Gaius Calvisius Sabinus (consul 39 BC)

Gaius Calvisius Sabinus was a consul of the Roman Republic in 39 BC under the Second Triumvirate. He and his consular colleague Lucius Marcius Censorinus had been the only two senators who tried to defend Julius Caesar when his assassins struck on 15 March 44 BC,[1] and their consulship under the triumvirate is taken as a recognition of their loyalty.[2] An inscription, described by Ronald Syme as "one of the most remarkable inscriptions ever set up in honour of a Roman senator," praises Calvisius for pietas, his sense of duty or devotion.[3] As a military officer, Calvisius is notable for his long service and competence, though he was not without serious defeats.[4]

  1. ^ Nicolaus of Damascus, Vita Caesaris 26 (Greek text with Latin translation by Müller); Ronald Syme, Sallust (University of California Press, 1964), p. 228 online, The Roman Revolution (Oxford University Press, 1939, 2002), p. 221 online, and The Augustan Aristocracy (Oxford University Press, 1986), p. 33; Anthony Everitt, Augustus (Random House, 2007), p. 127 online; T. Rice Holmes, The Roman Republic and the Founder of the Empire (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1928), p. 344 online.
  2. ^ Ronald Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy (Oxford University Press, 1986), p. 33 online.
  3. ^ Syme, Sallust, p. 228, note 51, and "Senators, Tribes and Towns," Historia 13 (1964), p. 113. Syme rejects attempts to identify the inscriptional Calvisius as the son or grandson of the consul of 39 BC.
  4. ^ Syme, Augustan Aristocracy, pp. 33, 87, and 95 online.