Publicola
or Popli'cula, or Popli'cola, a Roman cognomen, signified "one who courts the people" (from populus and colo,) and thus "a friend of the people." The form Poplicula or Poplicola was the most ancient. Poplicola generally occurs in inscriptions, but we also find Poplicula (Orelli, Inscr. No. 547). Publicola was the more modern form, and seems to have been the one usually employed by the Romans in later times. We find it in the best manuscripts of Livy, and in the palimpsest manuscript of Cicero's De Republica.
1. L. Gellius Publicola, was the contubernalis of the consul C. Papirius Carbo, B. C. 120 (Cic. Brut. 27). None of his family had held any of the higher offices of the state before him, and we do not know how he rose into distinction. He must, at all events, have been far advanced in years when he attained the consulship. The year of his praetorship is not mentioned; but after his praetorship he received the province of Achaia, with the title of proconsul; and during his government he offered, in mockery, his mediation to the rival philosophers of Athens, to reconcile their disputes (Cic. de Leg. 1.20). In B. C. 74 he defended the cause of M. Octavius Ligur, whose adversary was unjustly favoured by the praetor Verres (Cic. Ver. 1.48). In B. C. 72 Gellius was consul with Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus. The two consuls carried on war against Spartacus. Gellius at first defeated Crixus, one of the principal generals of Spartacus, near mount Garganus in Apulia, and Crixus lost his life in the battle. The two consuls then marched against Spartacus, who was attempting to escape across the Alps into Gaul. But they were no match for the leader of the gladiators. Spartacus attacked each of them separately, in the Apennines, and conquered them in succession. The two consuls then united their forces, but were again defeated in Picenum, by their indefatigable adversary. It was about this time that Pompey had brought the war in Spain to a conclusion; and as he had conferred the Roman citizenship upon many persons in that country, the consuls brought forward a law to ratify his acts (Cic. pro Balb. 8, 14). The consuls also proposed in the senate, that no one in the provinces should be accused of capital crimes in their absence. This was directed against Verres. (Cic. Verr 2.39).
Two years afterwards, B. C. 70, Gellius was censor with Lentulus, his former colleague in the consulship. They exercised their office with great severity, and expelled many persons from the senate, among whom was C. Antonius. It was during their censorship that Pompey, who was then consul, appeared as an ordinary eques at the solemn muster of the equites, and, amid the applause of the spectators, led his horse by the curie chair of the censors, and answered the ordinary questions. In B. C. 67 and 66 Gellius served as one of Pompey's legates in the war against the pirates, and had the charge of the Tuscan sea. In the first conspiracy of Catiline an attempt was made to obtain possession of his fleet, and, though the mutiny was put down, Gellius had a narrow escape of his life. In consequence of the personal danger he had previously incurred, he was one of the warmest supporters of Cicero in his suppression of the second conspiracy, and accordingly proposed that Cicero should be rewarded with a civic crown. From this time he appears as a steady friend of Cicero and the aristocratical party. In B. C. 59 he opposed the agrarian law of Caesar, and in B. C. 57 he spoke in favour of Cicero's recall from exile. He was alive in B. C. 55, when Cicero delivered his speech against Piso, but probably died soon afterwards. He was married twice. (Appian, App. BC 1.117; Plut. Crass. 9; Oros. 5.24; Flor. 3.20.10; Eutrop. 6.7; Liv. Epit. 96, 98; Plut. Pomp. 22; Cic. Clu. 42; Ascon. in Tog. Cand. p. 84, ed. Orelli; Appian, App. Mith. 95; Flor. 3.6.8; Cic. post Red. ad Quir. 7; Gel. 5.6 ; Cic. Att. 12.21; Plut. Cic. 26; Cic. in Pis. 3; V. Max. 5.9.1.) Orelli, in his Onomasticon Tullianum (vol. ii. p. 269), makes the L. Gellius, the contubernalis of Carbo, a different person from the consul of B. C. 72; but this is clearly an error, for Cicero speaks of the contubernalis of Carbo as his friend (Brut. 27), and that he reached a great age is evident from many passages. (Cic. Brut. 47; Plut. Cic. 26.)
