User:Appietas/Publius Licinius Crassus Dives (aedilis c.110 BC)

P. Licinius Crassus Dives tr.pl.ca.113, aed.cur.ca.110  (ca.150/45-80s)

filiation; P. f. P. n. because son of P. Crassus Dives Mucianus As such also thought to be brother-in-law of Gaius Gracchus, but probably not (see on the P. Crassi descended from P. Crassus cos.171).

tr.pl.ca.113 aedilis cur. ca.110 first presenter of extremely lavish Ludi Romani probably pr.ca.107  and failed to gain consulate because his years coincided with the Marian string. (cf. Cicero Brutus .... on the talented new man Billienus, homo per se magnus)

His career is documented by two independant items

He was author of the Licinian sumptuary law sometime 120s/104 BC (Lucilius died in 103 BC and commented on this lex Licinia in his poems) whether as tr.pl. or praetor - Macrobius Saturn.iii.17.7

As aedilis he was the first to hold highly elaborate and expensive public shows and Games, exploiting his great inherited wealth (Cic.de Off.ii.57), but in the process seems to have expended most of those resources, as Marcus Scaurus was to do (on an even larger scale) in 58 BC. According to Cicero (ibid.) his games were "a little" before those of L.Crassus orator, who as q.c.110, tr.pl.106, pr.c.98, cos.95 must have been aedilis sometime 104/101 BC. Thus Crassus' aedilitas belongs c.110/106 BC and his career may be estimated as tr.pl.c.110, aed.c.107.

Cicero de Off.ii.57: Although I realize that it already became ingrained in our citizen-state in the good old times that splendour in their aedilitates was demanded of the very best men. Thus both P. Crassus, rich (dives) not just in his surname but also in his resources, presented an extremely grand aedilician show, and L.Crassus a little later, with Q.Mucius the most restrained of all men, conducted an extremely magnificent aedilitas." etc.

We know that he missed a consulate (as did the spendthrift Marcus Scaurus in the 50s BC), probably because “his year” coincided with the Marian string of consulates and the subsequent back-log of talented and powerful candidates; but he should be assumed to have secured a praetorship ca.104/3 BC.

P. Licinius Crassus Dives pr.57 (born ca.100/97)

q.c.66/4 aedilis 60 quaesitor de vi, 59 pr.57 probably commanded Sicily or Crete-Cyrenaica 56-55/4

see Cic.ad Att.ii.13.2, 24.4, Val.Max.vi.9.12 & viii.6.1 Pliny NH xxxiii.133 (erroneously referred to P.Crassus Dives cos.205)

One of the 7 praetors of 57 BC who supported the recall of Cicero from exile (post red.ad sen.22-23). He seems to have inherited relative poverty from his father which turned his famous agnomen into something of a joke, Cicero to Atticus (...........

Undoubtedly son of the aedilis c.107, but possibly an adopted son if he is identical with Metellus Scipio's legate in Africa in 47-6 BC