Pacuvius Labeo (died 42 BC) was a Roman jurist and senator, and one of the murderers of

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...

. He was father of the more eminent jurist

Marcus Antistius Labeo Marcus Antistius Labeo (d. 10 or 11 AD) was a Roman jurist. Marcus Antistius Labeo was the son of Pacuvius Labeo, a jurist who caused himself to be slain after the defeat of his party at Philippi. Since his name was different from his father's, ...

, who lived under the emperor

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...

. Pacuvius was one of the disciples of

Servius Sulpicius Rufus Servius Sulpicius Rufus (c. 105 BC – 43 BC), was a Roman orator and jurist. He was consul in 51 BC. Biography Early life He studied rhetoric with Cicero, accompanying him to Rhodes in 78 BC, though Sulpicius decided subsequently to pursue lega ...

, who are stated by

Sextus Pomponius Sextus Pomponius was a jurist who lived during the reigns of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. Other writers have expressed a view that the name Pomponius Sextus was shared by another jurist, although Puchta (Cursus der Institution, vol. ...

to have written books which were digested by Aufidius Namusa.

Aulus Gellius Aulus Gellius (c. 125after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his ''Attic Nights'', a commonplace book, or ...

mentioned him as the recipient of a letter by Sinnius Capito in a discussion about grammar. Pacuvius joined the conspiracy of

Brutus Marcus Junius Brutus (; ; 85 BC – 23 October 42 BC), often referred to simply as Brutus, was a Roman politician, orator, and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar. After being adopted by a relative, he used the name Quintus Serv ...

to assassinate the dictator Julius Caesar. He was probably a

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

by then, but his career up to that point is unrecorded. Pacuvius was one of the most enthusiastic among the conspirators, and took an active role in the recruiting process. He was present at the

Battle of Philippi The Battle of Philippi was the final battle in the Wars of the Second Triumvirate between the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian (of the Second Triumvirate) and the leaders of Julius Caesar's assassination, Brutus and Cassius in 42 BC, at P ...

on Brutus's side. After the defeat, he was unwilling to survive Brutus, who, he was told, had pronounced his name with a sigh before his death. Having dug in his tent a hole of the length of his body, he settled his worldly affairs, and sent messages to his wife and children. Then, taking the hand of his most faithful slave, he turned him round (as was usual in the ceremony of

manumission Manumission, or enfranchisement, is the act of freeing enslaved people by their enslavers. Different approaches to manumission were developed, each specific to the time and place of a particular society. Historian Verene Shepherd states that t ...

), and, giving him his sword, presented his throat to be stabbed, and was buried in his tent in the hole which he had dug. His name was formerly thought to be "Pacuvius Antistius Labeo", but

Ernst Badian Ernst Badian (8 August 1925 – 1 February 2011) was an Austrian-born classical scholar who served as a professor at Harvard University from 1971 to 1998. Early life and education Badian was born in Vienna in 1925 and in 1938 fled the Nazis wit ...

has shown that this is an unlikely name for a senator of his time, and noted that the name "Antistius" is only attested by a corrupt passage in the ''Digest''. Pacuvius's son, Antistius Labeo, will then have acquired his own name through adoption.

D. R. Shackleton Bailey David Roy Shackleton Bailey FBA (10 December 1917 – 28 November 2005) was a British scholar of Latin literature (particularly in the field of textual criticism) who spent his academic life teaching at the University of Cambridge, the Univers ...

, ''Two Studies in Roman Nomenclature'', Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, p. 103 Pacuvius's entry in the '' DGRBM'' (1849) gives his name as "Quintus Antistius Labeo", but this is confirmed by no other source.

Footnotes

References

* {{Authority control 42 BC deaths 1st-century BC Romans Ancient Roman jurists Ancient Roman writers Ancient Romans who committed suicide Assassins of Julius Caesar Golden Age Latin writers Senators of the Roman Republic Year of birth unknown