Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi (consul 133 BC)

Career

Tribunate and lex Calpurnia

Piso probably did his ten-year military service between 165 and 152. Piso is first mentioned in the sources as plebeian tribune in 149. The previous year, the propraetor Servius Sulpicius Galba had slaughtered eight or nine thousand Lusitanians through treachery. After accepting their unconditional surrender in good faith, he rounded up entire Lusitanian communities, disarmed them, and then massacred their male populations en masse before enslaving the remainder.

When Galba returned to Rome in 149, he was sued before the people by Lucius Scribonius Libo, Piso's colleague as tribune of the plebs; despite Cato the Censor's vehement support of the accusation, Galba was acquitted. Both Cato and Piso had clients in Spain who were worried by Galba's exactions; they asked their patrons to protect them. Piso therefore brought the lex Calpurnia de repetundis, which established the first permanent criminal court to judge Roman governors' provincial misdeeds. Before 149, governors were judged by an ad hoc court which was only sometimes created for that purpose.

The lex Calpurnia provided that the peregrine praetor directed the court and chose the jurors from the senate; governors found guilty had to repay the sums extorted. The law was a milestone in Roman criminal law – it "provided the model for other permanent criminal tribunals" in the future – and reflected the concern in the senate that unchecked gubernatorial avarice and disregard for norms of war would alienate provincial populations and harm Rome's foreign reputation.

Praetorship

Piso was certainly praetor before 135 BC, as the lex Villia required a three-year wait between holding two magistracies (and Piso was consul in 133). The dominant opinion among modern scholars is that Piso served as praetor in Sicily in a year between 138 and 136, and he was defeated by the revolted slaves of Eunus during the First Servile War. However, knowledge of this war is very poor, and mostly comes from epitomes deriving from the lost books of Livy's Ab Urbe Condita. The only mention of Piso as praetor in ancient sources is found in the epitome of Florus (dating from the 2nd century AD), who says that "The camps even of praetors (the utmost disgrace of war) were taken by him [Eunus]; nor will I shrink from giving their names; they were the camps of [Manlius], Lentulus, Piso, and Hypsaeus". From there, it has been assumed that Florus gave the names of the successive Sicilian praetors in reverse chronological order between 138 and 135.

Corey Brennan, a classicist, nevertheless notes that Florus is often careless in his chronology, and also frequently mixes commanders' titles. What he calls "praetor" could have been legate, quaestor, praetor, or even consul. Therefore, Brennan suggests instead that Piso did not serve in Sicily as praetor, but only as consul in 133. Since Florus tells Piso was defeated, it would be very strange to see him winning the consular election at the first possible occasion: the other identified commanders fared far more poorly, either disappearing from history altogether or waiting many years until their consulships.

Consulship

Piso was elected consul for 133 BC with Publius Mucius Scaevola as his colleague. Scaevola and Piso are respectively described as consul prior and posterior, which means the comitia centuriata elected Scaevola first. He was assigned Sicily as his province and commanded the war against the slaves, while Scaevola remained in Rome. Sicily was initially given to a praetor, but since the praetors sent in 136 and 135 against the revolted slaves were defeated, the senate dispatched a consul in 134 to deal with them; however, the previous consul, Gaius Fulvius Flaccus, did nothing of note.

Piso probably picked the praetor Marcus Perperna to serve with him in Sicily, because he was a homo novus with an Etruscan background. He likely started his campaign by taking Morgantina and besieging Henna, the epicentre of the rebellion, because several sling bullets bearing his name have been found in the area. Then, Piso might have left the conduct of the siege to Perperna while he campaigned in another part of Sicily. The First Servile War ended the following year when the consul Publius Rupilius captured Tauromenium and Perperna took Henna.

