Scaurus

• a frequent surname in the gens Aemilia and Aurelia. So, M. Aemilius Scaurus, whom Cicero defended in an oration, part of which is still extant.
• —Hence, Scaurĭānus, a, um, adj., relating to Scaurus: oratio, Mart. Cap. 5, § 441.

signified a person who had a defect in his ankles or feet (Scaurum, pravis fultum maic talis, Hor. Sat. 1.3. 47), and was used, like many other words of a similar kind, as a cognomen in several Roman gentes.

The Scauri were a patrician family of the ancient Aemilia gens, but remained in obscurity to a very late period. The first person of the name who is mentioned is,

1. L. Aemilius Scaurus, who served as one of the officers in the Roman fleet, in the war against Antiochus, B. C. 190. (Liv. 37.31.)

2. M. Aemilius Scaurus raised his family from obscurity to the highest rank among the Roman nobles. He was born in B. C. 163. His father, notwithstanding his patrician descent, had been obliged, through poverty, to carry on the trade of a coal-merchant, and left his son a very slender patrimony. The latter had thought at first of carrying on the trade of a money-lender ; but he finally resolved to devote himself to the study of eloquence, with the hope of rising to the honours of the state. He likewise served in the army, where he appears to have gained some distinction. His first campaign was in Spain, probably in the war against Numantia. He next served under the consul L. Aurelius Orestes, in Sardinia, B. C. 126. He was curule aedile in B. C. 123, but was prevented by his poverty from giving the games with much splendour. Though we have only scanty accounts of his early career, it appears that he had already obtained great influence in the state; and he is mentioned by Sallust as one of the leading men at Rome, when Adherbal came to the city, about B. C. 117, to solicit assistance against Jugurtha. He was one of the few Roman nobles who abstained on that occasion from receiving the bribes of Jugurtha, but more through fear of the odium that was likely to accrue from such an act, than from any abhorrence of the thing itself. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the consulship for B. C. 116, but obtained it for the year B. C. 115, when he had M. Caecilius Metellus as his colleague. In his consulship he brought forward a sumptuary law, and another respecting the manner in which the libertini were to vote in the comitia. He likewise carried on war with success against several of the Alpine tribes, and obtained a triumph for his victories over them. Aurelius Victor says that he triumphed over the Ligures and Gantisci, the Capitoline Fasti make him triumph over the Galli and the Carni. In B. C. 112, he was sent at the head of an embassy to Jugurtha, who had forcibly deprived Adherbal of the dominions which the commissioners of the senate had assigned to him, and was now besieging him in Cirta. But Jugurtha, though he waited upon Scaurus with great respect, did not raise the siege of Cirta, and put Adherbal to death when he obtained possession of the town, towards the end of the year. [Jugurtha.] Upon this the Romans declared war against Jugurtha, and intrusted the conduct of it to L. Calpurnius Bestia, one of the consuls of the following year (B. C. 111). Bestia chose Scaurus as one of his legates; and upon both of them receiving large sums of money from Jugurtha, the consul granted the king most favourable terms of peace. This disgraceful transaction excited the greatest indignation at Rome; and such was the excitement of the people, that the senate dared not resist the bill of the tribune, C. Mamilius, B. C. 110, by which an inquiry was to be instituted against all those who had received bribes from Jugurtha, or had in any way favoured his designs. Although Scaurus had been one of the most guilty, such was his influence in the state that he contrived to be appointed one of the three quaesitores, who were elected under the bill, for the purpose of prosecuting the criminals. But though he thus secured himself, he was unable to save any of his accomplices. Bestia and many others were condemned.

