Publius Valerius Publicola

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Publius Valerius Publicola (or Poplicola, his surname meaning "friend of the people") (– 503 BC) was a Roman consul, the colleague of Lucius Junius Brutus in 509 BC, traditionally considered the first year of the Roman Republic. According to Livy and Plutarch, his family, whose ancestor Volusus had settled in Rome at the time of King Titus Tatius, was of Sabine origin. He took a prominent part in the expulsion of the last king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, and though not originally chosen as the colleague of Brutus he soon took the place of Tarquinius Collatinus.

On the death of Brutus, which left him sole consul, the people began to fear that he was aiming at kingly power. To calm their apprehensions he discontinued the building of his house on the top of the Velian Hill, and also gave orders that the fasces should be lowered whenever he appeared before the people. He further introduced two laws to protect the liberties of the citizens, one enacting that whosoever should attempt to make himself a king might be slain by any man at any time, while another provided an appeal to the people on behalf of any citizen condemned by a magistrate. He died in 503 BC, and was buried at the public expense, the matrons mourning him for ten months.

A collection of 85 essays about the US Constitution, called The Federalist Papers, were written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison during 1787-1788 under the allonym Publius in honor of his role in establishing the Roman Republic.

[edit] See also

• Lapis Satricanus

[edit] References

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

The Works of Plutarch
The Works	Parallel Lives | The Moralia | Pseudo-Plutarch
The Lives	Alcibiades and Coriolanus1 • Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar • Aratus of Sicyon & Artaxerxes and Galba & Otho2 • Aristides and Cato the Elder1 Crassus and Nicias1 • Demetrius and Antony1 • Demosthenes and Cicero1 • Dion and Brutus1 • Fabius and Pericles1 • Lucullus and Cimon1 Lysander and Sulla1 • Numa and Lycurgus1 • Pelopidas and Marcellus1 • Philopoemen and Flamininus1 • Phocion and Cato the Younger Pompey and Agesilaus1 • Poplicola and Solon1 • Pyrrhus and Gaius Marius • Romulus and Theseus1 • Sertorius and Eumenes1 Tiberius Gracchus & Gaius Gracchus and Agis & Cleomenes1 • Timoleon and Aemilius Paulus1 • Themistocles and Camillus
The Translators	John Dryden | Thomas North | Jacques Amyot | Philemon Holland | Arthur Hugh Clough
view • talk • edit	1 Comparison extant 2 Four unpaired Lives