Piso

, a celebrated family at Rome, which was a branch of the Calpurnians, descended from Calpus the son of Numa. Before the death of August us, 11 of this family had obtained the consulship, and many had been honoured with triumphs, on account of their victories in the different provinces of the Roman empire. Of this family the most famous were――Lucius Calpurnius, who was tribune of the people about 149 years before Christ, and afterwards consul. His frugality procured him the surname of Frugi , and he gained the greatest honours as an orator, a lawyer, a statesman, and an historian. He made a succe ful campaign in Sicily, and rewarded his son, who had behaved with great valour during the war, with a crown of gold, which weighed 20 pounds. He composed some annals and harangues, which were lost in the age of Cicero. His style was obscure and inelegant.――Caius, a Roman consul, A.U.C. 687 who supported the consular dignity against the tumults of the tribunes, and the clamours of the people. He made a law to restrain the cabals which generally prevailed at the election of the chief magistrates.――Cneus, another consul under August us. He was one of the favourites of Tiberius, by whom he was appointed governor of Syria, where he rendered himself odious by his cruelty. He was accused of having poisoned Germanic us; and when he saw that he was shunned and despised by his friends, he destroyed himself, A.D. 20.――Lucius, a governor of Spain, who was a a inated by a peasant, as he was travelling through the country; the murderer was seized and tortured, but he refused to confe the causes of the murder.――Lucius, a private man accused of having uttered seditious words against the emperor Tiberius. He was condemned, but a natural death saved him from the hands of the executioner.――Lucius, a governor of Rome for 20 years, an office which he discharged with the greatest justice and credit. He was greatly honoured by the friendship of August us, as well as of his succe or, a distinction he deserved, both as a faithful citizen and a man of learning. Some, however, say that Tiberius made him governor of Rome, because he had continued drinking with him a night and two days, or two days and two nights, according to Pliny. Horace dedicated his poem, De Arte Poeticâ , to his two sons, whose partiality for literature had distinguished them among the rest of the Romans, and who were fond of cultivating ♦ poetry in their leisure hours. Plutarch , Cæsar .— Pliny , bk. 18 , ch. 3 .――Cneus, a factious and turbulent youth, who conspired against his country with Cat i line. He was among the friends of Julius Cæsar.――Caius, a Roman who was at the head of a celebrated conspiracy against the emperor Nero. He had rendered himself a favourite of the people by his private as well as public virtues, by the generosity of his behaviour, his fondne of pleasure with the voluptuous, and his austerity with the grave and the reserved. He had been marked by some as a proper person to succeed the emperor; but the discovery of the plot by a freed man who was among the conspirators, soon cut him off, with all his partisans. He refused to court the affections of the people and of the army, when the whole had been made public; and instead of taking proper measures for his preservation, either by proclaiming himself emperor, as his friends advised, or by seeking a retreat in the distant provinces of the empire, he retired to his own house, where he opened the veins of both his arms, and bled to death.――Lucius, a senator who followed the emperor Valerian into Persia. He proclaimed himself emperor after the death of Valerian, but he was defeated and put to death a few weeks after, A.D. 261, by Valens, . ――Licimanus, a senator adopted by the emperor Galba. He was put to death by Otho’s orders.――A son-in-law of Cicero.――A patrician, whose daughter married Julius Cæsar. Horace. — Tacitus , Annals & Histories .— Valerius Maximus. — Livy. — Suet on i us. — Cicero , de Officiis , . — Plutarch , Cæsar , . ――One of the 30 tyrants appointed over Athens by Lysander. ♦ ‘poety’ replaced with ‘poetry’