2. L. Gellius Publicola, the son of the preceding by his first wife. He was accused of committing incest with his step-mother, and of conspiring against his father's life; but although the latter was nearly convinced of his guilt, he allowed him to plead his cause before a large number of senators, and, in consequence of their opinion, declared him innocent (V. Max. 5.9.1). After the death of Caesar in B. C. 44, Gellius espoused the republican party, and went with M. Brutus to Asia. Here he was detected in plotting against the life of Brutus but was pardoned at the intercession of his brother, M. Valerius Messalla. Shortly afterwards he entered into a conspiracy to take away the life of Cassius, but again escaped unpunished, through the intercession of his mother Polla. It would hence appear that Polla had been divorced from her first husband Gellius, and had subsequently married Messalla. Gellius, however, showed no gratitude for the leniency which had been shown him, but deserted to the triumvirs, Octavian and Antony; and while in their service he had coins struck, on which he appears with the title of Q. P., that is, Quaestor Propraetore (Eckhel, vol. v. p. 223). He was rewarded for his treachery by the consulship in B. C. 36. In the war between Octavian and Antony, he espoused the side of the latter, and commanded the right wing of Antony's fleet at the battle of Actium. As he is not mentioned again, he probably perished in the action. (D. C. 47.24; Liv. Epit. 122; D. C. 49.24; Plut. Ant. 65, 66; Vell. 2.85.)
3. Gellius Publicola, probably a brother of No. 1, is called a step-son of L. Marcius Philippus, consul B. C. 91, and a brother of L. Marcius Philippus, consul B. C. 56. According to Cicero's account he was a profligate and a spendthrift, and having dissipated his property, united himself to P. Clodius. As an intimate friend of the latter, he of course incurs the bitterest enmity of Cicero, whose statements with respect to him must, therefore, be received with caution. (Cic. pro Sext. 51, 52, in Vatin. 2, de Harusp. Resp. 27, ad A tt. iv. 3.2, ad Q. Fr. 2.1.1; Schol. Bob. pro Sext. p. 304, ed. Orelli.)
4. Gellius Publicola, had been the quaestor of Junius Silanus in Asia, in the reign of Tiberius, and was subsequently one of his accusers in A. D. 22. (Tac. Ann. 3.67.)
5. L. Gellius Publicola, one of the consules suffecti in the reign of Caligula, A. D. 40 (Fasti). (For an account of the Gellii see Drumann, Geschichte Roms, vol. ii. pp. 64-67.)
1. P. Valerius Volusi F. Publicola, the colleague of Brutus in the consulship in the first year of the republic. The account given of him in Livy, Plutarch, and Dionysius cannot be regarded as a real history. The history of the expulsion of the Tarquins and of the infancy of the republic has evidently received so many poetical embellishments, and has been so altered by successive traditions, that probably we are not warranted in asserting any thing more respecting Publicola than that he took a prominent part in the government of the state during the first few years of the republic. The common story, however, runs as follows. P. Valerius, the son of Volusus, belonged to one of the noblest Roman houses, and was a descendant of the Sabine Volusus, who settled at Rome with Tatius, the king of the Sabines. [Valeria Gens.] When Lucretia summoned her father from the camp, after Sextus Tarquinius had wrought the deed of shame, P. Valerius accompanied Lucretius to his daughter, and was by her side when she disclosed the villany of Sextus and stabbed herself to the heart. Valerius, in common with all the others who were present, swore to avenge her death, which they forthwith accomplished by expelling the Tarquins from the city. Junius Brutus and Tarquinius Collatinus were first elected consuls, B. C. 509; but as the very name of Tarquinius made Collatinus an object of suspicion to the people, he was obliged to resign his office and leave the city, and Valerius was chosen in his stead. Shortly afterwards the people of Veii and Tarquinii espoused the cause of the Tarquins, and marched with them against Rome, at the head of a large army. The two consuls advanced to meet them with the Roman forces. A bloody battle was fought, in which Brutus fell; and both parties claimed the victory, till a voice was heard in the dead of the night proclaiming that the Romans had conquered, as the Etruscans had lost one man more. Alarmed at this, the Etruscans fled, and Valerius entered Rome in triumph. Valerius was now left without a colleague; and as he began at the same time to build a house on the top of the hill Velia, which looked down upon the forum, the people feared that he was aiming at kingly power. As soon as Valerius became aware of these suspicions, he stopt the building; and the people, ashamed of their conduct, granted him a piece of ground at the foot of the Velia, with the privilege of having the door of his house open back into the street. When Valerius appeared before the people he ordered the lictors to lower the fasces before them, as an acknowledgment that their power was superior to his. Not content with this mark of submission, he brought forward laws in defence of the republic and in support of the liberties of the people. One law enacted that whoever attempted to make himself a king should be devoted to the gods, and that any one who liked might kill him; and another law declared, that every citizen who was condemned by a magistrate should have the right of appeal to the people. Now as the patricians possessed this right under the kings, it is probable that the law of Valerius conferred the same privilege upon the plebeians. By these laws, as well as by the lowering of his fasces before the people, Valerius became so great a favourite, that he received the surname of Publicola, or "the people's friend," by which name he is more usually known. As soon as these laws had been passed, Publicola held the comitia for the election of a successor to Brutus; and Sp. Lucretius Tricipitinus was appointed as his colleague. Lucretius, however, did not live many days, and accordingly M. Horatius Pulvillus was elected consul in his place. Each of the consuls was anxious to dedicate the temple on the Capitol, which Tarquin had left unfinished when he was driven from the throne; but the lot gave the honour to Horatius, to the great mortification of Publicola and his friends. [Pulvillus.] Some writers, however, place the dedication of the temple two years later, B. C. 507, in the third consulship of Publicola, and the second of Horatius Pulvillus. (Dionys. A. R. 5.21; Tac. Hist. 3.72.)
