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Pompey and Piso
#1
In his account of Pompey's siege of Jerusalem, Flavius Josephus mentions a legate named Piso ("So Pompey sent his lieutenant Piso with an army, and placed garrisons both in the city and in the palace": AJ 14.4.2).

I am wondering who this Piso is, because it may be L. Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus: quaestor in 70, aedile in 64, praetor in 61, consul in 58 and colleague of Aulus Gabinius, who was certainly one of Pompey's deputies. He was also the son-in-law of Caesar and the owner of the Villa of the Papyri. We don't know his whereabouts in 63, so he may have been with Pompey in Jerusalem.

Question: was it normal for a former aedile to become legate? Under the Empire, it was something you did after you had been praetor, but what do we know about the Republic?
Jona Lendering
Relevance is the enemy of history
My website
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#2
I can see how it would be difficult to know since the aedileship was an optional path to begin with. At best maybe we can only tell if it was known to happen?

~Theo
Jaime
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#3
Quote:In his account of Pompey's siege of Jerusalem, Flavius Josephus mentions a legate named Piso. ... I am wondering who this Piso is, because it may be L. Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus: quaestor in 70, aedile in 64, praetor in 61, consul in 58 and colleague of Aulus Gabinius, who was certainly one of Pompey's deputies.
The Piso at Jerusalem is generally thought to have been M. Pupius Piso Frugi ("Calpurnianus"), the consul of 61 and a(nother) friend of Pompey.

Quote:Question: was it normal for a former aedile to become legate?
I do not think so. As far as I know, anyone who was curule aedile progressed to the praetorship three years later, and to the consulship three or four years after that, with no intervening posts. (Note: I have not made a special study of this; it is simply my impression.)
posted by Duncan B Campbell
https://ninth-legion.blogspot.com/
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#4
Quote:was it normal for a former aedile to become legate?

As Theodosius says, the aedileship wasn't strictly part of the 'compulsory' senatorial cursus honorem (queastor->praetor->consul). Although, as there were only four aedileships a year, and - by this point in the late Republic - eight praetorships, election to an aedileship must have been hard-fought indeed: there are examples of the post being held after a praetorship. Aediles held games, and oversaw public works but - as opposed to the other magistracies - their duties were more-or-less confined to Rome itself.

Therefore, while it's normal to find pro-consular or pro-praetorian legates - praetors and consuls often commanded armies or provinces - you don't get pro-aedilician (?) legates: you can't be acting in the place of someone who wouldn't be there in the first place!

It's very common to find legates who had only previously held the quaestorship, but they're almost always just called normal legati: being a legate effectively implies senatorial status, and by the late republic that also implies that someone has held a quaestorship - you don't need the rest. There are a few rare examples of explicitly pro-quaestorian legates, but the title has inspired more debate than conclusion.

blue skies

Tom
Tom Wrobel
email = [email protected]
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#5
THANKS!!
Jona Lendering
Relevance is the enemy of history
My website
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