United States or Malaysia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
It is sufficient for the present to remember that, in the very year in which Caepio's measure had received the ratification of the people, Caius Popillius Laenas, a legate of one of the consuls of the previous year, had been put on his trial before that very people for making a treaty which was considered still more disgraceful than the defeat which had preceded it.
The alarm caused by his words was doubled when he stepped up to Cæsar, on his entrance to the chamber, and began to whisper in his ear. Cassius was so terrified that he grasped his dagger with the thought of killing himself. He was stopped by Brutus, who quietly said that Popillius seemed rather to be asking a favor than telling a secret.
But in the meantime the assassins had come with a band of soldiers Herennius, a centurion, and Popillius, a tribune, whom Cicero had formerly defended when prosecuted for the murder of his father.
But in the meantime the assassins were come with a band of soldiers, Herennius, a centurion, and Popillius, a tribune, whom Cicero had formerly defended when prosecuted for the murder of his father.
The memory of the outrage was too recent, the joyful sense of the power of retaliation too novel and too strong. All that was possible was a counter demonstration which should emphasise the sympathy of loyalists with the illustrious victim, and Popillius was escorted to the gates by a weeping crowd.
There because matters seemed to be delayed by the dastardly conduct of the Greeks, who did not venture into the field, with the approbation of the senate, he nominated Titus Manlius Torquatus dictator. As colleague to Corvus, Marcus Popillius Lænas, a plebeian, was assigned to be consul for the fourth time.
So Caepio invaded Lusitania, and traversed the land as far as the territories of the Vettones and Callaeci; Viriathus declined a conflict with the superior force, and by dexterous movements evaded his antagonist . But when in the ensuing year Caepio renewed the attack, and in addition the army, which had in The meantime become available in the northern province, made its appearance under Marcus Popillius in Lusitania, Viriathus sued for peace on any terms.
Marcus Popillius Lænas was chosen consul on the part of the commons, Lucius Cornelius Scipio on that of the patricians. Fortune even rendered the plebeian consul more distinguished; for when news was brought that a vast army of the Gauls had pitched their camp in the Latin territory, Scipio being attacked with a serious fit of illness, the Gallic war was intrusted out of course to Popillius.
The scheme of taxation in the province of Asia was also left untouched. But what they dared to do they did. They prosecuted the adherents of Gracchus. They recalled Popillius from exile. When Opimius was arraigned for 'perduellio, or misuse of his official power to compass the death of a citizen, they procured his acquittal.
With this object the senate commanded that the new consuls Popillius and Rupilius should sit as a criminal commission for the purpose of investigating the circumstances of the outbreak. The commission was empowered to impose any sentence, and it is practically certain that it judged without appeal. The consuls, as usual, exercised their own discretion in the choice of assessors.
Word Of The Day