In B. C. 109, Scaurus was censor with M. Livius Drusus. In his censorship he restored the Milvian bridge, and constructed the Aemilian road, which ran by Pisae and Luna as far as Dertona. His colleague Drusus having died, Scaurus ought, according to custom, to have resigned his office immediately; but he continued to retain it till the tribunes compelled him to abdicate by threat of imprisonment. In B. C. 107, he was elected consul a second time, in place of L. Cassius Longinus, who had fallen in battle against the Tigurini. P. Rutilius Rufus, who was a candidate for the office at the same time, accused Scaurus of having gained the election by bribery; but he was acquitted by the judices, and thereupon straightway accused Rutilius of the same offence. In the struggles between the aristocratical and popular parties, he was always a warm supporter of the former. He accordingly took up arms against Saturninus in B. C. 100, whose enmity he had previously incurred by having been appointed by the senate, in B. C. 104, to supersede him in the duty of supplying the city with corn. [Saturninus, Appuleius.] He was several times accused of different offences, chiefly by his private enemies; but such was his influence in the state, that he was always acquitted. Thus, in consequence of his having refused to elect Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus into the college of augurs, of which he was a member, Ahenobarbus accused him of majestas, in B. C. 104, on the ground that the sacra publica at Lavinium had, through his fault, not been properly observed ; but thirty-three tribes out of the thirty-five voted for his acquittal. In B. C. 91, he was accused of repetundae by Q. Servilius Caepio, who alleged that he had appropriated to his own use some public money, during an embassy to Asia; but he secured himself by bringing a counter-accusation against Caepio. The latter, out of revenge, induced Q. Varius, the tribune of the people, to accuse Scaurus in the following year, B. C. 90, of having excited the Italian allies to revolt. Scaurus boldly met the charge; and going into the forum, put it to the people whether they would give credence to Q. Varius, the Spaniard, or M. Scaurus, the princeps senatus; whereupon there was such an unequivocal demonstration of popular feeling in his favour, that the tribune himself withdrew the accusation. Scaurus was then seventy-two years of age, and died soon afterwards; since, in B. C. 88, his widow Caecilia was married to Sulla. [Caecilia, No. 5.] By his wife Caecilia Scaurus had three children, two sons [see below, Nos. 2 and 3], and a daughter Aemilia, first married to M'. Glabrio, and next to Cn. Pompeius, subsequently the triumvir.

Scaurus is frequently praised in the highest terms by Cicero and others, in consequence of his being such a strong supporter of the aristocratical party. But though he distinguished himself throughout the whole of his public life by opposing the popular leaders from the Gracchi downwards, he appears to have been always regarded with some degree of favour by the people, as his frequent acquittals would show. There was a gravity and earnestness in his character which commanded their respect; and he carefully concealed from public view his vices, especially his avarice and acts of rapine. Sallust characterizes him as " homo nobilis, impiger, factiosus, avidus potentiae, honoris, divitiarum; ceterum vitia sua callide occultans" (Jug. 15). Some deductions ought, perhaps, to be made from this estimate of his character, in consequence of the well-known hatred of the historian to the aristocracy; but when it is recollected that Scaurus was a poor man when he commenced public life, it is evident that the immense wealth which he left to his son could not have been acquired by honest means; and the bribes which he received from Jugurtha, may fairly be regarded as only a specimen of the way in which his property was obtained. The speeches of Scaurus were impressive and weighty, but were deficient in imagination and fire. " They were more adapted," says Cicero (Brut. 29), " for the senate than the courts." Cicero accordingly classes him among the Stoic orators. Scaurus also wrote a work in three books on his own life, which is sometimes referred to by the grammarians, but which no one was accustomed to read in the time of Cicero. (Aurel. Vict. de Ill. Vir. 72 ; V. Max. 4.4.1; Sall. Jug. 15, 25, 28, 29, 40 ; Plut. Quaest. Rom. 100.50; Ascon. in Scaur. pp. 21, 22 ; Cic. Brut. 29, 30, 35, de Orat. 1.49, pro Mur. 17, and the other passages quoted in Orelli's Onomasticon Tullianum ; Meyer, Orator. Roman. Fragm. pp. 253-261, 2nd ed.; Krause, Vitae et Fragm. Hist. Roman. pp. 223-227.)

