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The ''lex Manilia'' (Law of Manilius) was a Roman law passed in 66 BC granting
Pompey Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey ( ) or Pompey the Great, was a Roman general and statesman who was prominent in the last decades of the Roman Republic. ...
the military command in the East against
Mithridates VI of Pontus Mithridates or Mithradates VI Eupator (; 135–63 BC) was the ruler of the Kingdom of Pontus in northern Anatolia from 120 to 63 BC, and one of the Roman Republic's most formidable and determined opponents. He was an effective, ambitious, and r ...
.


Background

Previously, the war against Mithridates (commonly known as the
Third Mithridatic War The Third Mithridatic War (73–63 BC), the last and longest of the three Mithridatic Wars, was fought between Mithridates VI of Pontus and the Roman Republic. Both sides were joined by a great number of allies, dragging the entire east of th ...
) had been conducted by Lucius Licinius Lucullus. By the winter of 68–7 BC, Lucullus had ejected Mithridates from his kingdom of Pontus and had invaded the Armenian empire of Mithridates' ally,
Tigranes the Great Tigranes II, more commonly known as Tigranes the Great (''Tigran Mets'' in Armenian language, Armenian; 140–55 BC), was a king of Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity), Armenia. A member of the Artaxiad dynasty, he ruled from 95 BC to 55 BC. Under hi ...
. However, Lucullus was forced to halt his advances when his discontented legions (the 'Fimbrian Legions', many of whom who had been in the East since the command of
Gaius Flavius Fimbria Gaius Flavius or Gaius Flavius Fimbria may refer to: * Gaius Flavius Fimbria (cavalry prefect) Gaius Flavius Fimbria (c. 115 – 85 BC) was a Roman general. Born to a recently distinguished senatorial family, he became one of the most violent a ...
in 86 BC) mutinied under the leadership of
Publius Clodius Pulcher Publius Clodius Pulcher ( – 18 January 52 BC) was a Roman politician and demagogue. A noted opponent of Cicero, he was responsible during his plebeian tribunate in 58 BC for a massive expansion of the Roman grain dole as well as Cic ...
. Mithridates and Tigranes took advantage and renewed their offensives, Mithridates invading Pontus while Tigranes invaded
Cappadocia Cappadocia (; , from ) is a historical region in Central Anatolia region, Turkey. It is largely in the provinces of Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde. Today, the touristic Cappadocia Region is located in Nevşehir ...
. Mithridates inflicted a crushing defeat on Roman forces under Lucullus' legate Triarius at the
Battle of Zela The Battle of Zela was fought in 47 BC between Julius Caesar and Pharnaces II of the Kingdom of Pontus. The battle took place near Zela (modern Zile), which is now a small hilltop town in the Tokat province of northern Turkey. The battle en ...
in summer 67 BC. Lucullus was promptly superseded in the command against Mithridates by the consul for 67 BC, Manius Acilius Glabrio, though Lucullus remained in the East for a while nonetheless. However Glabrio, realising the difficulty of the situation, lingered in
Bithynia Bithynia (; ) was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey), adjoining the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, and the Black Sea. It bordered Mysia to the southwest, Paphlagonia to the northeast a ...
, allowing Mithridates to recover the whole of his former kingdom by the end of 67 BC.


''lex Manilia''

The law, proposed in 66 BC by the
tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the Tribune of the Plebs, tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs ac ...
Gaius Manilius in response to the escalating crisis in Asia Minor, recalled the three commanders presently in the East (Lucullus in Pontus, Glabrio in Bithynia, and Quintus Marcius Rex in
Cilicia Cilicia () is a geographical region in southern Anatolia, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Cilician plain (). The region inclu ...
). It granted all their legions and the entire conduct of the eastern war to Pompey, who was conveniently already present in the East completing his command against the pirates (as granted to him by the '' lex Gabinia'' of 67 BC). Unlike the ''lex Gabinia'' of the previous year, which had been almost universally opposed in the Senate, Manilius' proposal was supported by many senators and several eminent ex-consuls. These included
Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus (consul 79 BC) Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus (c. 130 BC – 44 BC), was a politician and general of the Roman Republic and a member of the plebeian branch of the gens Servilii. He was elected consul for 79 BC with Appius Claudius Pulcher as his consular co ...
, Gaius Scribonius Curio, Gaius Cassius Longinus Varus (consul 73 BC), and Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus (consul 72 BC). The proposal was also supported by
Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...
, at the time serving as
praetor ''Praetor'' ( , ), also ''pretor'', was the title granted by the government of ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected ''magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to disch ...
, in his extant speech '' De Imperio Cn. Pompei''. Opposition to the law was largely confined to
Quintus Hortensius Quintus Hortensius Hortalus (114–50 BC) was a Roman lawyer, an orator and a statesman. Politically he belonged to the Optimates. He was consul in 69 BC alongside Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus. His nickname was ''Dionysia'', after a fam ...
and
Quintus Lutatius Catulus Quintus Lutatius Catulus (149–87 BC) was a Roman consul, consul of the Roman Republic in 102 BC. His consular colleague was Gaius Marius. During their consulship the Cimbri and Teutons, Teutones marched south again and Cimbrian War, threatened ...
, whose arguments against granting Pompey the command are addressed at length by Cicero in his speech.


Aftermath

Manilius' law was passed in the '' Comitia Tributa'' without any of the violence that had occurred the year before with Gabinius' proposal. Pompey soon moved against Mithridates and Tigranes, and had defeated both by the end of 65 BC (though Mithridates was not killed until 63 BC). As for Manilius, he was prosecuted twice upon leaving his office in December 66 BC. On the first occasion, he was defended from a charge of extortion (''de repetundis'') by Cicero, but the charges were dropped in January 65 BC amid disturbances and violence. However, on the second occasion he was condemned on the charge of '' maiestas'' and exiled.G.E.F. Chilver and R. Seager, entry for 'Manilius, Gaius', in ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary'' (Oxford: 2016)


See also

*
Roman law Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (), to the (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I. Roman law also den ...
*
List of Roman laws This is a partial list of Roman laws. A Roman law () is usually named for the sponsoring legislator and designated by the adjectival form of his ''gens'' name ('' nomen gentilicum''), in the feminine form because the noun ''lex'' (plural ''leges'' ...


Notes

{{Pompey Roman law 66 BC 1st century BC in law 1st century BC in the Roman Republic