Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/958

Rh 946 SULPICIUS. the popular party. The causes of this sudden change are not expressly stated by the ancient writers ; but we are told that he was overwhelmed with debt ; and there can be little doubt that he was bought by Marius, and that the latter pro- mised him great wealth as soon as he obtained the command of the war against Mithridates. The history of the rogations which Sulpicius brought forward in favour of Marius and his party, and against Sulla, is fully related in the lives of those persons. [Marius, p. 957; Sulla, p. 936.J It is only necessary to state here, that when the law was passed which conferred upon Marius the com- mand of the Mithridatic war, Sulla, who was then at Nola, marched upon Rome at the head of his army. Marius and Sulpicius had no means of resisting him, and were obliged to fly from the city. They were both declared public enemies by the senate, at the command of Sulla, along with ten others of their party. Marius succeeded in making his escape to Africa, but Sulpicius was discovered in a villa, and put to death. The slave who betrayed him was rewarded with his freedom, and then hurled down from the Tarpeian rock. (Appian, B. C. i. 58, 60 ; Plut. Sull. 1 ; Cic. de Orat. iii. 3, Brut. 63 ; Liv. EpU. 77 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 18.) Although Sulpicius was such a distinguished orator, he left no orations behind him. Cicero says that he had often heard Sulpicius declare that he was not accustomed, and was unable, to write. It is true there were some speeches extant under his name, but they were written after his death by P. Canutius. (Cic. Brut 56.) [Canutius.] Sul- picius is one of the speakers in Cicero's dialogue, De Oratore. (Ahrens, Die Drei Volkstribunen, Tib. Gracchus^ M. Drusus^ und P. Sulpicius, Leipzig, 1836 ; Meyer, Orator um Romanorum Fragmenta, pp. 343 — 347, 2d ed. ; Drumann, Geschichte Roms, vol. ii. pp. 435, 436.) 3. P. Sulpicius Rufus, probably a son or grandson of No. 2, was one of Caesar's legates in Gaul. He also served under Caesar as one of his legates in the campaign in Spain against Afranius and Petreius, in B. c. 49 ; and in the following year, b. c. 48, he was rewarded for his services by the praetorship. In the latter year he commanded Caesar's fleet at Vibo, when it was attacked by C. Cassius. Cicero addresses him in b. c. 45 as imperator. It appears that he was at that time in Illyricum, along with V^atinius. (Caes. B. G. iv. 22, B. a i. 74, iii. 101 ; Cic. ad Fam. xiii. 77.) 4. Ser. Sulpicius Lemonia Rufus, the cele- brated jurist. See below. 5. Ser. Sulpicius Rufus, the son of No. 4, was one of the subscriptores of his father's accusa- tion against Murena in B. c. 63. (Cic. pro Mur. 26, 27.) On the breaking out of the civil war, in B. c. 49, he joined his father in espousing Caesar's side, and is frequently mentioned at that time in Cicero's correspondence. He survived his father, who died in B. c. 43. (Cic. ad Att. ix. 18, 19, x. 14, ad Fam. iv. 2, PMipp. ix. 5.) 6. Sulpicius Rufus, who was ludi procurator, that is, the person who had the charge of the public games, was slain by the emperor Claudius because he was privy to the marriage of Silius and Messalina. (T.nc. Ann. xi. 35.) SER. SULPI'CIUS LEMO'NIA RUFUS, the son of Quintus, was a contemporary and friend of Cicero, and of about the same age ( Cic. Brut. 40) : SULPICIUS. Cicero was born b. c, 106. The name Lemonia ia the ablative case, and indicates the tribe to which Servius belonged. (Cic. PMipp. ix. 7.) According to Cicero, the father of Servius was of the equestrian order. {Q,c.pro Mur. 7.) Servius first devoted him- self to oratory, and he studied his art with Cicero in his youth, and also at Rhodus b. c. 78, for he accom- panied Cicero there {Brut. 41). It is said that he was induced to study law by a reproof of Q. Mucins Scaevola, the pontifex, whose opinion Ser- vius had asked on a legal question, and as the pon- tifex saw that Servius did not understand his answer, he said that " it was disgraceful for a patrician and a noble, and one who pleaded causes, to be ignorant of the law with which he had to be engaged." (Dig. 1. tit. 2. s. 2. § 43.) Henceforth jurisprudence became his study, in which he sur- passed his teachers, L. Balbus and Aquillius Galliis, and obtained a reputation in no respect inferior to that of the pontifex who reproved him. As an orator he had hardly a superior, unless it were Cicero himself. Servius was successively quaestor of the district or provincia of Ostia, in b. c. 74 (Cic. pro Mur. 8) ; aedilis curulis, b. c. 69 ; and during his prae- torship, B. c. Q5, he had the quaestio peculatiis {pro Mur. 20). In his first candidateship for the con- sulship, B. c. 63, Servius was rejected, and Servius and Cato joined in prosecuting L. Murena, who was elected. Murena was defended by Cicero, Hor- tensius, and M. Crassus {O ratio pro Murena). In B. c. 52, as interrex, he named Pompeius Magnus sole consul. In B.C. 51, he was elected consul with M. Claudius Marcellus ; and on this occasion Cato was an unsuccessful candidate. (Plut. Cato, 49.) There is no mention of any decided part that Servius took in the war between Caesar and Pompeius, but he appears to have been a partizan of Caesar, who, after the battle of Pliarsalia, made him proconsul of Achaea, B. c. 46 or 45 ; and Sulpi- cius held this office at the time when Cicero addressed to him a letter, which is still extant {ad Fam. iv. 3). Marcellus, the former colleague of Servius in the consulship, was murdered at Peiraeeus during the government of Servius, who buried him in the gymnasium of the Academia, where a marble mo- nument to his memory was raised. The death of Marcellus is told in a letter of Servius to Cicero. In B. c, 43 he was sent by the senate, with L. Philippus and L. Calpurnius Piso, on a mission to M. Antonius, who was besieging Decimus Brutus, in Mutina. Servius, who was in bad health, died in the camp of Antonius. Cicero, in the senate, pronounced a panegyric on his distinguished friend, and on his motion a public funeral was decreed, and a bronze statue was erected to the memor}^ of Servius, and appropriately placed in front of the rostra. The statue was still there when Pompo- nius wrote. (Cic. PMipp. ix. 7 ; Pomponius, Dig. 1. tit. 2. s. 2. § 43.) Servius had a wife named Postumia, and he left a son, Servius. Our chief information about Servius is derived from Cicero, who attributes his great superiority as a lawyer to his study of philosophy, not that phi- losophy itself made him a distinguished lawyer, but the discipline, to which his mind had been subjected, developed and sharpened his natural talents. In a passage in his Brutus (c. 41) Cicero has, in few words and in a masterly manner, shown in what the excellence of Servius consisted. His