Sicinius

• I C. Sicinius, Cic. Brut. 76, 263.—
• II Cn. Sicinius, Cic. Brut. 60, 216 et saep.

1. L. Sicinius Bellutus, the leader of the plebeians in their secession to the Sacred Mount in B. C. 494, which led to the institution of the office of tribune of the plebs. Sicinius was chosen one of the first tribunes, the original number of whom is variously stated in the ancient authorities (Liv. 2.32. 33, 3.54; Dionys. A. R. 6.45, 70, &c., 89; Ascon. in Cornel. p. 76, ed. Orelli; Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, vol. i. p. 617.) Dionysius further relates (7.14) that Sicinius was plebeian aedile in B. C. 492, when he joined the tribune Sp. Icilius in attacking the senate on account of the dearness of provisions, and that he was elected tribune a second time in B. C. 491, on account of his vehement hostility to the patricians. The proceedings of his second tribunate are related at length by Dionysius (7.33_39).

2. C. Sicinius, tribune of the plebs, B. C. 470, when the tribunes are said to have been for the first time elected in the comitia tributa. He and his colleague M. Duilius accused Ap. Claudius before the people, on account of his opposing the agrarian law. In many editions of Livy he is called Siccius, and Alschefski, the last editor of Livy, reads Cn. Siccius. (Liv. 2.58, 61.)

3. L. Sicinius Dentatus, also named Siccius in the manuscripts and editions of several ancient authors, is called by A. Gellius and others the Roman Achilles. He is said to have fought in a hundred and twenty battles, to have slain eight of the enemy in single combat, to have received forty-five wounds on the front of his body, the scars of which remained, to have earned honorary rewards innumerable, and to have accompanied the triumphs of nine generals, whose victories were principally owing to his valour. He was tribune of the plebs in B. C. 454, in which year he brought to trial before the people T. Romilius, the consul of the preceding year, and procured his condemnation. After the defeat of the Romans in the campaign against the Sabines, in the second decemvirate, B. C. 450, since the troops were discontented with the government, and therefore did not fight with their usual valour, Sicinius endeavored to persuade them to secede to the Sacred Mount, as their forefathers had done. His death was accordingly resolved upon by the decemvirs, and Q. Fabius, who commanded the army, sent him along with a band of assassins to view the country. In a lonely spot they fell upon him and slew him, but not until he had destroyed most of the traitors. His comrades, who were told that he had fallen in an ambush of the enemy, discovered the foul treachery that had been practised upon him, by seeing him surrounded by Roman soldiers, who had evidently fallen by his hand. The decemvirs endeavoured to pacify the soldiers by burying Sicinius with great pomp, and they succeeded to some extent ; but men did not forget or forgive the treacherous deed. Further Information

Dionys. A. R. 10.48_52, 11.25_27; Liv. 3.43; Gel. 2.11; Plin. Nat. 7.27; V. Max. 2.3.24; Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, vol. ii. p. 346.

4. C. Sicinius, was elected tribune of the plebs after the secession of the plebeians to the Aventine, and the abolition of the decemvirate, in B. C. 449. He is called by Livy a descendant of the Scinius who was first created tribune on the Sacred Mount [No. 1]. (Liv. 3.54.)

5. T. Sicinius, tribune of the plebs B. C. 395, brought forward a bill for removing part of the Roman people to Veii, and thus making, as it were, two capitals of the republic. (Liv. 5.24.)

6. L. Sicinius, tribune of the plebs B. C. 387 brought before the people an agrarian law respecting the ager Pomptinus. (Liv. 6.6.)

7. Cn. Sicinius, was aedile in B. C. 185, and was an unsuccessful candidate for the praetorship in the following year, to supply the place of C. Decimius, who had died while in office. He was, however, successful in B. C. 183, in which year he was elected praetor, and obtained Sardinia as his province. (Liv. 39.39, 45.)

8. Cn. Sicinius, one of the triumvirs for founding a colony at Luna in B. C. 177, is probably the same person either as No. 7 or No. 9. (Liv. 41.13.)

9. Cn. Sicinius, praetor B. C. 172, was sent into Apulia, when praetor designatus, to destroy the locusts which had alighted in Apulia in enormous crowds. On the division of the provinces among the praetors he obtained the jurisdictio inter peregrinos. On the breaking out of the war with Perseus, at the beginning of the next year, his imperium was continued, and Macedonia was as-signed to him as his province, where he was to remain till his successor arrived. (Liv. 42.9, 10, 27.)

10. C. Sicinius, sent as ambassador, with two colleagues, to the Gauls, in B. C. 170. (Liv. 43.5.)

11. C. Sicinius, the grandson of Q. Pompeius, censor B. C. 131, by his daughter, died before he had held any higher office in the state than the quaestorship, but obtained a place in Cicero's Brutus (100.76), as one of the Roman orators.

12. Cn. or L. Sicinius, tribune of the plebs B. C. 76, was the first magistrate who ventured to attack the law of Sulla, which deprived the tribunes of their former power. He abused the leaders of the aristocracy very freely, and especially C. Curio. His only qualification as an orator, says Cicero, was being able to make people laugh. It has been erroneously inferred, from a passage in Sallust, that he was murdered by the ruling party. (Cic. Brut. 60 ; Pseudo-Ascon. in Divin. p. 103, ed. Orelli; Quint. Inst. 11.3.129; Plut. Crass. 7 ; Sall. Hist. 3.22; Drumann, Geschichte Roms, vol. iv. p. 385.)

13. Sicinius, mentioned by Cicero in B. C. 51. (Cic. Att. 5.4.3.)

(1) L. Sicinius Bellūtus, the leader of the plebeians in their secession to the Sacred Mount in B.C. 494. He was chosen one of the first tribunes.

(2) L. Sicinius Dentātus, called by some writers the Roman Achilles, from his personal prowess. He was tribune of the plebs in 454. He was put to death by the decemvirs in 450, because he endeavoured to persuade the plebeians to secede to the Sacred Mount. The persons, nearly a hundred in number, sent to assassinate him fell upon him in a lonely spot, but he killed most of them before they succeeded in despatching him. Valerius Maximus (iii. 2, 24) enumerates the military honours won by Sicinius during the forty years of his service in the army. He had seen 120 battles, received 14 civic crowns, 3 mural crowns, 8 gold crowns, 180 gold chains (torques), 160 bracelets (armillae), 18 spears (hastae purae), 25 sets of horse-trappings, and bore the scars of 40 wounds on his breast.