Hypsaeus

• a surname of P. Plautius, Cic. Att. 3, 8, 3.

a cognomen of the Plautia Gens at Rome.

1. C. Plautius Venno Hypsaeus, was consul for the first time in B. C. 347. H/is year of office was memorable for the reduction of the interest on loans to the twenty fourth part of the sum borrowed, or 4 and one-sixth per cent. Hypsaeus was consul again in B. C. 341, when the war with Privernum and with the Volscian league was committed to him. He defeated the Privernatians, and took from them two-thirds of their public land, and he compelled the Volscians to retreat, ravaged their territory as far as the sea-coast, and consecrated the arms of the slain " Luae Matri." (Liv. 7.27, 8.1.)

2. L. Plautius Hypsaeus, was praetor in B. C. 189, and obtained the Nearer Spain for his province. (Liv. 37.47, 50.)

3. L. Plautius Hypsaeus, a son probably of the preceding, was praetor in Sicily during the Servile War, B. C. 134-132, and routed by the insurgent slaves. ( Flor. 3.19.7.)

4. M. Plautius Hypsaeus, consul in B. C. 125, was joint commissioner with his colleague, M. Fulvius Flaccus [FLACCUS, M. FULVIUS, No. 7], for resuming and re-apportioning such demesnes of the state as were held contrary to the provisions of the Licinian and Sempronian laws. (Fasti; V. Max. 9.5.1; Obseq. 90; Phlegon. Trail. 10.) Cicero (de Or. 1.36.166) mentions Hypsaeus as ill-versed in the civil law.

5. P. Plautius Hypsaeus, as tribune of the plebs in B. C. 54, exerted himself to procure for Cn. Pompey, whose quaestor he had been, the commission for restoring Ptolemy Auletes to the throne of Egypt. (Cic. Fam. 1.1.3. In B. C. 54, Hypsaeus was a candidate for the consulship, and since Milo was his opponent, he had the support of P. Clodius and his gladiators. [Claudius, No. 40.] With his fellow-candidate, Q. Metellus Scipio, Hypsaeus employed in his canvass the most open corruption and violence. In the tumults that followed the murder of Clodius, Hypsaeus and Scipio besieged the interrex, M. Aemilius Lepidus, in his own house for five days. because he would not consent to hold the comitia illegally. Scipio and Hypsaeus were naturally favourites with the Clodian mob, who carried off the fasces from the temple of Libitina (Dionys. A. R. 4.15; Suet. Nero 39), and offered them to these candidates, before they tendered them to Cn. Pompey. Hypsaeus was singled out by Milo's faction for their especial attack. At the examination of the witnesses at Milo's trial, they demanded that the slaves of Hypsaeus be submitted to torture, and shortly afterwards, through Pompey's law de Ambitu, they procured the banishment of Hypsaeus himself for bribery in his consular canvass. Although he had been an active partizan of Pompey's, his patron deserted him. He had thrown himself at Pompey's feet, as he was going from the bath to the supper-table; but Pompey rejected his entreaties, and waived him off with " Away; you will spoil my supper !" (Cic. Att. 3.8, pro Flacc. 9; Ascon. in Cic. Milon. p. 31, 36; Schol. Bob.pro Mil. p. 281, id. in Or. de Aer. al. Mil. 341, Orelli; Cic. fraym. p. 456, vol. iv. Orelli; Appian, App. BC 2.24; Plut. Pomp. 55; V. Max. 9.5.3; Liv. Epit. 107.) [W.B.D]