Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/1023

Rh nucius Rufus. It has, therefore, been supposed that at the time of Cato's defeat, B. c. 114, T. Didius was practor of Illyricum, and that in this capacity he repelled the Scordiscans, who, after having defeated Cato, ranged over Macedonia. But this supposition is not without its difficulties, for in the first place, we know of no war in Illyricum at that time which might have required the presence of a practor, and in the second place, it would be rather strange to find that T. Didius, who was practor B. c. 114, did not obtain the consulship till 15 years later, especially as he had gained a victory and a triumph in his praetorship, whereas the ordinary interval between the praetorship and consulship is only the space of two years. According to Cicero (l. c.), T. Didius triumphed ex Macedonia, and he had therefore had the administration of Macedonia and not of Illyricum; moreover, Florus's account of the time of the victory of Didins over the Scordiscans is erroneous, for we learn from the Chronicle of Eusebius (clxx. 2), that the victory of Didius over the Scordiscans took place the year after the fifth consulship of C. Marius, that is, in B. c. 100, and consequently 14 years later than the narrative of Florus would lead us to suppose. This also leaves us the usual interval of two years between the praetorship and the consulship, which Didius had in B. c. 98 with Q. Caecilius Metellus. In this year the two consuls carried the lex Caecilia Didia. (Schol. Bob. ad Cic. pro Sext. p. 310; Cic. pro Dom. 16, 20, pro Seat. 64, Philip. v. 3.) Subsequently Didius obtained the proconsulship of Spain, and in B. c. 93 he celebrated a triumph over the Celtiberians. (Fast. Triumph.; Cic. pro Plane. 25.) Respecting his proconsulship of Spain, we learn from Appian (Hisp. 99, &c.), that he cut to pieces nearly 20,000 Vaccacans, transplanted the inhabitants of Termesus, conquered Colenda after a siege of nine months, and destroyed a colony of robbers by enticing them into his camp and then ordering them to be cut down. (Comp. Frontin. Strat. i. 8. § 5. ii. 10. 1.) According to Sallust (ap. Gell. ii. 27; comp. Plut. Sertor. 3) Sertorius served in Spain as military tribune under Didius. Didius also took part in the Marsic war, which soon after broke out, and he fell in a battle which was fought in the spring of B. c. 89. (Appian, B. C. i. 40; Vell. Pat. ii. 16; Ov. Fast. vi. 567, &c.) According to a passage in Plutarch (Sertor. 12), Didius was beaten and slain, ten years later, by Sertorius in Spain, but the reading in that passage is wrong, and instead of Δίδιον, or as some read it Φίδιον, we ought to read ouplov. (Ruhnken, ad Vell. Pat. ii. 16.) There is a coin figured on p. 602, b.. which refers to our T. Didius: the reverse shews a portico with a double row of pillars, and bears the inscription. From this we see, that T. Didius received the title of imperator in Spain (Sallust. l. c.), and that after his return to Rome he restored or embellished the villa publica in the Campus Martius. The obverse shews the head of Concordia, her name, and that of P. Fonteius Capito, who struck the coin, and on it commemorated an act of the life of Didius, with whose family, as we may infer from the image of Concordia, Fonteius Capito was connected by marriage. (Eckhel, Doctr. Num. v. p. 130.)

3. T., perhaps a son of No. 2, was tribune of the people, in B. c. 95, with L. Aurelius Cotta. In the disputes arising from the accusation which one of their colleagues brought against Q Caepio, Didius and Cotta were driven by force from the tribunal. (Cic. de Orat. ii. 47; comp., No. 8.)

4. C., a legate of C. Julius Caesar, who sent him, in B. c. 46, to Spain against Cn. Pompeius. In the neighbourhood of Carteia he gained a naval victory over Q. Attius Varus, and in the year following he set out from Gades with a fleet in pursuit of Cn. Pompeius, who had taken to flight. Pompeius was compelled to land, and Didius took or burnt his ships. Didius himself likewise landed, and after Pompeius had been killed by Caesennius Lento, Didius was attacked by the Lusitanian soldiers of Pompeius, and fell under their strokes. (Dion Cass, xliii. 14, 31, 40; Bell. Hisp. 37, 40.)

5. Q., was governor of Syria in B. c. 31, a post to which he had probably been appointed by M. Antony; but, after the battle of Actium, he deserted Antony, and prevailed upon the Arabs to burn the fleet which Antony had built in the Arabian gulf. (Dion Cass. li. 7.)

M. DI'DIUS SA'LVIUS JULIA'NUS, afterwards named, the successor of Pertinax, was the son of Petronius Didius Severus and Clara Aemilia, the grandson or great-grandson of Salvius Julianus, so celebrated as a jurisconsult under Hadrian. Educated by Domitia Lucilla, the mother of M. Aurelius, by her interest he was appointed at a very early age to the vigintivirate, the first step towards public distinction. He then held in succession the offices of quaestor, aedile, and praetor, was nominated first to the command of a legion in Germany, afterwards to the government of Belgica, and in recompense for his skill and gallantry in repressing an insurrection among the Chauci, a tribe dwelling on the Elbe, was raised to the consulship. He further distinguished himself in a campaign against the Catti, ruled Dalmatia and Lower Germany, and was placed at the head of the commissariat in Italy. About this period he was charged with having conspired against the life of Commodus, but had the good fortune to be acquitted, and to witness the punishment of his accuser. Bithynia was next consigned to his charge; he was consul for the second time in A. D. 179, along with Pertinax, whom he succeeded in the proconsulate of Africa, from whence he was recalled to Rome and chosen praefectus vigilum.

Upon the death of Pertinax, the Praetorian assassins publicly announced that they would bestow the purple on the man who would pay the highest price. Flavius Sulpicianus, praefect of the city, father-in-law of the murdered emperor, being at that moment in the camp, to which he had been. despatched for the purpose of soothing the troops, proceeded at once to make liberal proposals, when Julianus, having been roused from a banquet by his wife and daughter, arrived in all haste, and being unable to gain admission, stood before the gate, and with a loud voice contended for the prize. The bidding went on briskly for a while, the soldiers reporting by turns to each of the two competitors, the one within the fortifications, the other outside the rampart, the sum tendered by his rival. At length, Sulpicianus having promised a donative of twenty thousand sesterces a head, the throne was about to be knocked down to him, when Julianus, no longer adding a small amount,