Scapula

• I A partisan of Pompey, the main instigator of the Spanish war, Auct. B. Hisp. 33; Cic. Fam. 9, 13, 1.—
• II A usurer in the time of Cicero, Cic. Quint. 4, 17.
• —Hence, Scă-pŭlānus, a, um, adj., named after one Scapula: horti, Cic. Att. 12, 40, 4.

a usurer, to whom C. Quintius owed money, B. C. 81. (Cic. pro Quint. 4.)

1. P. Scapula Ostorius, succeeded A. Plautius as governor of Britain, about A. D. 50, with the title of propraetor. He had previously held the consulship, and his name is inserted in some of the Fasti as consul suffectus in A. D. 46. He is characterised by Tacitus as bello egregius, and carried on the war with success against several of the British tribes. Among others, he defeated the powerful tribe of the Silures, took prisoner their king Caractacus, and sent him in chains to Rome [Caractacus]. In consequence of this success he received the insignia of a triumph, but died soon afterwards in the province, worn out by the toils and anxieties of war. (Tac. Ann. 12.31-39, Agr. 14.)

2. P. Ostorius Scapula, the son of the preceding, fought under his father in Britain, in A. D. 50; and received the reward of a corona civica, for saving the life of a Roman citizen in battle. In A. D. 62, he appeared as a witness in favour of Antistius Sosianus, who was accused of having recited in his house some libellous verses against the emperor Nero; but his services were repaid with ingratitude; for, in A. D. 64, the same Sosianus accused him to the emperor. He was condemned to death, and put an end to his own life. (Tac. Ann. 12.31, 14.48, 16.14, 15.)

1. T. Quintius Scapula, a zealous partisan of the Pompeians. passed over into Spain with Cn. Pompeins the elder, son of the triumvir, and took the most active part in organising the revolt against Caesar in that province. The soldiers elected him and Q. Aponius as their leaders; but on the arrival of Sex. Pompeius, who fled to Spain after the defeat of his party at the battle of Thapsus in Africa, Scapula surrendered the command to him. After the defeat of the Pompeians at Munda, in B. C. 45, Scapula, seeing that all was lost, fled to Corduba, and there burnt himself to death on a pyre which he had erected for the purpose, after partaking of a splendid banquet. (Appian, App. BC 2.87, 105; Dion (Cass. 43.29, 30; Cic. Fam. 9.13; Auctor, B. Hisp. 33.)

2. P. Quintius Scapula, mentioned by Pliny as an instance of sudden death. (Plin. Nat. 7.53. s. 54.)

(1) P. Ostorius. A Roman governor of Britain about A.D. 50, who defeated the powerful tribe of the Silures, took prisoner their king, Caractacus, and sent him in chains to Rome (Tac. Ann. xii. 31-39).

(2) A son of the preceding, condemned for treason by Nero.