![Bust of Plancus IMG 9753](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Bust_of_Plancus_IMG_9753.jpg)
Lucius Munatius Plancus ( – ) was a
Roman senator
The Roman Senate ( la, Senātus Rōmānus) was a governing and advisory assembly in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, being established in the first days of the city of Rome (traditionally founded in ...
,
consul
Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...
in 42 BC, and
censor in 22 BC with
Paullus Aemilius Lepidus
Paullus Aemilius LepidusLightman, ''A to Z of Ancient Greek and Roman Women'', p. 205 (c. 77 BC – after 11 BC) was a Roman senator.
Biography
He was a grandson of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Appuleia through their son Lucius Aemilius Pa ...
. Along with
Talleyrand eighteen centuries later, he is one of the classic historical examples of men who have managed to survive very dangerous circumstances by constantly shifting their allegiances.
Early career
Plancus was born in
Tibur
Tivoli ( , ; la, Tibur) is a town and in Lazio, central Italy, north-east of Rome, at the falls of the Aniene river where it issues from the Sabine hills. The city offers a wide view over the Roman Campagna.
History
Gaius Julius Solinu ...
, the son of his homonymous father, of whom very little is known. He had three brothers and a sister: two of the brothers pursued public lives, one ascending to the praetorship and the other reaching the plebeian tribunate. He must have entered public life with election as
quaestor some time before 54 BC.
More concrete information on Plancus' career only appears when he became one 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, ...
's legates during the
Gallic Wars
The Gallic Wars were waged between 58 and 50 BC by the Roman general Julius Caesar against the peoples of Gaul (present-day France, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland). Gallic, Germanic, and British tribes fought to defend their homel ...
: he served under Caesar in Gaul from 54 BC through to the start of
Caesar's civil war
Caesar's civil war (49–45 BC) was one of the last politico-military conflicts of the Roman Republic before its reorganization into the Roman Empire. It began as a series of political and military confrontations between Gaius Julius Caesar and ...
in January 49 BC. At the start of the civil war, he joined with Caesar against Pompey; he served under Caesar with Gaius Fabius (the praetor in 58 BC) during Caesar's Illerda campaign. He sailed with Caesar to Africa in 47 BC; this year he likely was one of the
praetor
Praetor ( , ), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected '' magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to discharge vari ...
s. When Caesar left for Spain in 45 BC, Plancus was appointed one of the prefects of the city in place of quaestors and aediles who had not been elected that year. Upon Caesar's return from Spain, he appointed Plancus governor of
Transalpine Gaul
Gallia Narbonensis (Latin for "Gaul of Narbonne", from its chief settlement) was a Roman province located in what is now Languedoc and Provence, in Southern France. It was also known as Provincia Nostra ("Our Province"), because it was the ...
''pro consule'' in early 44 BC.
Transition to empire
![Plancus-Statue](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Plancus-Statue.jpg)
Upon the
assassination of Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator, was assassinated by a group of senators on the Ides of March (15 March) of 44 BC during a meeting of the Senate at the Curia of Pompey of the Theatre of Pompey in Rome where the senators stabbed Caesar 23 t ...
on 15 March 44 BC, Plancus was still in Rome. In the immediate aftermath of the deed, he – like many other Caesarians – supported amnesty for the tyrannicides and departed for his province. He must have also supported preservation of Caesar's ''acta'', which would have been in service to his own career as well, as Caesar had before his death designated Plancus as one of the consuls for 42 BC. There, he raised more men while keeping a close eye on political developments in the city. He also campaigned in Raetia, winning some victories, for which he was proclaimed ''
imperator'', by September.
Formation of the triumvirate
A political crisis unfolded over the year 44 BC. Plancus and
Decimus Junius Brutus were the governors of Transalpine and Cisalpine Gaul, respectively. Mark Antony, then one of the consuls, used soldiers to intimidate the assembly in passing a law in June transferring those provinces to himself. Antony left on 28 November 44 BC seeking to take those provinces from their governors. Soon afterwards,
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
was writing to the governors already stationed there seeking military support to resist Antony's assumption of the provinces; he wrote both to Plancus and Decimus Brutus. On 20 December 44 BC, the senate decreed that the existing governors should resist Antony by force if necessary. His funerary inscription attests that around this time he founded the cities of
Augusta Raurica
Augusta Raurica is a Roman archaeological site and an open-air museum in Switzerland located on the south bank of the Rhine river about 20 km east of Basel near the villages of Augst and Kaiseraugst. It is the site of the oldest known ...
