Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/385

Rh Caesar. At the beginning of the following year, B. c. 49, Piso, who had not yet laid down his cen- sorship, offered to go to Caesar to act as mediator ; but the aristocratical party would not hear of any ac- commodation, and hostilities accordingly commenced. Piso accompanied Pompey in his flight from the city ; and although he did not go with him across the sea, he still kept aloof from Caesar. Cicero ac- cordingly praises hnn, and actually writes to Atticus, " I love Piso" (Cic. ad Att. vii. 13, a., ad Farm. xiv. 14). Piso subsequently returned to Rome, and though he took no part in the civil war, was notwithstanding treated with respect by Caesar. On the murder of the latter, in B. c. 44, Piso e.xerted himself to obtain the preservation of the laws and institutions of his father-in-law, and was almost the only person that dared to oppose the arbitrary conduct of Antony. Afterwards, how- ever, he appeared as one of the most zealous ad- herents of Antony ; and when the latter went to Cisalpine Gaul, at the end of the year, to prosecute the war against Decimus Brutus, Piso remained at Rome, to defend his cause and promote his views. At the beginning of the following year, B. c. 43, he was one of the ambassadors sent to Antony at Mutina. After this time his name does not occur. (Orelli, Onom. Tall. vol. ii. p. 123, &c. ; Caes. B. a i. 3 ; Dion Cass. xl. 63, xli. 16 ; Appian, B. C. ii. 14, 135, 143, iii. 50, 54, &c.) 8. L. Calpurnius L. f. L. n. Piso Caesoni- Nus, the son of No. 7, must have been born during the civil war between Caesar and Pompey (b. c. 49 — 48), as he was eighty at the time of his death in A. D. 32 (Tac. A7i7i. vi. 10). He was consul B. c. 15, with M. Livius Drusus Libo, and after- wards obtained the province of Pamphylia ; from thence he was recalled by Augustus in B. c. 11, in order to make war upon the Thracians, who had attacked the province of Macedonia. After a struggle which lasted for three years he subdued the various Thracian tribes, and obtained in con- sequence the triumphal insignia. The favour which Augustus had shown to Piso, he continued to re- ceive from his successor Tiberius, who made him praefectus urbi. He was one of the associates of Tiberius in his revels, but had nothing of the cruel and suspicious disposition of the emperor. Although he spent the greater part of the night at table, and did not rise till midday, he discharged the duties of his office with punctuality and diligence ; and while retaining the favour of the emperor, without condescending to servility, he at the same time earned the good-will of his fellow-citizens by the integrity and justice with which he governed the city. Velleius Paterculus, who wrote his history while Piso held the praefecture of the city, pro- nounces a glowing eulogy on his virtues and merits. He died, as we have already stated, in a. d. 32, and was honoured by a decree of the senate, with a public funeral. He was a pontiff at the time of his death. The year in which he was appointed praefectus urbi has occasioned considerable dispute. Tacitus says that he held the office for twenty years, but this is opposed to the statements of Seneca and Tiberius, who place his appointment much later than Tacitus. It is impossible, however, to come to any definite conclusion on the subject (Dion Casa. liv. 21, 34, Iviii. 19 ; Florus, iv. 12 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 98 ; Tac. Ann. vi. 10, 11 ; Senec. Ep. 83 ; Suet. Tib. 42 ; Plin. H. N. xiv. 22. s. 28). According to Porphyrion it vras to this PISO. 373 Piso and his two sons that Horace addressed his epistle on the Art of Poetry, and there are no suffi- cient reasons for rejecting this statement, as has been done by some modern writers. Respecting these two sons we only know that the elder Avas called Lucius (Anon, ad Hor. Ar. Poet. 366), but neither of them can be identified for certain with any of the Pisones mentioned in history. 9. L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi, consul b. c. 133. His descent is quite uncertain, since neither the Fasti nor coins mention the name of his father. From his integrity and conscientiousness he received the surname of Frugi, which is perhaps nearly equivalent to our " man of honour," but the exact force of which is explained at length by Cicero (Tusc. iii. 18). Piso was tribune of the plebs, B. c. 149, in which year he proposed the first law for the punishment of extortion in the provinces (Lex Calpurnia de Repeiundis, Cic. Brut. 27, Verr. iii. 84, iv. 25, de Of. ii. 21). In b. c. 133 he was consul with P. Mucius Scaevola, and was sent into Italy against the slaves. He gained a victory over them, but did not subdue them, and was succeeded in the command by the consul P. Rupilius (Oros. V. 9 ; Val. Max. ii. 7. § 9). Piso was a staunch supporter of the aristocratical party ; and though he would not look over their crimes, as his law against extortion shows, still he was as little disposed to tolerate any invasion of their rights and privileges. He therefore offered a strong op- position to the measures of C. Gracchus, and is especially mentioned as a vehement opponent of the leas frumentaria of the latter (Cic. pro Font. 13, Ttisc. iii. 20). He is called Censorius by several ancient writers ; and though the date of his censor- ship is uncertain, it may perhaps be referred to B. c. 120. Piso left behind him orations, which had disappeared in' Cicero's time, and Annals, which contained the history of Rome from the earliest period to the age in which Piso himself lived. This work, which, according to Cicero's judgment (Brut. 27), was written in a meagre style, is frequently referred to by ancient writers. Piso was, in Niebuhr's opinion, the first Roman writer who introduced the practice of giving a ra- tionalistic interpretation to the myths and legends in early Roman history. (Comp, Niebuhr, Hisi. of Rome., vol. i. pp. 235, 237, vol. ii. p. 9 ; Lach- mann, De Fontibus T. Livii, p. 32 ; Krause, Vitae et Fragm. Hist. Roman, p. 1 39 ; Liebaldt, De L. Fisone Annalium Scriptore, Naumburg, 1836.) 10. L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi, the son of No. 9, and a worthy inheritor of his surname, served with distinction under his father in Sicily, in B. c. 133, and died in Spain about B.C. Ill, whither he had gone as propraetor. (Cic. Verr. iv. 25 ; Val. Max. iv. 3. § 10 ; Appian, ^fsp. dB.) 11. L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi, the son of No. 10, was, like his father and grandfather, a man of honour and integrity. He was a colleague of Verres in the praetorship, B. c. 74, when he thwarted many of the unrighteous schemes of the latter. (Cic. Verr. i. 46.) 12. C. Calpurnius Piso Frugi, a son of No. 11, married TuUia, the daughter of Cicero, in B. c. 63, but was betrothed to her as early as B. c. 67 {Cc. ad Att.'i. Z). In Caesar's consulship, B. c. 59, Piso was accused by L. Vettius as one of the conspirators in the pretended plot against Pompey's life. He was quaestor in the following year, b. c 58, when he used every exertion to obtain the B B 3