Next year, which was the second year of the republic, B. C. 508, Publicola was elected consul again with T. Lucretius Tricipitinus. In this year most of the annalists placed the expedition of Porsena against Rome, of which an account has been given elsewhere [Porsena]. In the following year, B. C. 507, Publicola was elected consul a third time with M. Horatius Pulvillus, who had been his colleague in his first consulship, or according to other accounts, with P. Lucretius; but no event of importance is recorded under this year. He was again consul a fourth time in B. C. 504 with T. Lucretius Tricipitinus, his colleague in his second consulship. In this year he defeated the Sabines and entered Rome a second time in triumph. Ilis death is placed in, the following year (B. C. 503) by the annalists (Liv. 2.16), probably, as Niebuhr has remarked, simply because his name does not occur again in the Fasti. Niebuhr supposes that the ancient lays made him perish at the lake Regillus, at which two of his sons were said to have been killed (Dionys. A. R. 6.12), and at which so many heroes of the infant commonwealth met their death. He was buried at the public expense, and the matrons mourned for him ten months, as they had done for Brutus. (Liv. 1.58, 59, 2.2, 6-8, 11, 15, 16; Dionys. A. R. 4.67, 5.12, &100.20, 21, 40, &c.; Plut. Public. passim; Cic. de Rep. 2.31 ; Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, vol. i. pp. 498, &100.525, 529, &100.558, 559.)
2. P. Valerius Volusi N. Publicola, P. F., son of the preceding, was consul for the first time B. C. 475, with C. Nautius Rutilus, conquered the Veientines and Sabines, and obtained a triumph in consequence. He was interrex in B. C. 462, and consul a second time in 460, with C. Claudius Sabinus Regillensis. In the latter year Publicola was killed in recovering the Capitol, which had been seized by Herdonius. The history of this event is related under Herdonius. (Liv. 2.52, 53, 15_19; Dionys. A. R. 9.28, 10.14_17.)
3. P. Valerius Publicola Potitus, consul B. C. 449, is represented by many writers as the son of the preceding, and the grandson of No. 1. The improbability of this account is pointed out under POTITUS, No. 2, to which family he probably belongs.
4. L. Valerius Publicola, was consular tribune five times, namely, in B. C. 394, 389, 387, 383, 380. (Liv. 5.26, 6.1, 5, 21, 27.)
5. P. Valerius Potitus Publicola, who was consular tribune six times, belongs to the family of the Potiti. [Potitus, No. 5.]
6. M. Valerius Publicola, magister equitum to the dictator C. Sulpicius Peticus in B. C. 358, and twice consul, namely, in B. C. 355, with C. Sulpicius Peticus, and in 353, with the same colleague. On the history of the three years above-mentioned see PETICUS. (Liv. 7.12, 17_19.)
7. P. Valerius Publicola, consul B. C. 352, with C. Marcius Rutilus, and praetor two years afterwards, B. C. 350, in which year he had the command of the army of reserve in the war against the Gauls. In B. C. 344 he was appointed dictator, for the purpose of celebrating games in consequence of the appearance of prodigies. (Liv. 7.21, 23, 28.)
8. P. Valerius Publicola, magister equitum to the dictator M. Papirius Crassus, in B. C. 332. (Liv. 8.17.)
consul A. D. 48, with A. Vitellius. (Tac. Ann. 11.23.)
or Poplicŏla, Publius Valerius. A Roman who took a prominent part in the expulsion of the Tarquins, and who was therefore elected consul with Brutus (B.C. 509) and in three other years (B.C. 508, 507, 504). He did much to secure the rights of the plebeians, and secured the passage of a law giving to every citizen who was condemned by a magistrate the right of appeal to the people. He died in B.C. 503, and was mourned for ten days by the Roman matrons (Livy, i. 58; ii. 2- 16; Dionys.iv. 67; v. 12, 40; Plut. Publ.).