(44 BC) and
Lugdunum
Lugdunum (also spelled Lugudunum, ; modern Lyon, France) was an important Roman city in Gaul, established on the current site of Lyon. The Roman city was founded in 43 BC by Lucius Munatius Plancus, but continued an existing Gallic settle ...
(
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...
) (43 BC) and in June 43 BC, some letters attest to his passage through the village of
Cularo
Cularo was the name of the Gallic city which evolved into modern Grenoble, until 381 when it was renamed Gratianopolis in honor of Roman emperor Gratian.
The first reference to Grenoble dates back to July 43 BC.''Ad Familiares'', 10, 2Letter 87 ...
(present
Grenoble
lat, Gratianopolis
, commune status = Prefecture and commune
, image = Panorama grenoble.png
, image size =
, caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...
) in the
Dauphiné Alps
The Dauphiné Alps (french: Alpes du Dauphiné) are a group of mountain ranges in Southeastern France, west of the main chain of the Alps. Mountain ranges within the Dauphiné Alps include the Massif des Écrins in Écrins National Park, Belledon ...
.
Plancus was slow to respond to the senate's call to arms. Responding months later in March 43 BC, he publicly warned against the rush to war. Privately, he wrote to Cicero that he was preparing his legions and auxiliaries. While both sides were preparing forces, it is clear that Plancus was entertaining offers from both Cicero in the senate and Antony. Around the same time a further message arrived from Plancus publicly declaring for the senate, Antony asserted in a letter to Rome that he had Plancus' support. Plancus defended his caution with the argument that declaring too rashly before preparations would have meant swift consequences like those that befell Decimus Brutus (then besieged in Mutina).
The senate sent three commanders, the two consuls and Caesar's heir Octavian after Antony. They defeated Antony on 21 April 43 BC at the
Battle of Mutina; but both consuls were killed. After the battle, Plancus sought to persuade
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus to join with the senate. After Lepidus joined Antony on 29 May, Plancus retreated across the river
Isara and sought to join forces with Decimus, his co-consul designate for 42 BC and a high-profile tyrannicide. Lepidus sent a message to the senate blaming his soldiers for forcing his defection; at the same time, Octavian refused to cooperate with Decimus Brutus, ostensibly due to his soldiers refusing to help an assassin of Caesar. In the last letter from Plancus to Cicero, he castigates Cicero's strategy of elevating Octavian, who was by then well known to be seeking one of the vacant consulships and, by inaction, allowing Antony to regain strength.
Three weeks after this last letter, Octavian's soldiers marched on Rome and engineered his election as suffect consul with
Quintus Pedius
Quintus Pedius ( – late 43 BC) was a Roman politician and general who lived during the late Republic. He served as a military officer under Julius Caesar for most of his career. Serving with Caesar during the civil war, he was elected praetor ...
. Pedius' passage of the ''lex Pedia'' which sentenced the tyrannicides to exile ''in absentia'' changed Plancus' calculations; after a few months of cooperation with Decimus, he broke off. While Antony was angry at Plancus for his having sided with the senate, he was able to parley his five legions and Gallic cavalry into keeping his consulship and a triumph.
Under the Triumvirate
After Octavian joined with Antony and Lepidus to form the
Second Triumvirate in 43 BC through passage of the ''
lex Titia
The ''lex Titia'' was a Roman law passed on 27 November 43 BC that established the Triumvirate of Octavian, Mark Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus for five years until the end of 38 BC. The triumvirate established by the law was then re ...
'', they and their main allies all gave one close family member of friend to the proscriptions. Plancus is said to have put his brother – Lucius Plotius Plancus – on the death lists. For the victories he won over the Gauls in Raetia, he celebrated a triumph on 29 December 43 BC. Thereafter, he held the
consul
Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...
ship of 42 BC with Lepidus. During his consulship, he brought legislation to overturn some of the names on the Second Triumvirate's proscription lists and distributed land to veterans near Beneventum.
