honour and integrity. He was a colleague of
his death. The year in which he was appointed Verres in the praetorship, B. C. 74, when he
praefectus urbi has occasioned considerable dispute. thwarted many of the unrighteous schemes of the
Tacitus says that he held the office for twenty latter. (Cic. Verr. i. 46. )
years, but this is opposed to the statements of 12. C. CALPURNIUS Piso FRUGI, a son of No.
Seneca and Tiberius, who place his appointment 11, married Tullia, the daughter of Cicero, in B. C.
much later than Tacitus. It is impossible, however, 63, but was betrothed to her as early as B. c. 67
to come to any definite conclusion on the subject (Cic. ad Att. i. 3). In Caesar's consulship, B. C.
(Dion Cass, liv. 21, 34, lviii. 19 ; Florus, iv. 12 ; 59, Piso was accused by L. Vettius as one of the
Vell. Pat. . 98 ; Tac. Ann. vi. 10, 11 ; Senec. conspirators in the pretended plot against Pompey's
Ep. 83 ; Suet. Tib. 42; Plin. H. N. xiv. 22. s. life. He was quaestor in the following year, B. C.
28). According to Porphyrion it was to this 58, when he used every exertion to obtain the
BB 3


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374
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recal of his father-in-law from banishment, and for there suppressed an insurrection of the Allobroges
that reason would not go into the provinces of Like the other Roman nobles, he plundered his
Pontus and Bithynia, which had been allotted province, and was defended by Cicero in B. c. 63,
him. He did not, however, live to see the return when he was accused of robbing the Allobroges,
of Cicero, who arrived at Rome on the 4th of Sep- and of executing unjustly a Transpadane Gaul.
tember, B. c. 57. He probably died in the sum- The latter charge was brought against him at the
mer of the same year. lle is frequently mentioned instigation of Caesar ; and Piso, in revenge, im-
by Cicero in terms of gratitude on account of the plored Cicero, but without success, to accuse Caesar
zeal which he had manifested in his behalf during as one of the conspirators of Catiline. Piso must
his banishment. (Cic. ad Alt. ii. 24, in latin. 11, bave died before the breaking out of the civil war,
pro Scst. 24, 31, ad Q. Fr. i. 4, ad Fum. xiv. 1, but in what year is uncertain. Cicero ascribes
2, post Red. in Sen. 15, post Red. ad Quir. 3. ) (Brut. 68) to him considerable oratorical abilities.
13. CN. CALPURNIUS Piso, of whom we know (Plut. Pomp. 25, 27; Dion Cass. xxxvi. 7,
nothing, except that he was consul B. c. 139, with 20–22 ; Ascon. in Cic. Cornel. pp. 68, 75, ed.
M. Popillius Laenas. (Val. Max. i. 3 $ 2. ) Orelli ; Cic. ad Att. 1, 13, pro Flacc. 39; Sall.
14. Q. CALPURNIUS Piso, consul B. c. 135, with Cat. 49. )
Ser. Fulvius Flaccus, was sent against Numantia. He may be the same as the L. Piso, who was
He did not, however, attack the city, but contented judex in the case of Q. Roscius, B. C. 67 (Cic. pro
himself with making a plundering excursion into Rosc. Com. 3, 6), and as the L. Piso, who defended
the territory of Pallantia. (Appian. Hisp. 83; Aebutus against Caecina in 75 (pro Caecin. 12).
Oros. v. 6; Obsequ. 85. )
18. M. Pupius Pisu, consul B. c. 61, belonged
15. CALPU NIUS Piso, of unknown descent, nally to the Calpurnia gens, but was adopted by
praetor about B. c. 135, was defeated by the slaves M. Pupius, when the latter was an old man (Cic. pro
in Sicily. (Flor. iii. 19. )
Dom. 13). He retained, however, his family-name
16. ČALPURNIUS Piso, of whom we know Piso, just as Scipio, after his adoption by Metellus,
nothing, except that he fought with success against was called Metellus Scipio. (METELLUS, No. 22. j
the Thracians, about B. c. 104. (Flor. iii. 4. § 6, There was, however, no occasion for the addition of
iv. 12. $ 17. )
Calpurnianus to his name, as that of Piso showed
17. C. CALPURNIUS Piso, was consul B. C. 67, sufficiently his original family. Piso bad attained
with M'. Acilius Glabrio. He belonged to the some importance as early as the first civil war.
high aristocratical party, and, as consul, led the On the death of L. Cinna, in B. c. 84, he married
opposition to the proposed law of the tribune Ga- his wife Annia, and in the following year, 83, was
binius, by which Pompey was to be entrusted appointed quaestor to the consul L. Scipio ; but he
with extraordinary powers for the purpose of con- quickly deserted this party, and went over to
ducting the war against the pirates. Piso even Sulla, who compelled him to divorce his wife on
went so far as to threaten Pompey's life, telling account of her previous connection with Cinna
bim, “ that if he emulated Romulus, he would not (Cic. Verr. i. 14; Vell. Pat. ii. 41). He failed
escape the end of Romulus," for which imprudent in obtaining the aedileship (Cic.