Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/96

Rh 84 PAETUS. 1. P. Aelujs Paetus, consul B.C. 337, with C. Sulpiciiis Longus, and magister equitum 32], to the dictator Q. Fabius Ambustus. He was one of the first plebeian augurs, B. c. 300. (Liv. viii. 15, ix. 7, X. 9.) 2. P, Aelius Paetus, plebeian aedile a. c. 296. (Liv. X. 23.) 3. C. Aelius Paetus, consul b. c. 286, with M. Valerius Maximus Potitus (Fasti). 4. Q, Aelius Paetus, a pontifex who fell in the battle of Cannae, B.C. 216. He had been a candidate for the consulship for this year. (Liv. xxiii. 21, comp. xxii. 35.) 5. P. Aelius Paetus, consul b. c. 201, a jurist. See below. 6. Sex. Aelius Paetus Catus, consul b. c. 1 98, a jurist. See below. 7. Q. Aelius P. f. Q.n. Paetus (Fasti Capit.), eon apparently of No. 5, and grandson of No. 4. He was elected augur b. c. 174, in place of his father P. Aelius Paetus (Liv. xli. 21), and was consul B.C. 167, with M. Junius Pennus. He obtained Gallia as his province, and his colleague Pisae, but the two consuls performed nothing of importance, and returned to Rome after laying waste the territory of the Ligurians. (Liv. xlv. 16, 44 ; Cic. Brut. 28.) This is the Aelius of whom it is related by Valerius Maximus (iv. 3. § 7) and Pliny {H. N. xxxiii. 11, s. 50), that the Aetolians sent him in his consulship magnificent presents of silver plate, since they had in a former embassy found him eating out of earthenware, and that he refused their gift. Valerius calls him Q. Aelius Tubero Catus, and Pliny Catus Aelius ; they both seem to have confounded him with other persons of the same name, and Pliny commits the further error of calling him the son-in-law of L. Aemilius Paullus, the conqueror of Macedonia. [Tubero.] 8. Aelius Paetus Tubero. [Tubero.] The annexed coin belongs to P. Aelius Paetus, but it is uncertain to which person of the name. It bears on the obverse the head of Pallas, and on the reverse the Dioscuri. COIN OF p. aelius paetus. PAETUS, AE'LIUS, jurists. I. P. Aelius Paetus, was probably the son of Q. Aelius Paetus, a pontifex, who fell in the battle of Cannae. (Liv. xxiii. 21.) Publius was plebeian aedile B. c. 204, praetor B. c. 203 (Liv. xxix. 38), magister equitum b. c. 202, and consul with C. Cornelius Lentulus B. c. 201. Paetus held the urbana jurisdictio dur- ing his year of office as praetor, in which capacity he published an edict for a supplicatio at Rome to commemorate the defeat of Syphax. (Liv. xxx. 17.) On the departure of Hannibal from Italy in the same year, Paetus made the motion for a five days' supplicatio. The year of the election of Paetus to the consulship was memorable for the defeat of Hannibal by P. Cornelius Scipio at the battle of Zaraa. (Liv. xxx. 40.) Paetus during his consul- ship had Italy for his province ; he had a conflict PAETUS. with the Boii, and made a treaty with the Ingauni Ligures. He was also in the same year appointed a decemvir for the distribution of lands among the veteran soldiers of Scipio, who had fought in Africa. (Liv. xxxi. 4.) He was afterwards appointed a commissioner {triumvir) with his brother Sextus and Cn. Cornelius Lentulus to settle the affairs of Narnia, the people of which place complained that there was not the proper number of colonists (co- loni), and that certain persons, who were not coloni, were passing themselves off as such. (Liv. xxxii. 2.) In B. c. 199, he was censor with P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus. He afterwards became an augur, and died B, c. 174, during a pestilence at Rome. (Liv. xli. 26.) Paetus is mentioned by Pomponius (Dig. 1. tit. 1. s. 2. § 37) as one of those who professed the law (maximam scientiam in profitendo habuerunt), in the Roman sense of that period. 2. Sex. Aelius Paetus, the brother of Publius, was curule aedile B.C. 200, consul B. c. 198, with T. Quinctius Flamininus (Liv. xxxii. 7), and censor B. c. 193 with Cn. Cornelius Cethegus. (Liv. xxxiv, 44, XXXV. 9.) During their censorship, the censors gave orders to the curule aediles to appoint distinct seats at the Ludi Romani for the senators, who up to that time had sat promiscuously with others. The Atrium of Libertas and the Villa Publica were also repaired and enlarged by the censors. Sextus had a reputation as a jurist and a prudent man, whence he got the cognomen Catus. Egregie cordatus homo Catus Aelius Sextus (Cic. de Orat. i. 45), which is a line of Ennius. Sextus was a jurist of eminence, and also a ready speaker. (Cic. Brut. c. 20.) He is enu- merated among the old jurists who collected or arranged the matter of law {juris antiqui condilor ; Cod. 7. tit. 7. s. 1), which he did in a work en- titled Tripartita or Jus Aelianum. This was a work on the Twelve Tables, which contained the ori- ginal text, an interpretation, and tlie Legis actio subjoined. It still existed in the time of Pom- ponius (Dig. 1. tit. 2. s. 2. § 38) ; and was probably the first commentary written on the Twelve Tables. Cicero {de Or. i. 5Q) speaks of his Com- mentarii, which may or may not be a different work from the Tripartita. Gellius (iv. 1) quotes Servius Sulpicius, as citing an opinion of Catus Aelius (or Sextus Aelius) on the meaning of the word Penus. The same passage is quoted by Ul- pian, De Fenu legata (33. tit. 9. s. 3. § 9), where the common reading is Sextus Caecilius, which, as Grotius contends, ought to be Sextus Aelius. He is also cited by Celsus (Dig. 19. tit. 1. s. 38), as the text stands. The Aelius quoted by Cicero {Top. c. 2) as authority for the meaning of " assi- duus," is probably Sextus Aelius. Zimmern takes the Aelius mentioned in Cicero's Brutus (c. 46) to be the jurist, but this is obviously a mistake. {Brutus, ed. Meyer, c. 20, 46.) Meyer also denies that the whole work of Sextus on the Twelve Tables was called Jus Aelianum ; he limits the name to that part which contained the Actiones. Pomponius speaks of three other " libri" as attributed to Sextus, but some denied that they were his. Cicero {de Or. iii. 33) refers to Sextus as one of those who were consulted after the old fashion. (Grotius, Vitae Jurisconsidiorum ; Zimmern, Geschichie desRom. Frivairechts, i. p. 279.) [G.L.]