The next year, he continued supervising colonisation near Beneventum and, during the
Perusine War
The Perusine War (also Perusian or Perusinian War, or the War of Perusia) was a civil war of the Roman Republic, which lasted from 41 to 40 BC. It was fought by Lucius Antonius and Fulvia to support Mark Antony against his political enemy Octav ...
, assisted
Lucius Antony in defeating one of Octavian's legions. After the defeat of the plot, he fled with Antony's wife
Fulvia
Fulvia (; c. 83 BC – 40 BC) was an aristocratic Roman woman who lived during the Late Roman Republic. Fulvia's birth into an important political dynasty facilitated her relationships and, later on, marriages to Publius Clodius Pulcher, Gai ...
to Greece. After the peace of Brundisium in 40 BC healed the rift between Octavian and Antony, he was assigned to Asia ''pro consule''. He likely stayed in Asia through 38 BC.
Service under and defection from Antony
During Mark Antony's expedition in 36 BC, to
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...
and
Parthia
Parthia ( peo, 𐎱𐎼𐎰𐎺 ''Parθava''; xpr, 𐭐𐭓𐭕𐭅 ''Parθaw''; pal, 𐭯𐭫𐭮𐭥𐭡𐭥 ''Pahlaw'') is a historical region located in northeastern Greater Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Med ...
to avenge
Crassus' death from 17 years earlier, he was proconsular governor (or perhaps legate) of
Syria. He was blamed for ordering the execution of
Sextus Pompey
Sextus Pompeius Magnus Pius ( 67 – 35 BC), also known in English as Sextus Pompey, was a Roman military leader who, throughout his life, upheld the cause of his father, Pompey the Great, against Julius Caesar and his supporters during the las ...
in Antony's name after Sextus was caught attempting to flee to Parthia via Asia.
Plancus deserted Antony's side in 32 BC. The reasons are unclear.
Ronald Syme
Sir Ronald Syme, (11 March 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a New Zealand-born historian and classicist. He was regarded as the greatest historian of ancient Rome since Theodor Mommsen and the most brilliant exponent of the history of the Roman ...
speculated that he did so merely because he calculated Octavian was in the stronger position. However, Octavian's victory was likely not yet clear in 32 BC. Plancus and his nephew
Marcus Titius Marcus Titius was a Roman politician ( suffect consul in 31 BC) and commander at the end of the Roman Republic.
Descent and proscription
Marcus Titius was the son of a Lucius Titius and nephew of Lucius Munatius Plancus. The offices which Lucius ...
were instrumental in securing for Octavian the contents of Antony's will, which gravely damaged Antony's reputation. Complementary sources, such as
Horace's ''Ode'' 1.7, praise Plancus for having realised the falsity of Antony's promises and having returned virtuously to the side of Rome and Italy.
Under Augustus
In January 27 BC, Plancus, as one of the senior ex-consuls, brought a motion suggestion that Octavian adopt the title Augustus.
His last political office was held in 22 BC, after Augustus appointed him and
Aemilius Lepidus Paullus as censors. Their censorship is famous not for any remarkable deeds, but because it was the last time that such magistrates were appointed. According to
Velleius Paterculus
Marcus Velleius Paterculus (; c. 19 BC – c. AD 31) was a Roman historian, soldier and senator. His Roman history, written in a highly rhetorical style, covered the period from the end of the Trojan War to AD 30, but is most useful for the per ...
' Roman history, it was a shame for both of the senators:
In Suetonius' ''Life of Nero'', we read that the emperor
Nero
Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 unti ...
's grandfather, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, whose wife was
Antonia Major
Antonia the Elder. (born August/September 39 BC) was a niece of the first Roman emperor, Augustus, being the eldest daughter of Octavia the Younger and her second husband, the Triumvir Mark Antony. She married Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus and be ...
, daughter of Mark Antony, "was haughty, extravagant, and cruel, and when he was only an
aedile
''Aedile'' ( ; la, aedīlis , from , "temple edifice") was an elected office of the Roman Republic. Based in Rome, the aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings () and regulation of public festivals. They also had powers to ...
