Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/553

Rh PROCULUS. in Liguria, Having entered upon the career of a soldier, he served with great distinction in the Roman legions, and frequently held the command of a tribune. In the year a. d. 280, he was per- suaded by a bold ambitious wife to place himself at the head of the discontented inhabitants of Lyons, and to assume the purple. During the brief period of his sway, he achieved a victory over the Ale- manni ; but having been attacked and routed by Probus, he sought refuge among the Franks, by whom he was delivered up to death. (Vopisc. Vita Proculi in Script. Hist. Aug.) [W- R.] PRO'CULUS, the jurist. The fact that Proculus gave his name to the school or sect (Proculiani or Proculeiani, as the name is also written), which was opposed to that of the Sabiniani, shows that he was a jurist of note. He was a contempo- rary of Nerva the son [Nerva]. Proculus is often cited, and there are 37 extracts from him in the Digest from his eight books of Epistolae. He is the second jurist in order of time who is ex- cerpted in the Digest. Labeo is the first. Ac- cording to the Florentine Index, he wrote eight books of Epistolae ; but he wrote at least eleven books. (Dig. 18. tit. 1. s. 69.) He appears also to have written notes on Labeo. It is inferred that Proculus was named Sempro- nius Proculus, from the case put in the Digest (31. s. 47) ; but in that passage Sempronius Proculus asks the opinion of his grandson (nepos), whose name, as the answer shows, was Proculus. If he was a daughter's son, his name would not necessarily be Sempronius. Proculus is called "" non levis juris auctor" by the Divi Fratres (Dig. 37. tit. 14. s. 17.) Some writers suppose that Proculus is the Licinius Proculus, who was Praefectus Praetorio under Otho. (Tacit. Hist. i. 46, 82, ii. 39, &c.) Lampridius {Alex. Severus, 68) makes Proculus one of the consiliarii of Alexander Severus ; but that is not the only, mistake which Lampridius commits in that passage. (Zimmern, GescldcTite des Rom. Privatrechts.) [G. L.] PRO'CULUS, a physician. [Proclus.] PRO'CULUS, ACERRO'NIUS. [Acerro- NlUb.] PRO'CULUS, C. ARTO'RIUS, a Roman grammarian, who erroneously gave the name of figurae to tropi. (Quintil. ix. 1, init.) This writer is frequently quoted by Festus, under the simple name of Artorius. (Festus, pp. 225, 352, 364, ed. Miiller.) PRO'CULUS, BA'RBIUS, one of the soldiers whom Otho employed to corrupt the fidelity of Galba's troops, when he was aspiring to the em- pire. (Tac. Hist. i. 25 ; Plut. Galb. 24.) PRO'CULUS, CERVA'RIUS, was privy to the conspiracy of Piso against Nero, but, in con- sequence of his turning informer and accusing Fenius Rufus, he obtained his pardon. (Tac. Ann. XV. 50, 66, 71.) PRO'CULUS, CE'STIUS. [Cestius, No. 4.] PRO'CULUS, COCCEIUS, one of the specu- latores (see Diet, of Ant. p. 508, b., 2d ed.) of the emperor Galba. (Tac. Hist. i. 24.) PRO'CULUS, FLA'VIUS, a Roman eques in the reign of the emperor Claudius. (Plin. H. N. xxxiii. 2. s. 8.) PRO'CULUS, JU'LIUS. 1. Is related in the legend of Romulus to have informed the sorrowing Roman people, after the strange departure of their king from the world, that Romulus had descended PRODICUS. 541 from heaven r.nd appeared to him, bidding him tell the people to honour him in future as a god under the name of Quirinus. (Liv. i. 16 ; Ov. Fast. ii. 499, &c. ; Flor. i. 1 ; Lactant. i. 15 ; Dion Cass. Ivi. 46.) 2. A friend of Martial. (Mart. i. 71.) 3. Slain by Commodus in Asia. (Lamprid. Commod. 7.) PRO'CULUS, LICPNIUS, was one of Otho's friends, and was advanced by him to the dignity of praefect of the praetorian cohorts. Otho placed more confidence in him than in any of his other generals, and he maintained his influence with the emperor by calumniating those who had more virtue tlian himself. His want of experience in war and his evil counsels hastened Otho's fall. He escaped with his life after the defeat at Bedriacum, and obtained his pardon from Vitellius by pleading that he had purposely betrayed his master. (Tac. Hist. i. 46, 82, 87, ii. 33, 39, 44, 60.) PRO'CULUS, C. PLAU'TIUS, consul b.c. 358, with C. Fabius Ambustus, carried on war with the Hemici, whom he conquered, and obtained in consequence the honour of a triumph. Two years afterwards, B. c. 356, he was named magister equitum by the dictator C. Marcius Rutilus. Ru- tilus was the first plebeian dictator, and Proculus the first plebeian magister equitum. (Liv. vii. 12, 15,17.) PRO'CULUS, SCRIBO'NIUS. 1. A senator, who was torn to pieces by the senators in the senate-house, because Protogenes, the instrument of Caligula's cruelties, exclaimed, as Proculus was going to salute him, "Do you, who hate the emperor so much, venture to salute me ? " (Dion Cass. lix. 26 ; comp. Suet. Cal. 28.) 2. The brother of Scribonius Rufus. These brothers were distinguished by their wealth and their friendship for one another, and had governed the two Germanics at the same time. Having been summoned by Nero to Greece, they were accused on their arrival, and, as no opportunity was afforded them of clearing themselves of the charges brought against them, they put an end to their own lives (Dion Cass. Ixiii. 17). It is of these two brothers, Scribonius Proculus and Scribonius Rufus, that Tacitus speaks, calling them simply " Scribonii fratres." We learn from him that Pactius Africa- nus was supposed to have denounced them to Nero (Tac. Ann. xiii. 48, Hist. iv. 41). These brothers were probably the sons of the preceding Scribonius Proculus, (See Reimarus, ad Dion Cass. I.e.) PRO'CULUS, TI'TIUS, put to death in a. d. 48, because he had been privy to the adulteries of Silius and Messalina. (Tac. Ann. xi. 35.) PRO'CULUS, VE'CTIUS, the step- father (vi- tricus) of the wife of the younger Pliny (Plin. Ep. ix. 13. § 13). Pliny addresses one of his letters (iii. 15) to a certain Proculus, who may perhaps be the same person as this Vectius Proculus. PRO'CULUS, VOLU'SIUS, had been one of the instruments employed by Nero in the murder of his mother, and was a commander of one of the ships in the fleet ofi^ the Campanian coast, when the conspiracy of Piso against Nero was formed. From a woman of the name of Epicharis, he obtained some information respecting the plot, which he straightwav communicated to Nero. (Tac. Aim. XV. 51, 57') PRO'DICUS (npoSiKos), was a native of lulis in the island of Ceos, the birthplace of Simonidea