Ap. Claudius Pulcher 296

vol. III p.2848-2849

296) Ap. Claudius Pulcher

Probably the son of nr. 295. [from suppl. I p.320: We know that he was the son of nr. 295 by Cic. Scaur. 32, where nr. 295 is named as the grandfather of his son (297).] <page break 2848/2849> In charge of minting coins around 654 = 100 (Mommsen Münzwesen 561 nr. 177). He first put himself forward for aedile without success, although he was supported by his brother’s influence (Cic. Planc. 51), perhaps in the year 662 = 92, when his brother was consul (cf. nr. 302), and first became aedile a little later (Cic. har. resp. 26; cf. Borghesi Oeuvres II 178). In 665 = 89 he was praetor (Cic. Arch. 9). He was probably the Ap. Claudius who was in charge of an army in Campania with propraetorial power in 667 = 87, <10> but who was abandoned by his troops whom Cinna had won over for himself (Liv. ep. LXXIX). After the victory of the democrats, when he didn’t respond to the summons from a tribune of the plebs, he lost his power, he was exiled, and he was skipped over when the list of senators was being drawn up in 668 = 86 by the censor L. Marcius Philippus, his own nephew (Cic. de domo 83f.). <20> Sulla’s restorations brought him back again, and gave him the highest office in the city, since he was promoted to consul for the year 675 = 79 with P. Servilius Isauricus by Sulla (Fasti Cap. Chronogr. Idat. Chron. pasch. Cassiod. Cic. Cael. 33. Oros. V 22, 1. Schol. Gronov. p. 404 Or. Licinian. p. 38 Bonn. Appian. bell. civ. I 103). In the following year, he was sent to Macedonia by Sulla, but he was held back in Tarentum because of illness (Sall. hist. I 77 Kr. = I 127 Maur.). <30> Since Sulla died shortly after and inner turmoil set in, it is very possible that he turned back to the capital city again, and served as an interrex at the beginning of 676 = 78, before he went away into the province (Sall. hist. I 51, 22. Kr. = I 77, 22 Maur.). At the time, Macedonia was suffering greatly because of the invasions of the barbarian Thracian tribes at Rhodope; Appius struck back and fought against the Scordisci mostly successfully, and advanced far north. <40> In the middle of these battles, he met his death in 678 = 76 (Liv. ep. XCI. Flor. II 39, 6. Eutrop. VI 2, 1. Oros. V 23, 19. Ruf. Fest. 9, 2. Ammian. Marc. XXVII 4, 10; cf. Sall. hist. II 41 Kr. = II 80 Maur.), and his large family remained behind in poverty (Varro r. r. III 16, 2). He had been married to a Caecilia (see p.1235 nr. 135) and had three sons and three daughters (cf. nr. 297. 303, as well as P. Clodius Pulcher 48 and three Clodiae [66, 67, 72]). Stark Verh. d. Tüb. Philologenvers. (1876) 48ff. makes it seem very probable that he was the one who set up the ancestral portraits of the Claudii in the Temple of Bellona during his consulship (Plin. n. h. XXXV 12; cf. Münzer Quellenkritik der Naturgesch. des Plin. 125).

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This article is referenced by: Ap. Claudius Caecus (91), Ap. Claudius Pulcher (295), Ap. Claudius Pulcher (297), C. Claudius Pulcher (303), Ap. Claudius Sabinus Inregillensis (321), Claudia (386), Clodia (66), Clodia (67), Clodia (72)