Helvidius Priscus

Gaius Helvidius Priscus († 75 ) was a Stoic philosopher and politician, who held high public offices of the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius to that of Vespasian.

Life

Gaius Helvidius Priscus was the son of Primipilaris from the in Samnium ( Central Italy ) town Cluviae. One of the early offices of the direction taken by him cursus honorum counted his bursary, which he held under Emperor Claudius in the nearby province of Achaea in southern Greece. As Legionslegat in Syria him fell in 51 AD, the task to intervene in the prevailing turmoil in Armenia. Under Emperor Nero, he was 56 AD tribune of the people, and sought in this function to occur at auctions hardening by access.

For his second wife took Helvidius Priscus Fannia, the daughter of Publius Clodius Thrasea Paetus. Like him, he was respected for his passionate and courageous republicanism. His declared sympathy for Brutus and Cassius, as well as his involvement in the trial of his father resulted in 66 AD to his banishment to Apollonia. Fannia accompanied him into exile. Up to Nero's death, he lived in Macedonia.

After Galba AD 68 Helvidius ' had caused return, he complained immediately to Eprius Marcellus, the accuser of his father Thrasea Paetus, but dropped the lawsuit when it became clear that a condemnation of Marcellus would have also affected a number of senators. He also took care of the burial of Galba. As an elected praetor he dared to oppose Vitellius in the Senate, and then later when he was in office ( in 70 AD), he was in opposition to Vespasian that should be left to manage the finances at the discretion of the Senate. He suggested to restore the Capitol, which had been destroyed by the conflagration under Nero at public expense. Vespasian was greeted by him with his real name; he recognized him in his edicts as Praetor not as emperor.

Finally, Gaius Helvidius Priscus was, who was considered significant and principled speakers, banished because of his abusive behavior against Vespasian a second time and a short time later on the orders of the Emperor executed (75 AD). His life was written on behalf of his widow Fannia, who had followed him in his second exile, from Herennius Senecio in the form of a eulogy - which led AD to the death of the author at the request of the Emperor Domitian end 93.

The same fate befell the rest his eponymous son, who had allegedly allowed in AD 93, to mock Domitian in a play.