turpilius

Updated: June 14, 2025

Strength and skill were of no avail; such qualities could not even prolong the agony; the veteran and the tyro, the brave and the shrinking, were struck or cut down with equal ease and swiftness. Only one man succeeded in slipping through the gates. This was the commandant Turpilius himself.

A. H. J. (Abel Hendy Jones) Greenidge - A History of Rome During the Later Republic and Early Principate

But the scandal was too grave to admit of a private inquiry, in which the honour of the army might seem to be sacrificed to the caprice of the friendly judgment of Metellus. His very familiarity with the accused entailed the duty of a cold impartiality, and Turpilius found little credence or excuse for the tale that he unfolded before the members of the court which adjudicated on his case.

A. H. J. (Abel Hendy Jones) Greenidge - A History of Rome During the Later Republic and Early Principate

Hence he depicts Cato rather than Cicero as the senatorial champion, because his impracticable views seemed to justify Caesar's opposition; he throws into fierce relief the vices of Scaurus who was princeps Senatus; and misrepresents the conduct of Turpilius through a desire to screen Marius. As to his authorities, we find that he gave way to the prevailing tendency to manipulate them.

Charles Thomas Cruttwell - The History of Roman Literature : From the earliest period to the death of Marcus Aurelius