Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi (consul 133 BC)

Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi (sometimes Censorinus) was a Roman consul in 133 BC, historian and representative of older Roman annalists. He was of plebeian origin.

In 149 BC held the office of tribune. During his tribunate he proposed the first law for the punishment of extortion in the provinces, "Lex Calpurnia de Repetundis" [Cic. Brut. 27, Verr. iii. 84, iv. 25, de Off. ii. 21] . In 139 BC praetor, in 133 BC he was elected consul with Publius Mucius Scaevola when he achieved victory over slaves in Italy, but did not subdue them. Probably in 120 BC he was elected censor, therefore some ancient writers called him "Censorinus". He was opponent of Tiberius Gracchus.

He was author of the "Annales", seven books about history of the Rome beginning by its establishment up to Piso's times. However, according to Livy, he is considered less reliable author than Fabius Pictor, because Piso tended to moralize, idealize history and succumb to tendentiousness. According to German historian Barthold Georg Niebuhr was Piso the first Roman historian to introduce systematic forgeries. Only fragments of his works have been preserved, from which we can deduce simple style of his writings.

References

ee also

* Lucius Cassius Hemina
* Quintus Fabius Pictor

External links

* [http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/2706.html Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology: L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi]