Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/613

PUBLICOLA. Two 3'ears afterwards, B. c. 70, Gellius wa3 censor with Leiitulus, his former colleague in the consulship. They exercised their office with great severity, and expelled many persons from the senate, among whom was C Antonius. It was during their censorship that Pompey, who was then consul, appeared as an ordinary eques at the solemn muster of the equites, and, amid the applause of the spectators, led his horse by the curule chair of the censors, and answered the ordinary questions. In B. c. 67 and 66 Gellius served as one of Pom- pey's legates in the war against the pirates, and had the charge of the Tuscan sea. In the first conspiracy of Catiline an attempt was made to obtain possession of his fleet, and, though the mutiny was put down, Gellius had a narrow escape of his life. In consequence of the personal danger he had previously incurred, he was one of the warmest supporters of Cicero in his suppression of the second conspiracy, and accordingly proposed that Cicero should be rewarded with a civic crown. From this time he appears as a steady friend of Cicero and the aristocratical party. In B. c. 59 he opposed the agrarian law of Caesar, and in b. c. 57 he spoke in favour of Cicero's recall from exile. He was alive in B. c. 55, when Cicero delivered his fpeech against Piso, but probably died soon after- wards. He was married twice. (Appian, B. C. i. 117; Plut. Crass. 9 ; Oros. v. 24 ; Flor. iii. 20. § 10 ; Eutrop. vi. 7 ; Liv. Epit. 96, 98 ; Plut. Pomp. 22 ; Cic. pro Cluent. 42 ; Ascon. in Tog. Cand. p. 84, ed. Orelli ; Appian, Mithr. 95 ; Flor. iii. 6. § 8 ; Cic. post Bed. ad Quir. 7 ; Gell. v. 6 ; Cic. ad Att. xii. 21 ; Plut Cic. 26 ; Cic. in Pis. 3 ; Val. Max. v. 9. § 1.) Orelli, in his Onomas- iicon Tullianum (vol. ii. p. 269), makes the L. Gellius, the contubernalis of Carbo, a different person from the consul of B. c. 72 ; but this is clearly an error, for Cicero speaks of the contuber- nalis of Carbo as his friend {Brut. 27), and that he reached a great age is evident from many pas- sages. (Cic. Brut. 47 ; Plut. Cic. 26.) 2. L. Gellius Publicola, the son of the pre- ceding by his first wife. He was accused of com- mitting incest with his step-mother, and of con- spiring against his father's life ; but although the latter was nearly convinced of his guilt, he allowed him to plead his cause before a large number of senators, and, in consequence of their opinion, declared him innocent (Val. Max. v. 9. § 1 ). After the death of Caesar in b. c. 44, Gellius espoused the republican party, and went with M. Brutus to Asia. Here he was detected in plotting against the life of Brutus but was pardoned at the inter- cession of his brother, M. Valerius Messalla. Shortly afterwards he entered into a conspiracy to take away the life of Cassius, but again escaped unpunished, through the intercession of his mother Polla. It would hence appear that PoUa had been divorced from her first husband Gellius, and had subsequently married Messalla. Gellius, however, showed no gratitude for the leniency which had been shown him, but deserted to the triumvirs, Octavian and Antony ; and while in their service he had coins struck, on which he appears with the title of Q. P., that is. Quaestor Propraetore (Eckhel, vol. V. p. 223). He was rewarded for his treachery by the consulship in b. c. 36. In the war between Octavian and Antony, he espoused the side of the latter, and commanded the right wing of Antony's fleet at the battle of Actium. As he is not men- PUBLICOLA. 601 tioned again, he probably perished in the action. (Uion Cass, xlvii. 24 ; Liv. Epit. 122 ; Dion Cass, xlix. 24 ; Plut. Ant. 65, 66 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 85.) 3. Gellius Publicola, probably a brother of No. 1, is called a step- son of L. Marcius Philippus, consul b. c. 91, and a brother of L. Marcius Phi- lippus, consul b. c. 56. According to Cicero's account he was a profligate and a spendthrift, and having dissipated his property, united himself to P. Clodius. As an intin:ate friend of the latter, he of course incurs the bitterest enmity of Cicero, whose statements with respect to him must, there- fore, be received with caution. (Cic. pro Sext. 51, 52, in Vaiin. 2, de Haruap. Resp. 27, ad Att. iv. 3. § 2, ad q. Fr. ii. 1. § 1 ; Schol. Bob. pro Sext. p. 304, ed. Orelli.) 4. Gellius Publicola, had been the quaestor of Junius Silanus in Asia, in the reign of Tiberius, and was subsequentlv one of his accusers in a. d. 22. (Tac. J72«. iii.'67.) 5. L. Gellius Publicola, one of the consules suffecti in the reign of Caligula, A. D. 40 (Fasti). (For an account of the Gellii see Drumann, Ges- chicMe Roms, vol. ii. pp. 64 — 67.) PUBLI'COLA, VALE'RIUS. 1. P. Vale- rius VoLUsi F. Publicola, the colleague ot Brutus in the consulship in the first year of the republic. The account given of him in Livy, Plu- tarch, and Dionysius cannot be regarded as a real history. The history of the expulsion of the Tarquins and of the infancy of the republic has evidently received so many poetical embellishments, and has been so altered by successive traditions, that probably we are not warranted in asserting any thing more respecting Publicola than that he took a prominent part in the government of the state during the first few years of the republic. The common story, how- ever, runs as follows. P. Valerius, the son of Vo- lusus, belonged to one of the noblest Roman houses, and was a descendant of the Sabine Volusus, who settled at Rome with Tatius, the king of the Sa- bines. [Valeria Gens.] When Lucretia sum- moned her father from the camp, after Sextus Tar- quinius had wrought the deed of shame, P. Va- lerius accompanied Lucretius to his daughter, and was by her side when she disclosed the villany of Sextus and stabbed herself to the heart. Valerius, in common with all the others who were present, swore to avenge her death, which they forthwith accomplished by expelling the Tarquins from the city. Junius Brutus and Tarquinius Collatinus were first elected consuls, B. c. 509 ; but as the very name of Tarquinius made Collatinus an object of suspicion to the people, he was obliged to resign his office and leave the city, and Valerius was chosen in his stead. Shortly afterwards the people of Veii and Tarquinii espoused the cause of the Tarquins, and marched with them against Rome, at the head of a large army. The two consuls ad- vanced to meet them with the Roman forces. A bloody battle was fought, in which Brutus fell ; and both parties claimed the victory, till a voice was heard in the dead of the night proclaiming that the Romans had conquered, as the Etruscans had lost one man more. Alarmed at this, the Etruscans fled, and Valerius entered Kome in triumph. Valerius was now left without a colleague ; and as he began at the same time to build a house on the top of the hill Velia, which looked down upon the forum, the people feared that he was aiming at kingly power. As soon as Valerius became aware