Gaius Asinius Pollio (consul 40 BC)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gaius Asinius Pollio ( 76/75 BC-AD 5) was a Roman orator, poet and historian.

Roman orator, poet and historian whose contemporary history, although lost, provided much of the material for Appian and Plutarch. Born into a leading Marrucine family his grandfather had been an Italian general in the Social War (sometimes called the Marsic War)- Pollio moved in the literary circle of Catullus and entered public life in 56 by supporting the policy of Lentulus Spinther.

In 54 BC he impeached unsuccessfully Gaius Cato, who in his tribunate (56 BC) had acted as the tool of the triumvirs. In the civil war between Caesar and Pompey Pollio sided with Caesar, was present at the Battle of Pharsalus (48 BC), and commanded against Sextus Pompeius in Spain, where he was at the time of Caesar's assassination.

He subsequently threw in his lot with Mark Antony. In the division of the provinces, Gaul fell to Antony, who entrusted Pollio with the administration of Gallia Transpadana (the part of Cisalpine Gaul between the Po and the Alps). In superintending the distribution of the Mantuan territory amongst the veterans, he used his influence to save from confiscation the property of the poet Virgil.

In 40 BC he helped to arrange the peace of Brundisium by which Octavian (Augustus) and Antony were for a time reconciled. In the same year Pollio entered upon his consulship, which had been promised him in 43 BC. It was at this time that Virgil addressed the famous fourth eclogue to him.

The following year Pollio conducted a successful campaign against the Parthini, an Illyrian people who adhered to Marcus Junius Brutus, and celebrated a triumph on October 25. The eighth eclogue of Virgil was addressed to Pollio while engaged in this campaign.

From the spoils of the war he constructed the first public library at Rome, in the Atrium Libertatis, also erected by him (Pliny, Nat. hist. xxxv. 10), which he adorned with statues of the most celebrated heroes.

Pollio was the father of Gaius Asinius Gallus.

Roman coinage of him can be seen at [1]

[edit] References

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

• The article also includes some material from the 1964 Encyclopedia Britannica

Preceded by Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus and Lucius Antonius

Consul of the Roman Republic with Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus 40 BC

Succeeded by Gaius Calvisius Sabinus and Lucius Marcius Censorinus