Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/384

Rh 372 PISO. Festus, p. 326, ed. Miiller, where he is erroneously called Marcus instead of Cuius.) The establish- ment of these games by their ancestor was com- memorated on coins by the Pisones in later times. Of these coins, of which a vast number is extant, a specimen is .annexed. The obverse represents the head of Apollo, the reverse a horseman riding at full speed, in allusion to the equestrian games, which formed part of the festival. Who the L. Piso Frugi was that caused them to be struck, cannot be determined. (Eckhel, vol. v. p. 158.) 2. C. Calpurnius C. f. C. n. Piso, son of No. 1, was praetor b. c. 186, and received Further Spain as his province. He continued in his pro- vince as propraetor in B.C. 185, and on his return to Rome in 184 obtained a triumph for a victory he had gained over the Lusitani and Celtiberi. In B.C. 181 he was one of the three commissioners for founding the colony of Graviscae in Etruria, and in b. c. 180 he was consul with A. Postumius Albinus. Piso died during his consulship ; he was no doubt carried off by the pestilence which was then raging at Rome, but the people suspected that he had been poisoned by his wife Quarta Hostilia, because her son by a former marriage, Q. Fulvius Flaccus, succeeded Piso as consul snf- fectus. (Liv. xxxix. 6, 8, 21, 30, 31, 42, xl. 29, 35, 37.) 3. L. Calpurnius (Piso), probably a younger son of No. 1, was sent as ambassador to the Achaeans at Sicyon. (Liv. xxxii. 19.) 4. L. Calpurnius C. f. C. n. Piso Caesoninus. His last name shows that he originally belonged to the Caesonia gens, and was adopted by one of the Pisones, probably by No. 3, as he is indicated in the Fasti as C. f. C. n. This Piso brought dishonour on his family by his want of ability and of energy in war. He was praetor in b. c. 154, and obtained the province of Further Spain, but was defeated by the Lusitani. He was consul in b. c. 148 with Sp. Postumius Albinus, and was sent to conduct the war against Carthage, which he carried on with such little activity that the people became greatly discontented with his conduct, and he was superseded in the following year by Scipio. (Ap- pian, Hisp. 5Q, Punic. 110—112.) 5. L. Calpurnius L. f. C. n. Piso Caesoni- nus, son of No. 4, was consul b. c. 112 with M. Livius Drusus. In B.C. 107 he served as legatus to the consul, L. Cassias Longinus, who was sent into Gaul to oppose the Cimbri and their allies, and he fell together with the consul in the battle, in which the Roman army was utterly de- feated by the Tigurini in the territory of the Allobroges. [Longinus, No. 5.] This Piso was the grandfather of Caesar's father-in-law, a circum- stance to which Caesar himself alludes in recording his own victory over the Tigurini at a later time. (Caes. B. G. i. 7, 12 ; Oros. v. 15.) 6. L. Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, son of No. 5, never rose to any of the offices of state, and is only known from the account given of him by Cicero in his violent invective against his son [No. 7]. He had the charge of the manufactory of arms at Rome during the Marsic war. He married the daughter of Calventius, a native of Cisalpine Gaul, who came from Placentia and settled at Rome ; and hence Cicero calls his son in contempt a semi- Placentian. (Cic. in Pis. 36, 23, 26, 27.) [Cal- ventius.] 7. L. Calpurnius C. f. L. n. Piso Caesoninus, PISO. the son of No. 6, and father-in-law of the dictator Caesar. Asconius says {in Cic. Pis. p. 3, ed. Orelli) that this Piso belonged to the fcimily of the Frugi ; but this is a mistake, as Drumann has shown {Cesch. Ito7ns, vol. ii. p. 62). Our prin- cipal information respecting Piso is derived from several of the orations of Cicero, who paints him in the blackest colours ; but as Piso was both a political and a personal enemy of the orator, we must make great deductions from his description, which is evidently exaggerated. Still, after making every deduction, we know enough of his life to con- vince us that he was an unprincipled debauchee and a cruel and corrupt magistrate, a fair sample of his noble contemporaries, neither better nor worse than the majorit3'^of them. He is first mentioned in B. c. 59, when he was brought to trial by P. Clodius for plundering a province, of which he had the administration after his praetorship, and he was only acquitted by throwing himself at the feet of the judges (Val. Max. viii. 1. § 6). In the same year Caesar married his daughter Calpurnia. Through his influence Piso obtained the consulship for the following year B. c. 58, having for his col- league A. Gabinius, who was indebted for the honour to Pompey. The new consuls were the mere instruments of the triumvirs, and took care that the senate should do nothing in opposition to the wishes of their patrons. When the triumvirs had resolved to sacrifice Cicero, the consuls of course threw no obstacle in their way ; but Clo- dius, to make sure of their support, promised Piso the province of Macedonia, and Gabinius that of Syria, and brought a bill before the people to that effect, although the senate was the constitutional body to dispose of the provinces. The banishment of Cicero soon followed, Piso took an active part in the measures of CJodius, and joined him in celebrating their victory. Cicero accuses him of transferring to his own house the spoils of Cicero's dwellings. The conduct of Piso in support of Clodius produced that extreme resentment in the mind of Cicero, which he displayed against Piso on many subsequent occasions. At the expiration of his consulship Piso went to his province of Mace- donia, where he remained during two years, B. c. 57 and 56, plundering the province in the most shameless manner. In the latter of these years the senate resolved that a successor should be appointed, and accordingly, to his great mortifica- tion and rage, he had to resign the government in B. c. 55 to Q. Ancharius. In the debate in the senate, which led to his recal and likewise to that of Gabinius, Cicero had an opportunity of giving vent to the wrath which had long been raging within him, and accordingly in the speech which he delivered on the occasion, and which has come down to us (De Provinciis Consularibus), he poured forth a torrent of invective against Piso, accusing him of every possible crime in the government of his province. Piso on his return, B. c. 55, com- plained in the senate of the attack of Cicero, and justified the administration of his province, where- upon Cicero reiterated his charges in a speech (In Pisonem), in which he pourtrays the whole public and private life of his enemy with the choicest words of virulence and abuse that the Latin lan- guage could supply. Cicero, however, did not venture to bring to trial the father-in-law of Caesar. In B. c. 50 Piso was censor with Ap. Claudius Pulcher, and undertook this office at the request C)f