Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi (consul 133 BC)
Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi (sometimes Censorinus) was a Roman consul in 133 BC, historian and representative of older Roman annalists. He was of plebeian origin.
Career
In 149 BC he held the office of tribune. During his tribunate he proposed the first law for the punishment of extortion in the provinces, Lex Calpurnia de Repetundis.[1] In 139 BC praetor, in 133 BC he was elected consul with Publius Mucius Scaevola when he achieved victory over slaves in Italy, but did not subdue them. Probably in 120 BC he was elected censor, therefore some ancient writers called him Censorinus. He was an opponent of Tiberius Gracchus.
Works
He was the author of the Annales, seven books about the history of Rome beginning with its establishment up to Piso's times. Livy considered him less reliable author than Fabius Pictor, because Piso tended to moralize, idealize history and succumb to tendentiousness. The early 19th-century iconoclastic historian, Barthold Georg Niebuhr, wrote that Piso was the first Roman historian to introduce systematic forgeries. Only fragments of his works have been preserved, from which we can deduce the simple style of his writing.
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Political offices | ||
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Preceded by Gaius Fulvius Flaccus and Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus Africanus |
Consul of the Roman Republic with Publius Mucius Scaevola 133 BC |
Succeeded by Publius Popillius Laenas and Publius Rupilius |
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