Quintus Varius Severus (from 125 to 120 BC; died after 90 BC) was a politician in the late

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kin ...

. He was also called Hybrida (of mixed race) because his mother was Spanish.Harry Thurston Peck ''Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities'', (New York: Harper and Brothers, 189
"Varius Hybrida"
/ref> Quintus Varius Severus Hybrida was from Sucro, Spain (in northern Spain, in the contemporary municipality of

Candamo Candamo ( Asturian: ''Candamu'') is a municipality in the Autonomous Community of the Principality of Asturias, Spain. It is bordered on the east by Las Regueras, on the south by Grado, on the north by Illas, Castrillón and Soto del Barco, and ...

) and was the first senator of the Republic to come from the Spanish province. In 90 BC he was elected to the

tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on the ...

. He wrote a law, the ''

lex Varia The ' was a law introduced by the Roman tribune Quintus Varius Severus in the year 90 BC. The law created a special tribunal responsible for prosecuting Roman politicians who had "encouraged" the rebellion of the Socii The ''socii'' ( in English ...

'', in order to punish all those who had “assisted” those who took up arms against the Roman people. In practice it was used to prosecute those who had supported giving the

Socii The ''socii'' ( in English) or ''foederati'' ( in English) were confederates of ancient Rome, Rome and formed one of the three legal denominations in Roman Italy (''Italia'') along with the Roman citizens (''Cives'') and the ''Latin Rights, Latin ...

citizenship. As a result, many distinguished senators, among them Gaius Aurelius Cotta, were sent to exile. In the following year after the application of the law, Varius himself was also convicted by the same law he wrote.

References

Original texts

Appian, Die Bürgerkriege, Buch 1,37Cicero, Brutus 304-305

Literature

*Ernst Badian, "Quaestiones Variae", ''Historia'' 4 (1969), pp. 447–491. *Erich S. Gruen, "The Lex Varia", ''Journal of Roman Studies'', 55 (1965), p. 59–73. *Jochen Martin, ''Die Popularen in der Geschichte der späten Republik''. Dissertation, Freiburg i. Br. 1965. * Lukas Thommen, ''Das Volkstribunat der späten römischen Republik''. Stuttgart, 1989 . {{DEFAULTSORT:Varius, Quintus 2nd-century BC Romans 1st-century BC Romans Tribunes of the plebs

Quintus Quintus is a male given name derived from '' Quintus'', a common Latin forename (''praenomen'') found in the culture of ancient Rome. Quintus derives from Latin word ''quintus'', meaning "fifth". Quintus is an English masculine given name and ...