3. M. Aemilius Scaurus, the eldest son of the preceding, and stepson of the dictator Sulla, whom his mother Caecilia married after the death of his father, as has been already remarked. In the third Mithridatic war he served under Pompey as quaestor. The latter sent to him to Damascus with an army, and from thence he marched into Judaea, to settle the disputes between the brothers Hyrcanus and Aristobulus. Both of them offered him large sums of money; but he decided for Aristobulus, probably because he bid the highest, B. C. 64. After driving Hyrcanus out of Judaea, Scaurus returned to Damascus. Upon Pompey's arrival at this city in the following year, an accusation was brought against Scaurus of having been bribed by Aristobulus; but though Pompey reversed his decision, and placed Hyrcanus upon the throne, he took no notice of the charges, and left Scaurus in the command of Syria with two legions. Scaurus remained in Syria till B. C. 59, when he was succeeded by L. Marcius Philippus. During his government of Syria he made a predatory incursion into Arabia Petraea, but withdrew on the payment of 300 talents by Aretas, the king of the country.

On his return to Rome he became a candidate for the curule aedileship, which he held in B. C. 58, the year in which P. Clodius was tribune. The extraordinary splendour with which he celebrated the public games surpassed every thing of the kind that had been previously witnessed in Rome, and it is by them that his name has been chiefly handed down to posterity. The temporary theatre which he built accommodated 80,000 spectators, and was adorned in the most magnificent manner. Three hundred and sixty pillars decorated the stage, arranged in three stories, of which the lowest was made of white marble, the middle one of glass, and the highest of gilt wood. Between the pillars there were three thousand statues, besides paintings and other ornaments. The combats of wild beasts were equally astonishing. A hundred and fifty panthers were exhibited in the circus, and five crocodiles and a hippopotamus were seen for the first time at Rome. But Scaurus purchased the favour of the people in these shows rather too dearly. So costly were they that they net only absorbed all the property which his father had left him, and the treasures which he had accumulated in the East, but compelled him to borrow money of the usurers in order to defray the expenses.

In B. C. 56 Scaurus was praetor, during which year he presided in the court in which P. Sestius was accused, who was defended by Cicero. In the following year he governed the province of Sardinia, which he plundered without mercy, as he wanted money both to pay his debts and to purchase the consulship. On his return to Rome in B. C. 54, he became a candidate for the consulship ; but before the consular elections took place, his competitors, at the beginning of July, got P. Valerius Triarius and three others to accuse him of repetundae in Sardinia, thus hoping to get rid of a formidable opponent. His guilt was certain; there were numerous witnesses against him; and M. Cato, who presided as praetor, was not to be corrupted, and was favourable to Triarius. Still Scaurus did not despair. He was defended by Cicero and Hortensius, as well as by four other orators. Many of the most distinguished men at Rome, and among them nine persons of consular rank, pleaded on his behalf; while the tears of Scaurus himself, and his appeals to the splendour of his aedileship, produced a powerful effect upon the judices. Thus, notwithstanding his guilt, he was acquitted on the 2nd of September, almost unanimously. Soon afterwards, and in the course of the same year, he was again accused by Triarius, on a charge of ambitus (Cic. Att. 4.16. §§ 7, 8, 4.17.2, ad Q. Fr. 3.2.3). Drumann says that he was condemned in this year, and went into exile. But this appears to be a mistake; for although it is evident from the preceding passages in Cicero's letters, that Scaurus was accused of ambitus in B. C. 54, it is equally clear from the testimony of Appian (App. BC 2.24), that he was condemned in the third consulship of Pompey, B. C. 52. Hence it is probable that Scaurus was acquitted in B. C. 54, and accused again in B. C. 52, under Pompey's new law against ambitus. From this time the name of Scaurus does not occur again. He married Mucia, who had been previously the wife of Pompey [Mucia, No. 2], and by her he had one son [No. 5]. (J. AJ 14.3_5, B. J. 1.7; Appian, Syr. 51 ; Cic. pro Sest. 54, de Off. 2.16; Plin. Nat. 36.2, 36.15. s. 24, et alibi; V. Max. 2.4.6; Cic. ad Q. Fr. 2.15.4, 2.16.3, 3.1. §§ 4, 5, 3.2.3, ad Att. 4.15. §§ 7, 9, 4.16. §§ 7, 8, 4.17.2, de Off. 1.39; Ascon. Argum. in Scaur. ; and the Fragments of Cicero's Oration for Scaurus.)

