Lucius Opimius was a Roman politician who held the

consulship A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC), and ancient Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum'' (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politic ...

in 121 BC, in which capacity and year he ordered the execution of 3,000 supporters of popular leader

Gaius Gracchus Gaius Sempronius Gracchus ( – 121 BC) was a reformist Roman politician in the 2nd century BC. He is most famous for his tribunate for the years 123 and 122 BC, in which he proposed a wide set of laws, including laws to establish ...

without trial, using as pretext the state of emergency declared after Gracchus's recent and turbulent death.

Biography

He is first mentioned for crushing the revolt of the town of

Fregellae Fregellae was an ancient town of Latium adiectum, situated on the Via Latina between Aquinum (modern Aquino) and Frusino (now Frosinone, in central Italy), near the left branch of the Liris. History Fregellae was said to have been founded i ...

in 125 BC. He was elected consul in 121 BC with

Quintus Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus Quintus Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus, was a Roman statesman and general who was elected consul in 121 BC. During his consulship he fought against the Arverni and the Allobroges whom he defeated in 120 BC. He was awarded a triumph and the agnomen A ...

, and while Fabius was campaigning in

Gaul Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...

, he took part in perhaps the most decisive event of Roman history to that point. When

and M. Fulvius Flaccus were defeated for re-election by Opimius and Fabius, Gracchus organized a mass protest on the Aventine Hill. Alarmed by this action, the Senate passed the motion ''

senatus consultum ultimum The ''senatus consultum ultimum'' ("final decree of the Senate", often abbreviated to SCU) is the modern term given to resolutions of the Roman Senate lending its moral support for magistrates to use the full extent of their powers and ignore th ...

'', which Opimius understood as an order to suppress their activities by any means necessary—including force. He gathered an armed force of Senators and their supporters, and confronted Gracchus and his followers, an act which quickly became a pitched battle inside the city of

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. Gracchus, Flaccus, and many of their followers were slain in this conflict, and after clearing the streets of his opponents, Opimius established a ''quaestio'' or tribunal that condemned to death 3,000 people accused of being supporters of Gracchus. Opimius was prosecuted for these violent actions in 120 BC, but Carbo won his acquittal. Opimius' victory established the ''senatus consultum ultimum'' in Roman constitutional practice, providing a limitless tool that the various Roman factions used against each other in the following years as the Republic slipped increasingly into violence and civil war. In 116 BC, Opimius headed a commission that divided Numidia between

Jugurtha Jugurtha or Jugurthen ( Libyco-Berber ''Yugurten'' or '' Yugarten'', c. 160 – 104 BC) was a king of Numidia. When the Numidian king Micipsa, who had adopted Jugurtha, died in 118 BC, Jugurtha and his two adoptive brothers, Hiempsal and A ...

and his brother Adherbal. Suspecting that the commission had been influenced by bribes from Jugurtha, its members were later investigated by a tribunal that censured their conduct. Humiliated, Opimius went into exile in Dyrrhachium, where he later died.Plutarch. '' ives ofTiberius and Gaius Gracchus,'' c. 39. In: Waterfield, Robin. ''Plutarch, Roman Lives,'' pp. 114, 458 (note to p. 114)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Opimius, Lucius Ancient Roman generals 2nd-century BC Roman consuls Ancient Roman exiles Opimii Optimates