MARCUS

See also:

• AEMILIUS, PAULUS (PAOLO Ea111.io) (d. 1529)

AEMILIUS

See also:

• SCAURUS, MARCUS AEMILIUS (c. 163-88 B.C.)
• SCAURUS, QUINTUS TERENTIUS

SCAURUS  , his son, served during the third Mithradatic War (74-61 B.C.) as quaestor to Pompey, by whom he was sent to Judaea to settle the quarrel between Hyrcanus and Aristobulus . Scaurus decided in favour of the latter, who was able to offer more money . On his arrival in Syria, Pompey reversed the decision, but, ignoring the charge of bribery brought against Scaurus, left him in command of the district . An incidental campaign against Aretas, king of the Nabataeans, was ended by the payment of 300 talents by Aretas to secure his possessions . This agreement is represented on coins of Scaurus—Aretas kneeling by the side of a camel, and holding out an olive branch in an attitude of supplication . As curule aedile in 58, Scaurus celebrated the public games on a scale of magnificence never seen before . Animals, hitherto unknown to the Romans, were exhibited in the circus, and an artificial lake (euripus) was made for the reception of crocodiles and hippopotamuses . One of the greatest curiosities was a huge skeleton brought from Joppa, said to be that of the monster to which Andromeda had been exposed . A wooden theatre was erected for the occasion, capable of holding 8o,000 spectators . In 56 Scaurus was praetor, and in the following year governor of Sardinia . On his return to Rome (54) he was accused of extortion in his province . Cicero and five others (amongst them the famous Q .

Hortensius) undertook his defence, and, although there was no doubt of his guilt, he was acquitted . During the same year, however (according to some, two years later, under Pompey's new law), Scaurus was condemned on a charge of illegal practices when a candidate for the consulship . He went into exile, and nothing further is heard of him . See Josephus, Antiq. xiv . 3-5, Bell . Jud. i . 7; Appian, Syr . 51, Bell. civ. ii . 24; Pliny, Nat . Hist. xxxvi . 24; Cicero, Pro Sestio, 54, fragments of Pro Scauro, numerous references in the Letters; Asconius, Argumentum in Scaurum . See also, for both the above, AEMIL1us (Nos .

14o, 141) in Pauly-Wissowa's Realencyclopadie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, i. pt . 1 . (1894), and

Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, s.v . SCAURUS .