Gracchan opposition

Since Piso was in Sicily during his entire consulship, ancient sources do not tell his attitude towards Tiberius Gracchus, who as plebeian tribune moved an ambitious set of reforms to redistribute Roman public lands. It is generally assumed that Piso was among his opponents, because he was later an outspoken enemy of Gaius Gracchus (Tiberius' younger brother), but several politicians initially supported Tiberius and later opposed his reforms or his attempt to be reelected as tribune, starting with Scaevola, Piso's consular colleague. D C Earl suggests that Piso initially regarded Tiberius' program with a "benevolent neutrality" as he had connections with the Fulvii Flacci and the patrician Claudii, who were Gracchan allies.

The main anecdote for Piso's opposition is an anecdote placed in his mouth by Cicero. According to Cicero, after Gaius Gracchus passed a law establishing a subsidised grain supply over Piso's opposition, Piso appeared in the queue and when Gaius enquired as to his hypocrisy, he responded "I'm not keen, Gracchus... on you getting the idea of sharing out my property man by man, but if that's what you're going to do, I'll take my cut".

Censorship

Piso was elected censor in 120 together with the plebeian Quintus Caecilius Metellus Baliaricus. The Fasti Capitolini are missing for these years, but since later writers citing or mentioning Piso tell he was censor, he must have been censor in 120 as it is the only year available. As a result, nothing is known of the censors' activity, apart that they likely reappointed Publius Cornelius Lentulus as princeps senatus.

The censors' election took place in the aftermath of the murder of Gaius Gracchus and his supporters in 121, which saw the domination of the conservative faction led by the powerful Caecilii Metelli family, and further indicates Piso's conservative background.

The Annales

At the end of his life, Piso wrote a history of Rome, following several earlier Roman statesmen who wrote history, such as Cato the Censor, or Aulus Postumius Albinus. Among the 19 mentions of Piso's work found in ancient sources, 16 call it Annales, suggesting that was Piso's title. The last dated fragment of the Annales deals with the fourth ludi saeculares, an event taking place in 146, so Piso likely started his book after this date. As there are an unusual number of references to censorial activity in the Annales' fragments, it is probable that Piso wrote them in his later years, after his own censorship in 120, a situation similar to that of Cato who composed the Origines in his last years. Moreover, later authors who cite Piso often call him Censorius ("the censor"), suggesting he was already an ex-censor when he wrote it. This additional name might have been used by Piso in his work.

The Annales were written in at least seven books, from the legendary foundation of Rome by Aeneas to Piso's own times. Like most other Roman historians, Piso devoted a significant portion of the work to mythologic times and the Regal period, covered in the first book. The second book likely covered the beginnings of the Republic to a milestone event such as the Fall of Veii in 396, or the Sack of Rome in 387. The third book probably described the events up to the War against Pyrrhus (280–275) or the First Punic War (264–241). The chronology for the remaining four books is lacking; Piso possibly wrote about the events down to the second half of the 2nd century by covering one generation per book. The majority of modern historians think that Piso continued his work after the last fragment dated from 146 in order to describe the events of his consulship and censorship. The existence of an 8th book has been suggested, in which Piso could have written an apologia of his political deeds during his magistracies.

His historical account, now lost and known to us from only forty-nine short quotations or paraphrases, was written in a simple style of Latin. He also was likely the first to have incorporated material from the annales maximi – the records kept by the pontiffs – into a historical work. He also revised the genealogy of the Tarquins, connecting Tarquinius Superbus as grandson of Tarquinius Priscus rather than as son due to chronological improbability of a direct relationship when taking into account the intervening 44-year reign of Servius Tullius. Later historians relied upon his work, though many did not find it satisfactory. Cicero considered his work jejune, and Livy did not consider him fully reliable, due to his tendency to moralize and politicize the histories that he recounted. Aulus Gellius, however, an admirer of its archaic style, commended the work and quoted the only major fragment that has survived until today.

Moreover, the early 19th-century iconoclastic historian, Barthold Georg Niebuhr, wrote that Piso was the first Roman historian to introduce systematic forgeries. Despite its shortcomings, Piso's historical work is important because it was the first time that an account was structured into individual years, making it the earliest history to follow the so-called "annalistic scheme." Modern historians also value the fragments contained in it as reflecting earlier traditions free from latter-day inventions and insertions.

List of fragments