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Lucius Memmius And His Family

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

T. P. Wiseman
Affiliation:
University of Leicester

Extract

Sisenna Historiarum lib. iii: Lucium Memmium, socerum Gai Scriboni, tribunum plebis, quern Marci Livi consiliarium fuisse callebant et tune Gurionis oratorem … (Nonius 393L, s.v. ‘callet’).

Erat Hortensius in bello primo anno miles, altero tribunus militum, Sulpicius legatus; aberat etiam M. Antonius; exercebatur una lege iudicium Varia, ceteris propter bellum intermissis; cui frequens aderam, quamquam pro se ipsi dicebant oratores non illi quidem principes, L. Memmius et Q. Pompeius, sed oratores tamen, teste diserto utique [Jahn: MSS. uterque] Philippo, cuius in testimonio contentio et vim accusatoris habebat et copiam. Reliqui qui turn principes numerabantur in magistratibus erant cotidieque fere a nobis in contionibus audiebantur … (Cicero, Brutus 304–5).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1967

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References

1 Geschichte des romischm Miinzwesens (Berlin, 1860), pp. 597–9.Google Scholar

2 Pauly-Wissowa, , R.-E. xv (1931), 602 ff.Google Scholar

3 DeMemmiorumfamilia’, Wiener Studien xlviii (1930), 98107Google Scholar, and ‘Nochmals zur Familiensgeschichte der Memmier’, ibid. xlix (1931), 107–14 (after having seen Munzer's proofs).

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6 The Lex VariaJ.R.S. lv (1965), 5973, esp. 6667.Google Scholar

7 Frr. 17 (Nonius 777L); 47 (ibid. 277L), cf. 43. 45–46. 48–50.

8 Sisenna, iv fr. 120Google Scholar; cf. Brunt, P. A., J.R.S. lv (1965), 107–8.Google Scholar

9 Haug, I., Würzburger Jahrb.für Altertumsurissenschaft, ii (1947), 215, 246–7Google Scholar; cf. Peter, H., H.R.R. i 2, cccxi.Google Scholar

10 Nonius 392L: ‘callet significat scit, hoc est calliditate, quae est urbana scientia’.

11 Art. cit., p. 67.Google ScholarPubMed

1 Followed by Broughton, , M.R.R., ii. 38 n. 4Google Scholar; it also affects his dating of the legate Otacilius (ibid. 37, Sisenna, iii fr. 38).Google Scholar

2 App, . B.C. 1. 37Google Scholar; identification denied by Gabba, ad loc. (p. 125)Google Scholar, accepted by Biedl, (art. cit. 102)Google Scholar and Gruen, (art. cit. 6667).Google Scholar

3 Cf. Haug, , art. cit. 215–16Google Scholar: Book iii ending in autumn of 90, frr. 94–95, 99 on the Umbrian campaign of L. Cato and A. Plotius in that year? Fr. 72 might refer to the defeat of the Salluvii by C. Coelius in 90, frr. 53–54 and 62 to Papius Mutilus' capture of Herculaneum and Nuceria in 90 (rather than the recapture by Sulla in 89); cf. Brunt, , loc. cit. (p. 164, n. 8), on fr. 120Google Scholar. However, Sisenna's arrangement was evidently by subject-matter as well as chronology (cf. Haug, , art. cit. 216Google Scholar), and in the political narrative Book iv seems to reach as far as Sulpicius Rufus' recall of exiles in 88 (fr. 113), though Marius' escape in the same year appears in Book vi (fr. 125).

4 Art. cit. (p. 164, n. 3), 100–3.Google Scholar s Cf. Brunt, , art. cit. 108.Google Scholar

6 By Martha, Jules (Paris 1960, 3rd ed.)Google Scholar. Brunt, (art. cit. 108) also takes it as meaning that Memmius did not speak.Google Scholar

7 Brut. 206.Google Scholar

1 Note especially Brut. 99Google Scholar on the two Fannii, C.; also 79, 107, 109, 127 etc.Google Scholar (Biedl, , op. cit. 114)Google Scholar; Brut. 178 for Annius, T.VelinaGoogle Scholar: if the Memmii, L. of Brut. 136 and 304 were in different tribes, as Gruen believes (see below), Cicero could easily have avoided confusion by saying so.Google Scholar

2 Biedl, , op. cit. 100.Google Scholar

3 Sixth ed., revised by Kytzler, B. (Berlin, 1962); the references should be on pp. 289 and 311.Google Scholar (In Kytzler's index, the identifications of the Memmii, L. as two different men follow Miinzer's in R.-E.)Google Scholar

4 Cf. p. 165, n. 2 above; he is, in any case, not heard of again.

5 Dates from M. H. Crawford—see his article cited above (p. 164, n. 5) on the moneyers of 87. I also owe to him the information on Memmi, C. C.f. in p. 167, n. 2, below.Google Scholar

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1 Phrases like ‘Metellan factio’, however, perhaps imply too rigid and homogeneous a group. L. Memmius' son-in-law C. Curio was in fact an inimicus of the Metelli as the result of a lawsuit (Asc. 63C).

2 Cic, . Q.F. 3. 3. 2Google Scholar, cf. Syme, , Sallust (1964), p. 102 n. 88Google Scholar; for the q. 76 see Münzer, , R.-E. no. 7Google Scholar (discounting the identification with a Galeria moneyer). Hisson, , tr. pl. 54Google Scholar, was no doubt the moneyer C. Memmi. C.f.: four of the latter's coins appear in the Compito hoard, which has none of the issue struck by Cn. Plancius as aedile in 55 (for this date, see Taylor, L. R., Ath. xlii [1964], 1229Google Scholar), so the moneyer can hardly be identified with Fausta's son (next note), who was still in his teens in 55.

3 She was born between 88 and 86 (Plut, . Sulla 22. 1)Google Scholar, and her son by Memmius was already politically active in 54 (Asc. 28C—on behalf of Sulla's stepson M. Scaurus). Cf. Cic, . Sull. 5455 for Memmius' friendship with Faustus Sulla.Google Scholar

4 Anz. Öst. Akad. Wiss. 1962, 4849, and 1963, 4950Google Scholar (I am very grateful to Prof. Fritz Eichler for sending me the relevant literature). It may be this C. Memmius whose daughter married Curio, C. C.f. (S.E.G. xiv. 641–2, Caunus).Google Scholar