A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

372 PISO. PISO.
Festus, p. 326, ed. MUller, where he is erroneously the son of No. 6, and father-in-law of the dictator
called Mlarczs instead of Caius.) The establish- Caesar. Asconius says (in Cic. Pis. p. 3, ed.
ment of these games by their ancestor was corn- Orelli) that this Piso belonged to the family of the
memorated on coins by the Pisones in later times. Frugi; but this is a mistake, as Drumann has
Of these coins, of which a vast number is extant, shown (Gesch. Roms, vol. ii. p. 62). Our prina specimen is alnexed. The obverse represents cipal information respecting Piso is derived from
the head of Apollo, the reverse a horseman riding several of the orations of Cicero, who paints him
at full speed, in allusion to the equestrian games, in the blackest colours; but as Piso was both a
which formed part of the festival. Who the political and a personal enemy of the orator, we
L. Piso Frugi was that caused them to be struck, must make great deductions from his description,
cannot be determined. (Eckhel, vol. v. p. 158.) which is evidently exaggerated. Still,after making
2. C. CALPURNITS C. F. C. N. PISO, son of every deduction, we know enough of his life to conNo. 1, was praetor B. C. 186, and received Further vince us that he was an unprincipled debauchee and
Spain as his province. He continued in his pro- a cruel and corrupt magistrate, a fair sample of his
vince as propraetor in B. c. 185, and on his return noble contemporaries, neither better nor worse than
to Rome in 184 obtained a triumph for a victory the majority of them. He is first mentioned in B. C.
he had gained over the Lusitani and Celtiberi. In 59, when he was brought to trial by P. Clodius
B. C. 181 he was one of the three commissioners for plundering a province, of which he had the
for founding the colony of Graviscae in Etruria, administration after his praetorship, and he was
and in B. C. 180 he was consul with A. Postumius only acquitted by throwing himself at the feet of
Albinus. Piso died during his consulship; he the judges (Val. Max. viii 1. ~ 6). In the same
was no doubt carried off by the pestilence which year Caesar married his daughter Calpurnia.
was then raging at Rome, but the people suspected Through his influence Piso obtained the consulship
that he had been poisoned by his wife Quarta for the following year B. C. 58, having for his colHostilia, because her son by a former marriage, league A. Gabinius, who was indebted for the
Q. Fulvius Flaccus, succeeded Piso as consul suf- honour to Pompey. The new consuls were the
fectus. (Liv. xxxix. 6, 8, 21, 30, 31, 42, xl. 29, mere instruments of the triumvirs, and took care
35, 37.) that the senate should do nothing in opposition to
3. L. CALPURNIUS (PISO), probably a younger the wishes of their patrons. When the triumvirs
son of No. 1, was sent as ambassador to the had resolved to sacrifice Cicero, the consuls of
Achaeans at Sicyon. (Liv. xxxii. 19.) course threw no obstacle in their way; but Clo4. L. CALPURNIUS C. F. C. N. PISO CABSONINUS. dius, to make sure of their support, promised Piso
His last name shows that he originally belonged the province of Macedonia, and Gabinius that of
to the Caesonia gens, and was adopted by one of Syria, and brought a bill before the people to that
the Pisones, probably by No. 3, as he is indicated effect, although the senate was the constitutional
in the Fasti as C. F. C. N. This Piso brought body to dispose of the provinces. The banishment
dishonour on his family by his want of ability and of Cicero soon followed. Piso took an active part
of energy in war. He was praetor in B. C. 154, and in the measures of Clodius, and joined him in
obtained the province of Further Spain, but was celebrating their victory. Cicero accuses him of
defeated by the Lusitani. He was consul in B. C. transferring to his own house the spoils of Cicero's
148 with Sp. Postumius Albinus, and was sent to dwellings. The conduct of Piso in support of
conduct the war against Carthage, which he carried Clodius produced that extreme resentment in the
on with such little activity that the people became mind of Cicero, which he displayed against Piso on
greatly discontented with his conduct, and he was many subsequent occasions. At the expiration of
superseded in the following year by Scipio. (Ap- his consulship Piso went to his province of Macepian, Hisp. 56, Punic. 110-112.) donia, where he remained during two years, B. C.
5. L. CALPURNIUS L. F. C. N. P1SO CAESONI- 57 and 56, plundering the province in the most
NUS, son of No. 4, was consul B. C. 112 with shameless manner. In the latter of these years
M. Livius Drusus. In B. C. 107 he served as the senate resolved that a successor should be
legatus to the consul, L. Cassius Longinus, who appointed, and accordingly, to his great mortificawas sent into Gaul to oppose the Cimbri and their tion and rage, he had to resign the government in
allies, and he fell together with the consul in the B.C. 55 to Q. Ancharius. In the debate in the
battle, in which the Roman army was utterly de- senate, which led to his recal and likewise to that
feated by the Tigurini in the territory of the of Gabinius, Cicero had an opportunity of giving
Allobroges. [LoNGINUS, No. 5.] This Piso was vent to the wrath which had long been raging
the grandfather of Caesar's father-in-law, a circum- within him, and accordingly in the speech which
stance to which Caesar himself alludes in recording he delivered on the occasion, and which has come
his own victory over the Tigurini at a later time. down to us (De Provinciis Consularibus), he poured
(Caes. B. G. i. 7, 12; Oros. v. 15.) forth a torrent of invective against Piso, accusing
6. L. CALPURNIUS PISO CAESONINUS, son of him of every possible crime in the government of
No. 5, never rose to any of the offices of state, and is his province. Piso on his return, B. C. 55, comonly known from the account given of him by Cicero plained in the senate of the attack of Cicero, and
in his violent invective against his son [No. 7]. justified the administration of his province, whereHe had the charge of the manufactory of arms at upon Cicero reiterated his charges in a speech (In
Rome during the Marsic war. He married the Pisonem), in which he pourtrays the whole public
daughter of Calventius, a native of Cisalpine Gaul, and private life of his enemy with the choicest
who came from Placentia and settled at Rome; words of virulence and abuse that the Latin lanand hence Cicero calls his son in contempt a semi- guage could supply. Cicero, however, did not
Placentian. (Cic. in Pis. 36, 23, 26, 27.) [CAL- venture to bring to trial the father-in-law of Caesar.
VENT1US.] In B. C. 50 Piso was censor with Ap. Claudius
7. L. CAP URNIUS C. F. L. N. PISO CAESONINUS, Pulcher, and undertook this office at the request of