The following coin was struck in the curule aedileship of Scaurus and his colleague, P. Plautius Hypsaeus. The subject of the obverse relates to Hypsaeus, and that of the reverse to Scaurus. The former represents Jupiter in a quadriga, with P. HYPSAEVS. AED. CVR. C. HVPSAE. COS. PREIVER. CAPTV.; the latter part of the legend referring to the conquest of Privernum by C. Plautius Hypsaeus, in B. C. 341. On the obverse is a camel, with Aretas kneeling by the side of the animal, and holding an olive branch in his hand. The subject refers to the conquest of Aretas by Scaurus mentioned above. The legend is M. SCAVR. AED. CVR. EX. S. C., and below REX ARETAS. (Eckhel, vol. v. pp. 131, 275.)

4. Aemilius Scaurus, the younger son of No. 2, fought under the proconsul, Q. Catulus, against the Cimbri at the Athesis, and having fled from the field, was indignantly commanded by his father not to come into his presence; whereupon the youth put an end to his life. (V. Max. 5.8.4; Frontin. Strat. iv. ]. § 3.)

5. M. Aemilius Scaurus, the son of No. 3, and Mucia, the former wife of Pompey the triumvir, and consequently the half-brother of Sex. Pompey. He accompanied the latter into Asia, after the defeat of his fleet in Sicily, but betrayed him into the hands of the generals of M. Antonius, in B. C. 35. After the battle of Actium, he fell into the power of Octavian, and escaped death, to which he had been sentenced, only through the intercession of his mother, Mucia. (Appian, App. BC 5.142; D. C. 51.2, 56.38.)

6. Mamercus Aemilius Scaurus, the son of No. 5, was a distinguished orator and poet, but of a dissolute character. He was a member of the senate at the time of the accession of Tiberius, A. D. 14, when he offended this suspicious emperor by some remarks which he made in the senate. He is mentioned as one of the accusers of Domitius Corbulo in A. D. 21, and likewise as one of the accusers of Silanus, in A. D. 22. He was himself accused of majestas in A. D. 32, but Tiberius stopped the proceedings against him. He was, however, again accused of the same crime in A. D. 34, by Servilius and Cornelius Tuscus, who charged him with magic, and with having had adultery with Livia; but his real ground of offence was his tragedy of Atreus, in which his enemy Macro had interpolated some verses reflecting upon the emperor. He put an end to his own life at the suggestion of his wife Sextia, who killed herself at the same time (Tac. Ann. 1.13, 3.31, 36, 6.9, 29; D. C. 58.24; Senec. Suas. 2, de Benef. 4.31; Meyer, Orat. Rom. Fragm. pp. 558, 559, 2d ed.). Both Tacitus (Tac. Ann. 3.66) and Seneca (de Benef. 4.31) call him a consular, but the year of his consulship is not known. Besides Sextia, who was his wife at the time of his death, he had also been married to Lepida, by whom he had a daughter, and who was condemned in A. D. 20 (Tac. Ann. 3.23). In the following year he is called the paternal uncle (patruus) and stepfather (vitricus) of Sulla (Tac. Ann. 3.31), and therefore it would appear that, after the death of Lepida, he had married his brother's widow. Seneca says (Suas. 2) that this Scaurus was the last of his family.

All the ancient authorities respecting the Aemili Scauri are given by Drumann. (Geschichte Roms, vol. i. pp. 25-33.)

a friend of the younger Pliny (Plin. Ep. 6.25), to whom one of his letters is addressed. (Ep. 5.13.)

