Lucius Licinius Crassus

Lucius Licinius Crassus (140 BC-91 BC) was a Roman consul. He was considered the greatest Roman orator of his day, by his pupil Cicero.

He became consul in 95 BC. During his consulship a law was passed (the lex Licinia Mucia) requiring all but citizens to leave Rome, an edict which provoked the Social War. In 92 BC he was elected censor with Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus.

Licinius Crassus was married to Mucia, younger daughter of the Consul Quintus Mucius Scaevola Augur by his wife Laelia, daughter of Gaius Laelius Sapiens. They had two surviving daughters:
*Licinia Crassa Prima or Major married to the Praetor Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio, a descendant of Scipio Africanus and Scipio Nasica, and by whom she had issue
*Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, eventually Pontifex Maximus adopted their son, who then became known as Metellus Scipio.

According to both Plutarch and Cicero, a Licinia, daughter of this man, was married to Gaius Marius the Younger; the married appears to have taken place around 95 BC, though the date is pure supposition by scholars, based on our reconstruction of a political alliance between Crassus and Gaius Marius, the two fathers, the fact that men could not marry before they turned 14, but that leading families tended to marry early to cement alliances. Nothing is know of Licinia after Marius the Younger's death in 82 BC, although in the time of Caesar a Pseudo-Marius appeared in Rome claiming to be their son - Cicero seems to have accepted the possibility that he might indeed be a Marius, though he tried not to involve himself in a politically difficult situation.