, forced the censor Lucius Plancus to make way for him on the street"; the story seems to hint at the poor reputation Plancus held after his censorship.
Legacy
Tomb and family
Plancus died in
Gaeta and is one of the very few important Roman historical figures whose tomb has survived and is identifiable, although his body has long since vanished. The
Mausoleum of Plancus, a massive cylindrical tomb now much restored (and consecrated to the Virgin Mary in the late 19th century), is in
Gaeta, on a hill overlooking the sea: it houses a small permanent exhibit in honor of him.
Plancus' children included one son and one daughter. His son was
Lucius Munatius Plancus
Lucius Munatius Plancus ( – ) was a Roman senator, consul in 42 BC, and censor in 22 BC with Paullus Aemilius Lepidus. Along with Talleyrand eighteen centuries later, he is one of the classic historical examples of men who have m ...
(ca 45 BC - aft. 14), consul in AD 13 and legate in 14, who married Aemilia Paulla, daughter of
Paullus Aemilius Lepidus
Paullus Aemilius LepidusLightman, ''A to Z of Ancient Greek and Roman Women'', p. 205 (c. 77 BC – after 11 BC) was a Roman senator.
Biography
He was a grandson of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Appuleia through their son Lucius Aemilius Pa ...
and wife
Cornelia. In AD 14 the son went to Germany to help suppress the Rhine legions' mutiny with little success. Plancus' daughter
Munatia Plancina
Munatia Plancina (died 33 AD) was a Roman noblewoman who lived during the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. She was the wife of the governor of Syria, Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso. The couple was accused of poisoning Germanicus, the nephew and adopted ...
(ca 35 BC - aft. 20) married the infamous
Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, and they had two sons, Gnaeus and Marcus Piso. Plancina and her husband were accused of poisoning
Germanicus. In Syria, she offended common sensibility by attending cavalry exercises and hired a notorious poisoner. After the death of Germanicus, Piso and Plancina first tried to take back control of the province, then slowly returned to Rome, where they were put on trial for fomenting civil war and for poisoning Germanicus. Eventually Livia intervened to save Plancina and she was pardoned. Many years later in AD 34 she was again prosecuted and driven to suicide. Her two sons survived her. Gnaeus Piso had to change his name to Lucius Piso, but later became governor of Africa in AD 39 under Caligula. The charges against Marcus Piso were dismissed by Tiberius.
Reputation
Plancus has an "overwhelmingly negative reputation in both ancient texts and modern scholarship". Cicero, writing a letter in late 44 BC told him that he was "too much as the service of the times". The specific meaning of Cicero's words are debated; Mitchell argues that ''the times'' in that sentence refers to Caesar's ''dominatio'' over the state rather than a generalised lack of principle.
The history of
Velleius Paterculus
Marcus Velleius Paterculus (; c. 19 BC – c. AD 31) was a Roman historian, soldier and senator. His Roman history, written in a highly rhetorical style, covered the period from the end of the Trojan War to AD 30, but is most useful for the per ...
was very hostile to Plancus. He blamed Plancus for his brother's death and paints his defection from Antony in 32 BC in terms being a pathological traitor with no political principles. He also painted Plancus as a fawning flatterer of Cleopatra, as greedy, and as furthering Antony's poor judgement. Velleius' account may be derived from
Gaius Asinius Pollio
Gaius Asinius Pollio (75 BC – AD 4) was a Roman soldier, politician, orator, poet, playwright, literary critic, and historian, whose lost contemporary history provided much of the material used by the historians Appian and Plutarch. Pol ...
's speeches; criticism of Plancus is usually coupled with praise with Pollio.
Ronald Syme, in ''Roman Revolution'' memorably savaged him: "A nice calculation of his own interests and an assiduous care for his own safety carried him through well-timed treacheries to a peaceful old age".
While more recent scholarship has perhaps softened slightly, Plancus' career is still largely seen in terms of flexibly adapting to prevailing circumstances out of self-interest.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Munatius Plancus, Lucius
80s BC births
10s BC deaths
1st-century BC Roman governors of Syria
People from Tivoli, Lazio
Plancus, Lucius
1st-century BC Roman consuls
Correspondents of Cicero