1. C. Aurelius Scaurus, praetor B. C. 186, obtained Sardinia as his province. (Liv. 39.6, 8.)

2. M. Aurelius Scaurus, was consul suffectus in B. C. 108. Three years afterwards, B. C. 105, he was consular legate in Gaul, where he was defeated by the Cimbri, and taken prisoner. When he was brought before the leaders of the Cimbri, he warned them not to cross the Alps, as they would find it impossible to subdue the Romans, and was thereupon killed on the spot by Boiorix, one of the chiefs. He is erroneously called by Velleius Paterculus consul, instead of consularis (Liv. Epit. 67 ; Oros. 5.16; Vell. 2.12 ; Tac. Germ. 37.) This M. Aurelius Scaurus is erroneously called M. Aemilius Scaurus by many modern writers.

3. M. Aurelius Scaurus, the quaestor mentioned by Cicero (Cic. Ver. 1.33), was probably a son of the preceding.

4. M. Aurelius Scaurus, whose name occurs on coins, of which a specimen is annexed. On the obverse is the head of Pallas, and on the reverse Mars driving a chariot. From the legend L. LIC. and CN. DOM. on the reverse, it is supposed that Scaurus was one of the triumvirs of the mint at the time that L. Licinius and Cn. Domitius held one of the higher magistracies. There are several other coins of the same kind. [See Vol. I. p. 863b, and more especially Vol. II. p. 785a.]

a centurion in the praetorian troops, was one of the parties privy to Piso's conspiracy against the emperor Nero. (Tac. Ann. 15.50.)

a celebrated grammarian who flourished under the emperor Hadrian (divi Hadriani temporibus grammaticus vel noilissimus), and whose son was one of the preceptors of the emperor Verus (Gel. 11.15.3; comp. Auson. Epist. 18.27; Capitolin. Verus, 2). Works Ars Grammatica

He was the author of an Ars Grammatica and of commentaries upon Plautus, Virgil, and the Ars Poetica of Horace, which are known to us from a few scattered notices only. Q. Terentii Scauri de Orthographia ad Theseum

The tract entitled Q. Terentii Scauri de Orthographia ad Theseum is not believed to be a genuine production of this Scaurus at least.

This was included in the Grammaticae Latinae Auctores Antiqui of Putschius (4to. Hannov. 1605, pp. 2250-2264), but originally published at Basle (8vo. 1527). Further Information

Charisius, pp. 107, 110, 182, 187, 188; Diomedes, pp. 275, 305, 415, 439, 444, 450; Priscian. p. 10; Rufinus, de Metris Comicis, pp. 271], 2713, all in the ed. of Putschius; Serv. ad Virg. Aen. 3.484, 12.120, who in the latter passage quotes from " Scaurus de Vita sua ;" Ritschl, de vet. Plauti interpret. in his Parergon Plautin. vol. i. p. 357, &c. [W.R]

(1) Marcus, a Roman who raised his family from obscurity to the highest rank among the Roman nobles. He was born in B.C. 163. His father, notwithstanding his patrician descent, had been obliged, through poverty, to carry on the trade of a coal merchant, and left his son a very slender patrimony. The latter had thought at first of carrying on the trade of a money-lender; but he finally resolved to devote himself to the study of eloquence, with the hope of rising to the honors of the State. He likewise served in the army, where he appears to have gained some distinction. He was curule aedile in 123, and obtained the consulship in 115, when he carried on war with success against several of the Alpine tribes. In 112 he was sent at the head of an embassy to Iugurtha; and in 111 he accompanied the consul, L. Calpurnius Bestia, as one of his legates, in the war against Iugurtha. The Numidian king bestowed large sums of money upon both Bestia and Scaurus, in consequence of which the consul granted the king most favourable terms of peace. This disgraceful transaction excited the greatest indignation at Rome; and C. Mamilius, the tribune of the people (110) brought forward a bill by which an inquiry was to be instituted against all those who had received bribes from Iugurtha. Although Scaurus had been one of the most guilty, such was his influence in the State that he contrived to be appointed one of the three quaesitores who were elected under the bill for the purpose of prosecuting the criminals. But, though he thus secured himself, he was unable to save any of his accomplices. Bestia and many others were condemned. In 109, Scaurus was censor with M. Livius Drusus. In his consulship he restored the Milvian Bridge, and constructed the Aemilian Way, which ran by Pisae and Luna as far as Dertona. In 107 he was elected consul a second time, in place of L. Cassius Longinus, who had fallen in battle against the Tigurini. In the struggles between the aristocratical and popular parties, Scaurus was always a warm supporter of the former. He was several times accused of different offences, chiefly by his private enemies; but such was his influence in the State, that he was always acquitted. He died about B.C. 89. By his wife Caecilia Scaurus had three children, two sons mentioned below, and a daughter Aemilia, first married to M'. Glabrio, and next to Cn. Pompey, subsequently the triumvir.

