Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/299

Rh PHILIPPUS. mediately : all parties in the state who had just })efore united in favour of Drusus, now began to look upon him with mistrust and suspicion. In this state of affairs, Philippus became reconciled to the senate, and to the leading members of that body, with whom he had hitherto been at deadly feud ; and accordingly, on the proposition of tlie consul, who was also an augur, a senatus consul- turn was passed, declaring all the laws of Drusus to be null and void, as having been carried against the auspices (Cic. de Prov. Cotis. 9, de Leg. ii. 12. Fraym. vol. iv, p. 449, ed. Orelli ; Ascon. in Cornel, p. 6'8). Nothing else is recorded of the consulship of Philippus, except that he recom- mended the senate to lay claim to Egypt, in con- sequence of its having been left to them by the will of Alexander. (Cic. de Leg. Agr. ii. 16.) In B. c. 86, Philippus was censor with M. Per- perna, and it is recorded of him that he expelled his own uncle App. Claudius from the senate. (Cic. pro Dora. 32.) In the civil wars between Marius and Sulla, Philippus took no part. His original predilections might have led him to join Marius ; but the ex- perience he had had of the Roman mob in his con- sulship, together with his reconciliation to the senate, led him probably to desire the success of Sulla. Cicero speaks of him as belonging to the party of the latter ; but as he continued at Rome during Cinna's usurpation, and was suffered to re- main unmolested, he must have been regarded as neutral in the strife (Cic. ad Att. viii. 3). On Sulla's death, he deprecated any immediate change, and accordingly resisted the attempts of Lepidus, B.C. 78, to alter the constitution that had been recently established (Sail. Hist. . 18, 19). But Philippus was no friend to the aristocracy in heart, and accordingly gave his support to Pornpey, by whose means the people eventually regained most of their former political power. Thus he was one of those who advocated sending Pompey to con- duct the war in Spain against Sertorius, and is re- ported on that occasion to have said " Non se Pompeium sua sententia pro consule, sed pro con- sulibus mittere." (Cic. pro Leg. Man. 21, Phil, xi. 8 ; Phit. Pomp. 17.) He appears, likewise, to have been a personal friend of Pompey, for he had defended him previously in B. c. 86, when he was accused of having appropriated to his own use the booty taken at Ascuhim in the Marsic war, B.C. 89. (Cic. Brut. 64 ; Val. Max. vi. 2. § 8 ; Plut. Pomp. 4.) It would seem that Philippus did not live to see the return of Pompey from Spain. Philippus was one of the most distinguished orators of his time. His reputation continued even to the Augustan age, whence we read in Horace {Epist. i. 7. 46): — " Strenuus et fortis causisque Philippus agendis Clarus." Cicero says that Philippus was decidedly in- ferior as an orator to his two great contemporaries Crassus and Antonius, but was without question next to them. In speaking he possessed much freedom and wit ; he was fertile in invention, and clear in the development of his ideas ; and in alter- cation he was witty and sarcastic. He was also well acquainted with Greek literature for that time (Cic. Brut. 47). He was accustomed to speak extempore, and, when he rose to speak, he fre- quently did not know with what word he should PHILIPPUS. 287 begin (Cic. de Or. ii. 78) : hence in his old age it was with both contempt and anger that he used to listen to the studied periods of Hortensius (Cic. Brut. 2b). Philippus was a man of luxurious habits, which his wealth enabled him to gratify : his fisli -ponds were particularly celebrated for their magnificence and extent, and are mentioned by the ancients along with those of Lucullus and Hortensius (Varr. R. R. iii. 3. § 10 ; Colum. viii 16 ; Plin. H. N. ix. 54. s. 80). Besides his son, L. Philippus, who is spoken of below [No. 6], he had a step-son Gellius Publicola [Publicola]. (Our knowledge respecting Philippus is chiefly derived from Cicero, the various passages in whose writings relating to him are collected in Orelli, Onom. Tull. vol. ii. p. 380, &c. ; comp Meyer, Orator. Roman. Fragm. p. 323, &c., 2d .;d. ; Wes- termann, Gesch. der Rom. Beredtsamheit s § 43.) 6. L. Marcius L. f. Q. n. Philipi^us, the son of the preceding, seems to have bec-n praetor in b. c. 60, since we find him propraotor in Syria in B. c. 59 (Appian, Syr. 51 ). He wus consul in b. c. 56, with Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus. Phi- lippus was closely connected with Caesar's family. Upon the death of C. Octavius, the father of the emperor Augustus, Philippus married his widow Atia, who was the daughter of Julia, the sister of the dictator, and he thus became the step-father of Augustus (Suet. Ociav. 8 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 59, 60 ; Cic. Phil. iii. 6; Appian, B. C. iii. 10, 13; Plut. Cic. 41). Ovid, indeed, says {Fast. vi. 809), that he married the sister of the mother {mate?-tera) of Augustus, and hence it has been conjectured that Philippus may have married both sisters in succession, for that he was the step-father of Au- gustus cannot admit of dispute. (The question is discussed by Orelli, Onom. Tull. vol. ii. p. 382.) Notwithstanding his close connection with Caesar's family, Philippus remained neutral in the civil wars. He was at Rome when the senate took open measures against Caesar at the begin- ning of B. c. 49 ; and in the division of the pro- vinces among the leading members of the senate, he was purposely passed over (Caes. B.C. i. 6). He subsequently obtained permission from Caesar to take no part in the struggle, and remained quietly in Italy during the whole of the war. Caesar, however, with his usual magnanimity, did not resent this lukewarmness in his cause, but continued to show him marks of friendship and esteem. Philippus was also on good terms with Cicero, who mentions him not unfrequently, and calls him in joke Anii/ntae JUius^ in allusion to his name Philippus (Cic. ad Att. ix. 12, 15, 16, 18, siii. 52). Philippus was a timid man. After the assassi- nation of Caesar, he endeavoured to dissuade his step-son, the young Octavius, from accepting the inheritance which the dictator had left him (Veil. Pat. ii. 60 ; Suet. Aug. 8 ; Appian, B. C. iii. 10, 13; comp. Cic. ad Att. xiv. 12). When Antony and the senate came to an open rupture, Philippus was one of the ambassjidors sent to the former at Mutina by the senate, and was much blamed by Cicero, because, being the ambassador of the senate, he brought back to that body the shameless de- mands of Antony. (Cic. ad Fam. xii. 4, Phil. viii. 10, ix. I.) Philippus must have attained a good old age. He lived till his step-son had acquired the supremacy of the Roman world, for we find him mentioned ad