Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus (consul 58 BC)

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Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus (101 BC<ref>R. Evans, "Candidates and Competition in Consular Elections at Rome Between 218 and 49 BC", Acta Classica, 34 (1991), p. 122</ref> – c. 43 BC) was a Roman senator and the father-in-law of Julius Caesar<ref name=EB1911>Template:Cite EB1911</ref> through his daughter Calpurnia. He was reportedly a follower of a school of Epicureanism that had been modified to befit politicians, as Epicureanism itself favoured withdrawal from politics.<ref>For a survey of Roman Epicureans active in politics, see Arnaldo Momigliano, review of Science and Politics in the Ancient World by Benjamin Farrington (London 1939), in Journal of Roman Studies 31 (1941), pp. 151–157.</ref> Piso was consul in the year 58 BC with Aulus Gabinius as his colleague.<ref>Ronald Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), p.</ref>

Biography

Caesar mentions his father-in-law in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico. Piso's grandfather, also named Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, was killed with Lucius Cassius Longinus in 107 BC by the same Tigurini that Caesar conquered the year of Piso's consulship.<ref>Caesar, De Bello Gallico, I.12</ref> As Caesar's father-in-law, when Cicero was faced with exile later that year for having violated the Leges Clodiae by executing members of the Catiline conspiracy without a formal trial, Piso declined to protect Cicero from the threat and consequences of exile, earning the enmity of that orator.<ref name=Syme-135>Syme, The Roman Revolution (Oxford: University Press, 2002), p. 135</ref> In response, Cicero attacked Piso both during and after his subsequent administration of the province of Macedonia, which he administered from 57 BC to the beginning of 55 BC, when he was recalled<ref name=EB1911/> and replaced by Quintus Ancharius. Piso's recall was perhaps in consequence of the violent attack made upon him by Cicero in the Senate in his speech De provinciis consularibus.<ref name=EB1911/>

On his return, Piso addressed the Senate in his defence; Cicero replied with coarse and exaggerated invective, a writing and/or oratory style or genre in classical times, in a speech known as In Pisonem.<ref name=EB1911/>Template:Sfn Piso issued a pamphlet by way of rejoinder, and there the matter ended.<ref name=EB1911/> Cicero may have been afraid to bring the father-in-law of Julius Caesar to trial.<ref name=EB1911/> At any rate, Piso's repute was solid enough that he was elected, though reluctant, to the office of censor in 50 BC.<ref name=Syme-135/>

At the outbreak of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, Piso offered his services as mediator.<ref name=EB1911/><ref>Syme, The Roman Revolution, p. 62</ref> However, when Caesar marched upon Rome, Piso left the city by way of protest of Caesar.<ref name=EB1911/> After the murder of Caesar, Piso insisted on the provisions of Caesar's will being strictly carried out,<ref name=EB1911/> and the assassinated Dictator was given a public funeral.<ref>Syme, The Roman Revolution, p. 98</ref> In the growing tension between Mark Antony and Octavianus, Piso played a role neutral to both parties, yet seeking some form of resolution between the two sides.<ref>Syme, The Roman Revolution, p. 136</ref> At the Senate session held that 1 August he offered a proposal to bring harmony between the two, but not one man supported him.<ref>Syme, The Roman Revolution, p. 118</ref>

As armed strife between the soldiers of the two sides increased, Piso continued to work for peace. When the Senate opened the year 43 BC with debating over Cicero's motion to declare Antony an enemy of the state, Piso twice intervened over the legality of such an act, arguing for compromise.<ref>Syme, The Roman Revolution, p. 167</ref> Still hoping for peace, Piso joined two consular Senators -- Lucius Marcius Philippus and Servius Sulpicius Rufus—in an embassy to Antony at his camp in Mutina later that month. Piso and Philippus returned the following month—Sulpicius had died on the journey—to present terms from Antony that enraged Cicero. Antony's terms were rejected and the Senate declared a state of war. However, events in the further East alarmed the party at Rome, and a second embassy was sent to Antony in March, which included Piso.<ref>Syme, The Roman Revolution, pp. 169-172</ref> He is not heard of after this, and Syme concludes from this silence he died not long after.<ref>Syme, The Roman Revolution, p. 197</ref>

Patronage

According to Ronald Syme, Piso "united loyalty to Roman standards of conduct to a lively appreciation of the literature and philosophy of Hellas."<ref name=Syme-135/> The author Philodemus was one of those whom he sponsored.

Piso is believed to have been the owner of the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Family

According to Asconius, Piso's wife was the daughter of one Rutilius Nudus. In addition to the daughter who married Julius Caesar, Piso also had a son, Lucius Calpurnius Piso, known as "the Pontifex", consul in 15 BC.<ref>Syme, Augustan Aristocracy, pp. 329f</ref>

Legacy

The maxim fiat justitia ruat caelum ("let justice be done, though the heavens fall"), used by Lord Mansfield in Somerset's Case and in reversing the outlawry of John Wilkes, and in the alternate form fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus by Ferdinand of Habsburg, is sometimes attributed to Piso Caesoninus (more often to Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso), but this is disputed.<ref>Laurence Lee Howe: Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, as Governor of Macedonia (57 to 55 B.C.), University of Chicago, 1938.</ref>

References

Sources

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Further reading

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• Cicero, In Pisonem, English translation at attalus.org
• Pap Levente 2015 Piso the Rambler: Travelling and Tracking in Cicero's Rhetoric Discourse. Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica, 7, 1 (2015) 21−28.