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Quintus Servilius Caepio

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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Roman general, consul 106 B.C. During his year of office, he brought forward a law by which the jurymen were again to be chosen from the senators instead of the equites (Tacitus, Ann. xii. 60). As governor of Gallia Narbonensis, he plundered the temple of the Celtic Apollo at Tolosa (Toulouse), which had joined the Cimbri. In 105, Caepio suffered a crushing defeat from the Cimbri at Arausio (Orange) on the Rhone, which was looked upon as a punishment for his sacrilege; hence the proverb Aurum Tolosanum habet, of an act involving disastrous consequences. In the same year he was deprived of his proconsulship and his property confiscated; subsequently (the chronology is obscure, see Mommsen, History of Rome, bk. iv. ch. 5) he was expelled from the senate, accused by the tribune Norbanus of embezzlement and misconduct during the war, condemned and imprisoned. He either died during his confinement or escaped to Smyrna.

Livy, Epit. 67; Valerius Maximus iv. 7.3; Justin xxxii. 3; Aulus Gellius iii. 9.