Gaius Furnius (Tribune)

Gaius Furnius was tribune of the plebs in 50 BCE (Cic. "ad Att." v. 2, 18), and a friend and correspondent of Cicero. ("Ad Fam." x. 25, 26.)

Cicero trusted to the exertions of Furnius, while tribune, to obtain for him his recall at the end of his first year as proconsul of Cilicia, and, after his return, a supplicatio or thanksgiving. ("Ad Fam." viii. 10, ix. 24, xv. 14.) A clause, however, which Furnius inserted in his plebiscite, making the recall depend­ent on the Parthians remaining quiet until the month of August, 50 BCE, was unsatisfactory to Cicero, since July was the usual season of their inroads. (Cic. "ad Att." vi. 1.) Furnius, as tribune, was opposed to the unreasonable demands of the oligarchical party at Rome, that Julius Caesar should im­mediately and unconditionally resign his proconsulship of Gaul. (Cic. "ad Fam." viii. 10.) After the breaking out of the civil war, he was sent by Caesar with letters to Cicero in March, 49 BCE, (Cic. "ad Att." ix. 6, 11, vii. 19.) Cicero recom­mended Furnius to Lucius Munatius Plancus, at that time, 43 BCE, proconsul in Transalpine Gaul ("Ad Fam." x. 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 11, 12), and he was legatus to Plancus during the first war be­tween Antony and Augustus, and until after the Battle of Philippi, 42 BCE. During the war be­tween Antony and the senate, Furnius apprised Cicero of the movements and sentiments of the Roman legions and commanders in Gaul and Spain, but his letters have not been preserved. ("Ad Fam." x.) In the Perusine War, 42-41 BCE, Furnius took part with Lucius Antonius. He defended Sentinum in Umbria against Augustus, and shared the sufferings of the "Perusina Fames." Furnius was one of three officers commissioned by L. Antonius to negotiate the surrender of Perusia, and his reception by Augustus was such as to awaken in the Antonian party suspicions of his fidelity. (Appian, "B. C." v. 30, 40, 41; Dion Cass. xlviii. 13, 14.) In 35 BCE he was prefect of Asia Minor, under M. Antony, where he took prisoner Sextus Pompeius, who had fled thither after his defeat by Agrippa, 36 BCE. (Appian, "B. C." v. 137-42.) After the Battle of Actium, 31 BCE, Furnius, through the mediation of his son Gaius Furnius, was reconciled to Augustus (Senec. "De Benef." ii. 25), and received from him the rank of a consular senator (Dion Cass. lii. 42), and was afterwards appointed one of the supplementary consuls, 29 BCE, which is the first time the name of Furnius appears on the consular Fasti. He was prefect of Hither Spain in 21 BCE. (Dion Cass. liv.5; Flor. iv. 12.) Furnius is probably men­tioned by the author, "De Oratoribus" (c. 21) among the speakers whose meagre and obsolete diction rendered their works impossible to read without an inclination to sleep or smile.

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