Faustus Cornelius Sulla 377

vol. V p.1515-1517

377) Faustus Cornelius Sulla

Caecilia Metella, the fourth wife of the dictator L. Sulla (vol. III p.1234f. nr. 134), bore him twins at some point before the year 668 = 86, since Plut. Sull. 22, 2 reports for this year: Μετέλλα μόλις διακλέψασα ἑαυτὴν καὶ τοὺς παῖδας, <40> while he ibid. 34, 5 gives the impression that they were born during the dictatorship, which wouldn’t fit in with the son’s career path. Their father named the children Faustus and Fausta, in accordance with the name Felix he had taken on himself; Faustus was an old praenomen (auct. de praen. 4) and was only used as such by the son, not as a cognomen, like careless authors claim (cf. Mommsen Röm. Forsch. I 34 note 50). <50> The only inscription we have of him gives him the his father’s official name used in Greek, as well as the one which comes from their patron goddess Aphrodite (IGS III 143: [‘Ο] δᾶμος Ἐλατέων Φαῦστο[ν Κορνἠλιον | Λευκίου] υἱὸν Σύλλαν Ἐπαφρόδιτον ἀ[ντιταμίαν καὶ | ἀ]ντιστράτηγον τὸν ἑατοῦ ε[ὐ] εργέταν θεοῖ[ς]; about the name, cf. Marx Neue Jahrbücher für Philol. III 1899, 543). <60> At his father’s death in 676 = 78, Faustus was still a child (Plut. Sulla 37, 4: νεῶτατος Appian. bell. civ. I 106), and L. Lucullus became his guardian (Plut. Lucull. 4, 6). An anecdote from his time in school is more characteristic for C. Cassius than it is for him (Val. Max. III 1, 3. Plut. Brut. 9, 1). The reaction to Sulla’s rule lead once again to the demand that Faustus should be held responsible for the money his father had taken for himself from the treasury, <page break 1515/1516> and should replace it (Ascon. Cornel. p. 65); he only escaped a legal charge from a tribune in the year 688 = 66 with the help of the court (Cic. Cluent. 94), and the rogation of Servilius Rullus in the year 691 = 63 was a threat to him all over again (Cic. de leg. agr. I 12, cf. Mommsen Strafr. 765, 1). <10> Around the year 690 = 64, he was in charge of the mind, and on his coins he honoured his father’s successes (inscription: Faustus Mommsen Münzwesen 623 nr. 263). In the following years, he served as a military tribune under Pompey; at the storming of the Temple of Jerusalem, he and his men were the first up the walls, and he received rich rewards for that (Joseph. ant. XIV 69; bell. I 149. 154). However, his acquisition of the valuable headdress of Mithridates shows that he still understood he could take spoils (Plut. Pomp. 42, 2). <20> Of course, he was in need of money since according to his father’s will, he still had to give games to the people; in the year 691 = 63, he turned to his friends in Rome for the recruitment of gladiators (Cic. Sulla 54f.) and gave the games in the year 694 = 60 with great splendour, catering for the people, and gifts for the citizens (Dio XXXVII 51, 4). He became augur before 697 = 57 (Dio XXXIX 17, 2) and quaestor 700 = 54; as quaestor, he provided for his step-brother M. Aemilius Scaurus, <30> who had been charged on account of extortion (Ascon. Scaur. p. 18. 25; cf. vol. I p.589), and printed coins to honour Pompey (Mommsen Münzw. 628 nr. 269), whose daughter he had married the year before (Suet. Caes. 27. Plut. Pomp. 47, 4; Caes. 14, 3). After Clodius’ murder in the year 702 = 52, he stood by his brother-in-law Milo (Ascon. Milon. p. 30), and was tasked with rebuilding the curia hostilia that had been expanded by his father, <40> which would be named after them in the future (Dio XL 50, 2f.; cf. XLIV 5, 2. Jordan Topogr. I 2, 253. 332). Faustus was in a large amount of debt, once he even had to auction off a large part of what he owned, including the valuable library left behind by his father (Cic. ad Att. IV 10, 1. Plut. Cic. 27, 2; apophth. Cic. 13), and after that the outbreak of the civil war was welcome to him, because he hoped he could save himself from his financial difficulties (Cic. ad Att. IX 11, 4). <50> Pompey’s plan to send him to Mauretania was thwarted (Caes. b. c. I 6, 3f.), but he did lead the recruitment of a legion, perhaps in lower-Italy (Cic. ad Att. VIII 3, 7. 12 A, 5), and he accompanied his father-in-law to the eastern battlefield, where he took place in the operations in Macedonia in Spring 706 = 48 (Dio XLI 51, 3 differing from other accounts; cf. vol. III p. 1227). Since he had now been quastor, he was proquaestor at the time, as Cic. ad Att. IX 1, 4 tells us, though in an inscription in Elatea from around this time (see above), he is also called propraetor. He fled from the defeat at Pharsalos over Patrae towards Africa (Dio XLII 13, 3) and from the defeat at Thapsus in April 708 = 46, he fled over Utica to Mauretania (b. Afr. 87, 8). He had it in mind to flee further to Spain with L. Afranius (vol. I p.170ff. nr. 6), <page break 1516/1517> but they fell into the hands of the Caesarianus P. Sittius, and after a few days they were killed by Caesar’s soldiers in a riot (b. Afr. 95, 1-3). According to Suet. Caes. 75, people believed that their murder happened without Caesar’s knowledge; according to Livy (ep. CXIV. Flor. II 13, 90. Eutrop. VI 23, 2. Oros. VI 16, 5) and Auct. de vir. ill. 78, 9 they were acting on his orders, but Livy’s epitomists also partially report that Pompeia, <10> Faustus’ wife, and her two children, were executed (Flor. Oros.), while the author of b. Afr. 95, 3, according to whom they accompanied Faustus, and Appian. bell. civ. II 100, according to whom they were caught in Utica, instead say that they were let free unharmed. Faustus’ whole life shows clearly that he was an insignificant man and was not very similar to his father. A joke, which he made about his sister, is told in Macrob. sat. II 2, 9, <20> his relationship with Cornelius Epicadus, his freedman, is mentioned in Suet. gramm. 12.

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This article is referenced by: Fausta (Cornelia) (436)