Quintus Minucius Thermus (governor of Asia)

Quintus Minucius Thermus (fl. 74–43 BC) was a Roman politician.

He belonged to a long-established senatorial family.[1] His father, of the same name, had been a mint officer in 103 BC, and a war councilor in 89 BC during the Social War.[2] The younger Thermus entered the Senate with his election as quaestor in 75 or 74 BC, and his name appears on a decree of the Senate inscribed at the Greek town of Oropos, dated 73 BC.[3][4] In 62 BC, having been elected tribune of the plebs, Thermus cooperated with his colleague Cato in forcibly opposing a bill by the praetor Julius Caesar to reassign responsibility for the reconstruction of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus to Pompey.[5] The attempt to overcome Cato and Thermus' veto triggered violent clashes and a senatus consultum ultimum before order was restored to the city.[6]

Thermus held the office of praetor at some unknown date, perhaps c. 60–58 BC or possibly as late as 53 BC.[7] From 51 to 50 BC, he was prorogued to Asia pro praetore and successfully administered the province, so much that even Cicero sent him letters with his compliments.[8][9]

During Caesar's civil war, still holding imperium,[10] he attempted to defend Iguvium (modern Gubbio) from Caesar's invasion of Italy, but his raw recruits deserted before the Caesarian advance under Curio, forcing him to retreat.[11][12]

In 43 BC he was one of several envoys sent by the Senate to negotiate with Sextus Pompeius in Sicily.[13]

Endnotes

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  1. ^ Brennan, p. 886 n. 376.
  2. ^ Brennan, p. 569; Crawford, pp. 324–325.
  3. ^ Brennan, p. 569.
  4. ^ Ryan, p. 307.
  5. ^ Goldsworthy 2006, p. 143.
  6. ^ Frolov, Roman M. (2017). "Better than (when) a Magistrate? Caesar's Suspension from Magisterial Functions in 62 BC". Mnemosyne. 70 (6): 978. doi:10.1163/1568525X-12342265. ISSN 0026-7074. JSTOR 26572883.
  7. ^ Brennan, p. 570; Broughton, p. 238; Münzer, col. 1972.
  8. ^ Smith, William, ed. (1867). "Thermus, Minucius 6". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 3. John Murry. p. 1097.
  9. ^ Brennan, p. 538.
  10. ^ Morrell, p. 219 n. 107.
  11. ^ Goldsworthy 2006, p. 388.
  12. ^ Broughton, p. 262.
  13. ^ Broughton, p. 351.

References

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