Gratidius
- name of a Roman gens, Cic. Leg. 3, 16, 36 al.—
- II Deriv. Grā-tĭdĭānus, a, um, adj., of or pertaining to a Gratidius, Cic. Brut. 45, 168 al.
the name of a family of Arpinum, of which a few members are known in the last century of the Roman republic.
1. M. Gratidius, proposed in B. C. 115 a lex tabellaria at Arpinum, which was opposed by M. Tullius Cicero, the grandfather of the orator, who was married to Gratidia, the sister of M. Gratidius. The question respecting the lex tabellaria was referred to the consul of the year, M. Aemilius Scaurus, who seems to have decided in favour of Cicero, for it is said that Scaurus praised his sentiments and his courage. (Cic. de Leg. 2.16.) According to Cicero (Cic. Brut. 45), Gratidius was a clever accuser, well versed in Greek literature, and a person with great natural talent as an orator; he was further a friend of the orator M. Antonius, and accompanied him as his praefect to Cilicia, where he was killed. In the last-mentioned passage Cicero adds, that Gratidius spoke against C. Fimbria, who had been accused of extortion. (V. Max. 8.5.2.) This accusation seems to refer to the administration of a province, which Fimbria undertook in B. C. 103 (for he was consul in B. C. 104), so that the accusation would belong to B. C. 102, and more particularly to the beginning of that year, for in the course of it M. Antonius undertook the command against the pirates, and M. Gratidius, who accompanied him, was killed. (Comp. J. Obsequens, Prodig. 104; Drumann, Gesch. Roms, vol. i. p. 61, who, however, places the campaign of M. Antonius against the pirates one year too early.)
2. M. Gratidius, perhaps a grandson of No. 1, was legate of Q. Cicero in his administration of the province of Asia. In one passage (Cic. ad Quint. fr. 1.4), a Gratidius is mentioned as tribune of the people in B. C. 57, which has in itself nothing improbable; but as the name Gratidius is not mentioned elsewhere among the tribunes of that year, whose names occur very frequently, it is usually supposed that in the passage just referred to, Gratidius is a false reading for Fabricius. (See Cic. p. Flacc. 21, ad Quint. fr. 1.1, 3, 10; Orelli, Onom. Tull. vol. ii. p. 388.) [L.S]