Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/418

406 points of state policy, granted all his requests, and virtually made over much of the imperial authority into his hands. Intoxicated by these distinctions Plautianus indulged in the most despotic tyranny; and perpetrated acts of cruelty almost beyond belief. His cupidity was boundless: no state, no province, no city escaped his exactions; in Rome he plundered all whose wealth excited his avarice, contrived the banishment or death of every one who impeded or thwarted his schemes, and ven- tured to treat with contumely even the empress Domna and her sons. He reached the pinnacle of his ambition when Severus in the year A. d. 202 selected his daughter Plautilla as the wife of Caracalla, and on that occasion he presented the bride with an outfit which a contemporary his- torian declares would have sufficed for fifty queens. But even gratified ambition brought him no hap- piness. His external appearance gave evidence of a mind ill at ease: when seen in public he was ever deadly pale, and shook with nervous agi- tation, partly, says Dion Cassius who was himself an eye-witness of these things, from the irregu- larities of his life and diet, and partly from the hopes by which he was excited, and the terrors by which he was tormented. But the high fortunes of this second Sejanus were short-lived. Having soon discovered the dislike cherished by Caracalla towards both his daughter and himself, and looking forward with apprehension ta the downfall which awaited him upon the death of the sovereign, he resolved to anticipate these threat- ened disasters by effecting the destruction of his benefactor and of his son-in-law. His treachery was discovered, he was suddenly summoned to the palace, and there put to death in A. d. 203. His property was confiscated, his daughter ban- ished, and his name erased from the public monu- ments on which it had been inscribed side by side with those of the emperor and the royal family. We ought to remark that the treason of Plautianus rests upon the testimony of Herodian, for Dion Cassius rather leans to the belief that this charge was fabricated by Caracalla for the ruin of an obnoxious favourite. (Dion Cass. lxxv. 14 — 16, lxxvi. 2 — 9, lxxvii. 1; Herodian, iii. 13. § 7, iv. 6. § 7; Eckhel, vol. vii. p. 224.) [W. R.]

PLAUTIA'NUS, QUINTILLUS, a senator of high rank, blameless life and retired habits, who when far advanced in years was rashly put to death by Septimius Severus upon some vague sus- picion. His last words have been preserved by Dion Cassius (lxxvi. 7). [W. R.]

PLAUTIL'LA, FU'LVIA, daughter of Plau- tianus [Plautianus] praefect of the praetorium under Septimius Severus, by whom she was selected as the bride of his eldest son. This union, which took place in A. D. 202, proved most unhappy, for Caracalla was from the first averse to the match, and even after the marriage was concluded virtually refused to acknowledge her as his wife. Upon the disgrace and death of her father she was banished, first, it would appear, to Sicily, and subsequently to Lipara, where she was treated with the greatest harshness, and supplied with scarcely the necessaries of life. After the murder of Geta in A. D. 212, Plautilla was put to death by order of her husband. According to the narrative of Dion Cassius, who represents her a woman of most profligate life, a very short period, not more, probably, than a few months, intervened between her marriage and exile, a statement which it is extremely difficult to reconcile with the fact that a vast number of coins were struck in honour of this princess, not only in the city but in the more distant provinces. She had a brother, Plau- tius, who shared her banishment and her fate. (Dion Cass. lxxvi. 6, lxxvii. 1; Herodian, iii. 13. § 7, iv. 6. § 7; Eckhel, vol. vii. p. 225.) [ W. R.]

COIN OF PLAUTILLA.

PLAU'TIUS. 1. A comic poet, some of whose comedies were erroneously ascribed to Plautus, as we learn from Varro. (Gell. iii. 3.)

2. A. Plautius, was sent by the emperor Clau- dius in A. D. 43 to subdue Britain. As he is called both by Tacitus and Suetonius a man of consular rank, he is perhaps the same as the A. Plautius, who was one of the consules suffecti in a. d. 29. Plautius remained in Britain four years, and sub- dued, after a severe struggle, the southern part of the island. Vespasian, who was afterwards em- peror, served under him and distinguished himself greatly in the war. In the first campaign Claudius himself passed over to Britain, and on his return to Rome celebrated a triumph for the victories which he pretended to have gained. Plautius came back to the city in a. d. 47, and was allowed by Claudius the unusual honour of an ovation; and to show the favour in which he was held by the emperor, the latter walked by his side both on his way to and his return from the Capitol. When sub- sequently his wife Pomponia Graecina was accused of religious worship unauthorised by the state, her husband was granted the privilege of deciding upon the case himself, according to the custom of the old Roman law. (Dion Cass. lx. 19—21, 30; Suet. Claud. 24, Vesp. 4; Tac. Agr. 14, Ann. xiii. 32).

3. Q. Plautius, consul a. d. 36 with Sex. Papirius Allienus. (Dion Cass. lviii. 26; Tac. Ann. vi. 40; Plin. H. N. x. 2.)

4. A. Plautius, a youth slain by Nero. (Suet. Ner. 35.)

5. Son of Fulvius Plautianus [Plautianus], upon the downfall of his father was banished along with his sister Plautilla [Plautilla] to Lipara, where he was subsequently put to death by Cara- calla, (Dion Cass. lxxvi. 7, lxxvii. 1; Herodian iii. 13. § 7, iv. 6. § 7.)

PLAU'TIUS, a Roman jurist, who is not men- tioned by Pomponius, though he lived before Pom- ponius. That he was a jurist of some note may be inferred from the fact that Paulus wrote eighteen Libri ad Plautium [Paulus, Julius]. Javolenus also wrote five books ad Plautium or ex Plautio, and Pomponius seven books. Plautius cited Cas- sius (Dig. 34. tit. 2. s. 8) and Proculus (Dig. 35. tit. 1. s. 43), and was cited by Neratius Priscus, who wrote Libri ex Plautio [Neratius Priscus]. Plautius therefore lived about the time of Vespa- sian. (Grotius, Vitae Jurisconsult.; Zimmern, Geschichte des Röm. Privatrechts, p. 322; Vatican,