Crispus
- a Roman surname; so esp. of the well-known Roman historian C. Sallustius.
a person mentioned three times by Cicero as coheir of Mustela. (Ad Att. 12.5, 13.3, 5.) [L.S]
brother of Claudius Gothicus and father of Claudia, who by her husband Eutropius was the mother of Constantius Chlorus. Thus Crispus was the great-grandfather of Constantinus Magnus. [W.R]
eldest of the sons of Constantinus Magnus and Minervina, derived his name without doubt from his greatgreat-grandfather [Crispus], the brother of Claudius Gothicus. Having been educated, as we are told by St. Jerome, under Lactantius, he was nominated Caesar on the 1st of March, A. D. 317, along with his brother Constantinus and the younger Liciniusand was invested with the consulship the year following. Entering forthwith upon his military career, he distinguished himself in a campaign against the Franks, and soon after, in the war with Licinius, gained a great naval victory in the Hellespont, A. D. 323. But unhappily the glory of these exploits excited the bitter jealousy of his step-mother Fausta, at whose instigation he was put to death by his father in the year A. D. 326. [Constantinus, p. 835.] (Euseb. Chron. ad ann. 317; Sozomen. Hist. Eccl. 1.5; Eckhel, vol. viii. p. 100.)
A great number of coins, especially in small brass, are extant bearing the name and effigy of this youth, commonly with the titles Caesar and Princeps Juventutis annexed; on the reverse of one we read the words Alamannia Devicta, which may refer to his success in the West, but the legends for the most part commemorate the exploits of his father rather than his own achievements.
[W.R]
a distinguished tribune of the praetorians, put to death by Septimius Severus during the Parthian war (A. D. 199), because, being wearied of the hardships of the campaign, he had quoted as a sort of pasquinade on the ambitious projects of the emperor the lines in Virgil from the speech of Drances (Aen. 11.372),
" Scilicet, ut Turno contingat regia conjux, Nos, animae viles, inhumata infletaque turba, Sternamur campis .... "
a fact of no great importance in itself, except in so far as it corroborates the accounts of Spartianus, regarding the vindictive cruelty of Severus in all matters affecting his personal dignity. (D. C. 75.10; comp. Spartian. Sever. 14.) [W.R]
served as tribune in Caesar's army during the African war. (Hirtius, Bell. Afr. 77.) He is probably the same as the Q. Marcius Crispus, who is frequently mentioned by Cicero as a brave and experienced soldier. In B. C. 43, he was in Bithynia as proconsul, and when L. Murcus solicited his assistance against Bassus, Crispus came with his three legions to Syria. When C. Cassius came to the East, both Crispus and L. Murcus surrendered their legions to him. (Cic. in Pison. 23, Phil. 11.12, ad Fam. 12.11, 12, ad Brut. 2.5; Dion. Cass. 47.27 ; Appian. B. C. 3.77, 4.58 &c.) [L.S]
the husband of Agrippina, and consequently the step-father of the Emperor Nero. He was a man of great wealth and distinction, and in A. D. 42 he was raised to the consulship. He is praised both by Seneca the philosopher (Quaest. Nat. iv. Praef., de Benef. 1.15), and by Seneca the rhetorician (Controv. 2.13) as one of the first orators of the time, especially for his acuteness and subtilty. Quintilian too (6.1.50, 3.74, 10.1.24) speaks of him with high esteem and quotes passages from his orations. [L.S]
a Roman orator of great wealth and influence. He was a native of Vercelli and a contemporary of Quintilian. His speeches were most remarkable for their pleasant and elegant style; they were of the judicial kind, and Quintilian places those which he had delivered in civil cases above those spoken on state or public affairs. Vibius Crispus is also mentioned among the delatores of his time. Some fragments of his orations are preserved in Quintilian. (Tac. Hist. 2.10, 4.23, 41, Annal. 14.28, de Orat. 8; Quint. Inst. 5.13.48, 8.5. §§ 15, 17, 10.1.119, 12.10.11; D. C. 65.2.) [L.S]
The eldest son of the emperor Constantine the Great, and named by him as Caesar in A.D. 317. He is thought to have aspired to the throne, for in 324 his father caused him to be put to death. See Constantinus, p. 404.