Quintus Minucius Thermus (fl. 74–43 BC) was a Roman politician.
He belonged to a long-established senatorial family.[1] His father, of the same name, had been a mint officer in 103 BC, and a war councilor in 89 BC during the Social War.[2] The younger Thermus entered the Senate with his election as quaestor in 75 or 74 BC, and his name appears on a decree of the Senate inscribed at the Greek town of Oropos, dated 73 BC.[3][4] In 62 BC, having been elected tribune of the plebs, Thermus cooperated with his colleague Cato in forcibly opposing a bill by the praetor Julius Caesar to reassign responsibility for the reconstruction of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus to Pompey.[5] The attempt to overcome Cato and Thermus' veto triggered violent clashes and a senatus consultum ultimum before order was restored to the city.[6]
Thermus held the office of praetor at some unknown date, perhaps c. 60–58 BC or possibly as late as 53 BC.[7] From 51 to 50 BC, he was prorogued to Asia pro praetore and successfully administered the province, so much that even Cicero sent him letters with his compliments.[8][9]
During Caesar's civil war, still holding imperium,[10] he attempted to defend Iguvium (modern Gubbio) from Caesar's invasion of Italy, but his raw recruits deserted before the Caesarian advance under Curio, forcing him to retreat.[11][12]
In 43 BC he was one of several envoys sent by the Senate to negotiate with Sextus Pompeius in Sicily.[13]
Endnotes
edit- ^ Brennan, p. 886 n. 376.
- ^ Brennan, p. 569; Crawford, pp. 324–325.
- ^ Brennan, p. 569.
- ^ Ryan, p. 307.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2006, p. 143.
- ^ Frolov, Roman M. (2017). "Better than (when) a Magistrate? Caesar's Suspension from Magisterial Functions in 62 BC". Mnemosyne. 70 (6): 978. doi:10.1163/1568525X-12342265. ISSN 0026-7074. JSTOR 26572883.
- ^ Brennan, p. 570; Broughton, p. 238; Münzer, col. 1972.
- ^ Smith, William, ed. (1867). "Thermus, Minucius 6". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 3. John Murry. p. 1097.
- ^ Brennan, p. 538.
- ^ Morrell, p. 219 n. 107.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2006, p. 388.
- ^ Broughton, p. 262.
- ^ Broughton, p. 351.
References
edit- Brennan, T. Corey (2000). The Praetorship in the Roman Republic Volume 2: 122 to 49 BC. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511460-4.
- Broughton, T. Robert S. (1952). The Magistrates of the Roman Republic Volume II: 99 B.C.–31 B.C. New York: American Philological Association.
- Crawford, Michael H. (2001) [1974]. Roman Republican Coinage I. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-07492-4.
- Goldsworthy, Adrian (2006). Caesar: Life of a Colossus. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-13919-8.
- Morrell, Kit (2017). Pompey, Cato, and the Governance of the Roman Empire. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-875514-2.
- Münzer, Friedrich (1932), "Minucius 67", Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (RE, PW), volume 15, part 2, columns 1972–1974.
- Ryan, F.X. (1995). "Two Senators in 73 B.C.". Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. 108: 306–308. JSTOR 20189618.