Quintus Lutātius Catulus

 

(kăch'ʊləs) , family of ancient Rome, of the Lutatian gens. Caius Lutatius Catulus was consul in 242 B.C. He won the great Roman naval victory over Carthage off the Aegates (modern Aegadian Isles) that ended the First Punic War. Quintus Lutatius Catulus, d. 87 B.C., was consul in 102 B.C. His colleague in the consulship was Marius, with whom he went north to oppose a Germanic invasion. He had to retreat before the Cimbri until Marius returned from Gaul. The two then defeated the Cimbri near Vercelli in 101 B.C. He later opposed Marius in the Social War and favored Sulla. Proscribed by the Marians, he either committed suicide or was killed. He was the patron of a literary circle and was himself a writer and a philosopher. Cicero praises his oratory. His son, also Quintus Lutatius Catulus, d. c.60 B.C., was consul in 78 B.C. He opposed the constitutional changes sought by Marcus Lepidus (d. 77 B.C.; see under Lepidus), and when Lepidus led a revolt, Catulus and Pompey defeated him. Catulus was censor in 65 B.C. He was the leader of the archconservative group. He led the minority opposing the conferring of unusual powers on Pompey by the Manilian Law in 66 B.C., and he was one of the bitterest opponents of Julius Caesar.

For a poet, see Catullus

Quintus Lutatius Catulus Caesar (Latin: Q·LVTATIVS·C·F·CATVLVS·CAESAR) was a Roman general of the gens Lutatius and was a consul with Gaius Marius in 102 BC. His name was originally Sextus Julius Caesar, and he was Julius Caesar's father's first cousin.

As general

In the war against the Cimbri and Teutones he was sent to defend the passage of the Alps but found himself compelled to retreat across the Po River, his troops having been reduced to a state of panic. But the Cimbri were defeated on the Raudine plain, near Vercellae, by the united armies of Catulus Caesar and Marius.

When the chief honour for victory over the Cimbri was given to Marius, Catulus Caesar became his bitter opponent. He sided with Lucius Cornelius Sulla in the civil war, was included in the proscription list of 87, and when Marius declined to pardon him, committed suicide.

As author

He was distinguished as an orator, poet and prose writer, and was well versed in Greek literature. He is said to have written the history of his consulship and the Cimbrian War after the manner of Xenophon; two epigrams by him have been preserved, one on Quintus Roscius the celebrated actor (Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Nat. Deorum, I. 28), the other of an erotic character, imitated from Callimachus (Aulus Gellius xix. 9).

As builder

Catulus Caesar was a man of great wealth, which he spent in beautifying Rome. Two buildings were known as "Monumenta Catuli": the temple of Fortuna Huiusce Diei, to commemorate the day of Vercellae, and the Porticus Catuli, built from the sale of the Cimbrian spoils.

Marriage and issue

He married Servilia and their son, Quintus Lutatius Catulus, figured prominently in Roman politics as a consul and censor near the end of the Republic.

Sources

• Plutarch, Life of Marius, and Life of Sulla
• Appian, B.C. i. 74
• Vell. Pat. ii. 21
• Florus iii. 21
• Val. Max. vi. 3, ix. 13
• Cicero, De Oratore, iii, 8
• Cicero, Brutus, 35.

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Preceded by Lucius Aurelius Orestes and Gaius Marius

Consul of the Roman Republic with Gaius Marius 102 BCE

Succeeded by Manius Aquillius and Gaius Marius

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