Quintus Pedius Poplicola or Publicola ( first century BC) was a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

who came from a Roman senatorial family.

Biography

Early life

Publicola was the son of the noblewoman Valeria, one of the sisters to the senator Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, thus was a daughter of

Marcus Valerius Messalla Niger Marcus Valerius Messalla Niger was a senator of the Roman Republic. Career He was praetor in the year of Cicero's consulship, 63 BC, and consul in 61 BC, the year in which Publius Clodius profaned the mysteries of the Bona Dea, and Gnaeus Pompeius ...

and his wife, Polla. His father may have been the

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 i ...

who was nephew or great nephew of dictator Gaius Julius Caesar. His cognomen Publicola or Poplicola means in Latin "friend of the people". His mother named him this cognomen in honor of her step father consul

Lucius Gellius Publicola Lucius Gellius Poplicola or Publicola ( 43–31 BC) was a Roman senator who led a checkered political career during the civil wars of the late Roman Republic, Republic. Initially a supporter of Julius Caesar's assassins, Brutus and Gaius Cassius L ...

and also the name Publicola is a cognomen that appears in Valeria's paternal ancestry, the

gens In ancient Rome, a gens ( or , ; plural: ''gentes'' ) was a family consisting of individuals who shared the same Roman naming conventions#Nomen, nomen and who claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a ''stirps'' (p ...

Valeria. Valeria has various paternal ancestors with the cognomen Publicola.

Career

Very little is known on Publicola's life. He may have been

quaestor A ( , , ; "investigator") was a public official in Ancient Rome. There were various types of quaestors, with the title used to describe greatly different offices at different times. In the Roman Republic, quaestors were elected officials who ...

in 41 BCAn inscription of this year (''CIL'' 6, 358) names a ''Quintus Pedius'' as urban quaestor: ''P(ublio) Servilio L(ucio) Antonio co(n)s(ulibus) / a(nte) d(iem) IIII K(alendas) Sext(iles) / locavit Q(uintus) Pedius q(uaestor) urb(anus) / murum Iunoni Lucinae / HS CCCLXXX(milibus) / eidemque probavit''. and served as a Roman senator. Publicola is remembered from his political career as a distinguished orator. The great Roman

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and satirist

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...

, celebrates Publicola's oratory and mentions Publicola in his writings (Serm.i. 10.28) within the company of his maternal uncle Corvinus. Publicola had a son named

, who was mute, and became a painter on the advice of Corvinus.

Notes

Sources

Ronald Syme, ''The Augustean Aristocracy'', Oxford University Press, Oxford 1989, (Clarendon Paperbaks)
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060512000617/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/2933.html William Smith, ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', C. Little and J. Brown, Boston (print: London) 1870, (University of Michigan Library, Ann Arbor (Michigan) 2005), vol. 3, p. 600] {{DEFAULTSORT:Pedius Publicola, Quintus Year of death missing Senators of the Roman Republic 1st-century BC Romans 1st-century BC births Pedii, Publicola, Quintus