Vibulenus Agrippa

:"For others with this surname, see Agrippa (disambiguation)."Vibulenus Agrippa was a Roman knight of the Equestrian rank who was accused of some crime, probably treason, before the senate in the final years of the reign of Tiberius, in 36 AD.Citation | last = Smith | first = William | author-link = William Smith (lexicographer) | contribution = Agrippa, Vibulenus | editor-last = Smith | editor-first = William | title = Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology | volume = 1 | pages = 77 | publisher = Little, Brown and Company | place = Boston | year = 1867 | contribution-url = http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0086.html ] His case is often mentioned to highlight the frequency with which ordinary citizens were being executed in that time, and for the novelty of the case's outcome: Vibulenus faced his accusers in the senate and swallowed poison that he had brought with him in a ring. [Tacitus, "Annales" vi. 40] [Cassius Dio, lviii. 21]

Undeterred, the lictors rushed his body to the prison (the "tullianum") and hanged or strangled him anyway, but he was already dead. [cite book | last = Lynam | first = Robert | authorlink = | coauthors = John Tahourdin White | title = The History of the Roman Emperors: From Augustus to the Death of Marcus Antoninus | publisher = Simpkin, Marshall & Co. | date = 1850 | location = London | pages = 204-205 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=hcZE7kMPVTcC | doi = | id = | isbn = ] Unlike an execution, this sort of pre-emptive suicide prevented, at least in theory, the state or his accusers from claiming a share of his property, [cite book | last = Edwards | first = Catharine | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Death in Ancient Rome | publisher = Yale University Press | date = 2007 | location = New Haven | pages = 246 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=Ioq6GmIyLQIC | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-300-11208-4] [cite book | last = Plass | first = Paul | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = The Game of Death in Ancient Rome: Arena Sport and Political Suicide | publisher = University of Wisconsin Press | date = 1995 | location = Madison | pages = 95 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=O2VxRfd68F4C | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-299-14574-3] and allowed the suicide to be buried, provided they died before being convicted. [cite book | last = Levick | first = Barbara | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Tiberius the Politician | publisher = Routledge | date = 1999 | location = | pages = 188-189 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=YwrA3Zjzfc0C | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-415-21753-9] Tacitus does not record whether Agrippa's mock execution in the "tullianum" was sufficient to satisfy the letter of the law and allow confiscation of his property.

References