M. Sergius Silus (40)

vol. II A p.1719-1720

40) M. Sergius Silus

The main source of the story of his life is the speech he made in 557 = 197, used by Varro, <page break 1719/1720> which puts him together with L. Siccius Dentatus (see respective article) (Plin. n. h. VII 101-106; from that the merging of the names into L. Sergius Dentatus Fest. 190), and in the extract of Varro contained in Plin. (loc. cit. 104-106) (from that, Solin. 1, 104 f. p. 26, 13ff. Mommsen²). Sergius had sustained various wounds in his first military service before the wars with Hannibal, in 536 = 218 he entered the battlefield a second time during the uprising of the celts in the Po valley, <10> was wounded many times, and even lost his right hand. However, he still took part in a further military campaign (una die quater pugnavit Solin. in a supplement to Plin.) and even in wars as well, with his left hand and with an iron right hand, like Götz from Berlichingen. He also ended up captured by the enemy twice, though he managed to escape both times, and the second time it was despite strict custody for twenty months (Plin. with a few exaggerations of the details). <20> On the denarii of his grandson nr. 42, Sergius was honoured as a horseman in a full set of armour, with the decapitated head of an enemy celt. In 557 = 197, he was praetor (Liv. XXXII 27, 7; only his cognomen here), and indeed urbanus, which meant that he was also the stand-in for the consul if he wasn’t there (ibid. 28, 2. 31, 6. XXXIII 21, 9, where the story of him being praetor peregrinus is simply a mix-up, 24, 4); <30> when he was denied the right to take on their priestly duties because of his injury (cf. with regards to that Mommsen St.-R. I 494, 1), he defended it in every speech (Plin.). He was Catiline’s great grandfather (Plin.; Groebe’s doubt in Drumann GR² V 411, 4 is void, considering similar cases; cf. Röm. Adelsparteien 306f. 406).

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