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

406 PLAUTILLA. PLAUTIUS.
ploints of state policy, grinted all his requests, and between her marriage and exile, a statement which
virtually made over mnuch of the imperial authority it is extremely difficult to reconcile with the fact
into his hands. Intoxicated by these distinctions that a vast number of coins were struck in honour
Plautianus indulged in the most despotic tyranny; of this princess, not only in the city but in the
and perpetrated acts of cruelty almost beyond more distant provinces. She had a brother, Planubelief. His cupidity was boundless: no state, no tius, who shared her banishment and her fate.
province, no city escaped his exactions; in Rome (Dion Cass. lxxvi. 6, lxxvii. 1; Herodian, iii. 13.
he plundered all whose wealth excited his avarice, ~ 7, iv. 6. ~ 7; Eckhel, vol. vii. p. 225.) [ W. R.]
contrived the banishment or death of every one
who impeded or thwarted his schemes, and ventured to treat with contumely even the empress %
Domna and her sons. He reached the pinnacle of 9
his ambition when Severus in the year A. D. 202
selected his daughter Plautilla as the wife of
Caracalla, and on that occasion he presented the
bride with an outfit which a contemporary historian declares would have sufficed for fifty queens.
But even gratified ambition brought him no hap- COIN OF PLAUTILLA.
piness. His external appearance gave evidence of
a mind ill at ease: when seen in public he was PLAU/TIUS. 1. A comic poet, some of whose
ever deadly pale, and shook with nervous agi- comedies were erroneously ascribed to Plautus, as
tation, partly, says Dion Cassius who was himself we learn from Varro. (Gell. iii. 3.)
anu eye-witness of these things, from the irregu- 2. A. PLAUTIUS, was sent by the emperor Claularities of his life and diet, and partly from the dius in A. D. 43 to subdue Britain. As he is called
hopes by which he was excited, and the terrors both by Tacitus and Suetonius a man of consular
by which he was tormented. But the high rank, he is perhaps the same as the A. Plautius,
fortunes of this second Sejanus were short-lived. who was one of the consules suffecti in A. D. 29.
Having soon discovered the dislike cherished by Plautius remained in Britain four years, and subCaracalla towards both his daughter and himself, dued, after a severe struggle, the southern part of
and looking forward with apprehension to the the island. Vespasian, who was afterwards emdownfall which awaited him upon the death of the peror, served under him and distinguished himself
sovereign, he resolved to anticipate these threat- greatly in the war. In the first campaign Claudius
ened disasters by effecting the destruction of his himself passed over to Britain, and on his return
benefactor and of his son-in-law. His treachery to Rome celebrated a triumph for the victories
was discovered, he was suddenly summoned to which he pretended to have gained. Plautius
the palace, and there put to death in A. D. 203. came back to the city in A. D. 47, and was allowed
His property was confiscated, his daughter ban- by Claudius the unusual honour of an ovation; and
ished, and his name erased from the public monu- to show the favour in which he was held by the
ments on which it had been inscribed side by side emperor, the latter walked by his side both on his
with those of the emperor and the royal family. way to and his return from the Capitol. When subWe ought to remark that the treason of Plautianus sequently his wife Pomponia Graecina was accused
rests upon the testimony of Herodian, for Dion of religious worship unauthorised by the state, her
Cassius rather leans to the belief that this charge husband was granted the privilege of deciding
was fabricated by Caracalla for the ruin of an upon the case himself, according to the custom of
obnoxious favourite. (Dion Cass. lxxv. 14-16, the old Roman law. (Dion Cass. lx. 19-21, 30;
lxxvi. 2-9, lxxvii. 1; Herodian, iii. 13. ~ 7, iv. Suet. Claud. 24, Fesp. 4; Tac. Agr. 14, Amnno
6. ~ 7; Eckhel, vol. vii. p. 224.) [W. R.] xiii. 32).
PLAUTIA'NUS, QUINTILLUS, a senator 3. Q. PLAUTIUS, consul A.D. 36 with Sex.
of high rank, blameless life and retired habits, Papirius Allienus. (Dion Cass. lviii. 26; Tac.
who when far advanced in years was rashly put to Ann. vi. 40; Plin. H. N. x. 2.)
death by Septimius Severus upon some vague sus- 4. A. PLAUTIUS, a youth slain by Nero. (Suet.
picion. His last words have been preserved by Ner. 35.)
Dion Cassius (lxxvi. 7). [W. R.] 5. Son of Fulvius Plautianus [PLAUTIANUS],
PLAUTIL'LA, FU'LVIA, daughter of Plau- upon the downfall of his father was banished along
tianus [PLAUTIANUS] praefect of the praetorium with his sister Plautilla [PLAUTILLA] to Lipara,
under Septimius Severus, by whom she was selected where he was subsequently put to death by Caraas the bride of his eldest son. This union, which calla. (Dion Cass. lxxvi. 7, lxxvii. 1; Herodian
took place in A. D. 202, proved most unhappy, for iii. 1 3. ~ 7, iv. 6. ~ 7.)
Caracalla was from the first averse to the match, PLAU/TIUS, a Roman jurist, who is not menand even after the marriage was concluded virtually tioned by Pomponius, though he lived before Pomrefused to acknowledge her as his wife. Upon ponius. That he was a jurist of some note maybe
the disgrace and death of her father she was inferred from the fact that Paulus wrote eighteen
banished, first, it would appear, to Sicily, and Libri ad Plautium [PAuLus, JULIUS]. Javolenus
subsequently to Lipara, where she was treated also wrote five books ad Plautium or ex Plautio,
with the greatest harshness, and supplied with and Pomponius seven books. Plautius cited Casscarcely the necessaries of life. After the murder sius (Dig. 34. tit. 2. s. 8) and Proculus (Dig. 35.
of Geta in A. D. 212, Plautilla was put to death tit. 1. s. 43), and was cited by Neratius Priscus,
by order of her husband. According to the who wrote Libri ex Plautio [NERATIUS PRISCUS].
narrative of Dion Cassius, who represents her a Plautius therefore lived about the time of Vespawoman of most profligate life, a very short period, sian. (Grotius, Vitae Jurisconsult.; Zimmern,
not more, probably, thanll a few months, intervened Geschichte des RMln. Privatrechts, p. 322; Vatican,