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THRASEA PAETUS, PUBLIUS CLODIUS
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THRASEA PAETUS, PUBLIUS See also:CLODIUS , See also:Roman senator and Stoic philosopher, lived during the reign of See also:Nero. He was the See also:husband of See also:Arria the daughter of Arria (q.v.), See also:father-in-See also:law of Helvidius See also:Priscus, and a friend and kinsman of the poet See also:Persius. He was See also:born at See also:Patavium, and belonged to a distinguished and wealthy See also:family. The circumstances under which he came to See also:settle in See also:Rome are unknown. At first he was treated with See also:great See also:consideration by Nero, probably owing to the See also:influence of See also:Seneca, and became See also:consul in A.D. 56 and one of the keepers of the Sibylline books. In 57 he supported in the See also:senate the cause of the Cilician envoys, who came to Rome to accuse their See also:late See also:governor, Cossutianus See also:Capito, of See also:extortion. In 59 Thrasea first openly showed his disgust at the behaviour of Nero and the obsequiousness of the senate by retiring without voting after the See also:emperor's See also:letter justifying the See also:murder of See also:Agrippina had been read. In 62 he prevented the See also:execution of the See also:praetor Antistius, who had written a See also:libel upon the emperor, and persuaded the senate to pass a milder See also:sentence. Nero showed his displeasure by refusing to receive Thrasea when the senate went in a See also:body to offer its congratulations on the See also:birth of a princess. From this See also:time (63) till his See also:death in 66 Thrasea retired into private See also:life and did not enter the senate-See also:house again. But his death had been decided upon. The simplicity of his life and his adherence to Stoic principles were looked upon as a reproach to the frivolity and debaucheries of Nero, who " at last yearned to put Virtue itself to death in the persons of Thrasea and See also:Soranus " (See also:Tacitus). Cossutianus Capito, the son-in-law of See also:Tigellinus, who had never forgiven Thrasea for securing his condemnation, and Eprius See also:Marcellus undertook to conduct the See also:prosecution. Various charges were brought against him, and the senate, awed by the presence of large bodies of troops, had no alternative but to condemn him to death. When the See also:news was brought to Thrasea at his house, where he was entertaining a number of See also:friends, he retired to his chamber, and had the See also:veins of both his arms opened. The narrative of Tacitus breaks off at the moment when Thrasea was about to address See also:Demetrius, the Cynic philosopher, with whom he had previously on the fatal See also:day held a conversation on the nature of the soul. Thrasea was the subject of a See also:panegyric by Arulenus Rusticus, one of the tribunes, who had offered to put his See also:veto on the See also:decree of the senate, but Thrasea refused to allow him to throw his life away uselessly. Thrasea's own See also:model of life and conduct was See also:Cato of See also:Utica, on whom he had written a panegyric, one of See also:Plutarch's See also:chief authorities in his See also:biography of Cato. See Tacitus, See also:Annals (ed. See also:Furneaux), xiii. 49, xiv. 12, 48, xv.20-22, xvi.,21-35, containing a full See also:account of his trial and condemnation, Hist. ii. 91, iv. 5; Dio See also:Cassius lxi. 15, lxii. 26; See also:Juvenal 'v. 36; W. A. See also:Schmidt, Geschichte der Denk- and Glaubensfreikeit (See also:Berlin, 1847) ; See also:Merivale, Hist. of the See also:Romans under the See also:Empire, ch. 53; F. Hersche, Zwei Characterbilder, on See also:Diogenes of See also:Sinope and Paetus (See also:Lucerne, 1865) ; monographs by A. S. Hoitsema (See also:Groningen, 1852); and G. See also:Joachim (See also:Lahr, 1858); see also Pauly-Wissowa's Realencyclopadie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (1900), iv. pt. 1. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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