(2) Marcus, eldest son of the preceding, and stepson of the dictator Sulla , whom his mother Caecilia married after the death of his father. In the Third Mithridatic War he served under Pompey as quaestor. The latter sent him to Damascus with an army, and from thence he marched into Iudaea, to settle the disputes between the brothers Hyrcanus and Aristobulus. Scaurus was left by Pompey in the command of Syria with two legions. During his government of Syria he made a predatory incursion into Arabia Petraea, but withdrew on the payment of 300 talents by Aretas, the king of the country. He was curule aedile in B.C. 58, when he celebrated the public games with extraordinary splendour. The temporary theatre which he built accommodated 80,000 spectators, and was adorned in the most magnificent manner. Three hundred and sixty pillars decorated the stage, arranged in three stories, of which the lowest was made of white marble, the middle one of glass, and the highest of gilt wood. The combats of wild beasts were equally astonishing. One hundred and fifty panthers were exhibited in the circus, and five crocodiles and a hippopotamus were seen for the first time at Rome. In the year 56 he was praetor, and in the following year governed the province of Sardinia, which he plundered without mercy. On his return to Rome he was accused of the crime of repetundae. He was defended by Cicero, Hortensius, and others, and was acquitted, notwithstanding his guilt. He was accused again in 52, under Pompey's new law against bribery, and was condemned. He married Mucia, who had been previously the wife of Pompey, and by her he had one son.

(3) Younger son of No. 1, fought under the proconsul, Q. Catulus, against the Cimbri at the Athesis, and having fled from the field, was indignantly commanded by his father not to come into his presence; whereupon the youth put an end to his life.

(4) Marcus, son of No. 2, and Mucia, the former wife of Pompey the triumvir, and consequently the half-brother of Sex. Pompey. He accompanied the latter into Asia, after the defeat of his fleet in Sicily, but betrayed him into the hands of the generals of M. Antonius, in 35. After the battle of Actium, he fell into the power of Octavian, and escaped death, to which he had been sentenced, only through the intercession of his mother, Mucia.

(5) Mamercus, son of No. 5, was a distinguished orator and poet, but of a dissolute character. He was a member of the Senate at the time of the accession of Tiberius, A.D. 14, when he offended that suspicious emperor by some remarks which he made in the Senate. Being accused of maiestas in 34, he put an end to his own life.

, consul suffectus B.C. 103, was three years afterwards consular legate in Gaul, where he was defeated by the Cimbri, taken prisoner, and put to death (Vell. Pat. ii. 12).

A well-known Roman grammarian who lived in the reign of Hadrian (Gell.xi.15.3). His son was lictor to the emperor Verus. Scaurus wrote a work on grammar (Ars Grammatica), besides commentaries on Plautus, Vergil, and the Ars Poetica of Horace. There still exists an abridgment of a treatise by him, De Orthographia, of some importance for the history of the Latin language; and another of a treatise on adverbs, prepositions, etc. Scaurus draws largely from Varro, and takes some account of the early Latin. The abridgments are given by Keil in his Grammatici Latini (vii. 11, 1-29; vii. 29, 3-33). See Bücheler in the Rheinisches Museum, xxxiv. 384.