Quintus Aelius Tubero was a
Stoic philosopher and a pupil of
Panaetius of Rhodes. He had a reputation for talent and legal knowledge. He might have been a tribune of the plebs in 130 BC. He also possibly became a
suffect consul in 118 BC.
Cicero spoke of his character in parallel to his oratorical style: "harsh, unpolished, and austere". Despite this, Cicero also calls him "a man of the most rigid virtue, and strictly conformable to the doctrine he professed."
He was the grandson of
Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus
Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus (c. 229 – 160 BC) was a Roman consul, consul of the Roman Republic, as well as a general, who conquered the kingdom of Macedon, Macedonia during the Third Macedonian War.
Family
Paullus' father was Luc ...
, Thus, he was both a cousin of
Marcus Porcius Cato Licinianus Marcus Porcius Cato Licinianus (191–152 BC) was son of Cato the Elder by his first wife Licinia, and thence called ''Licinianus'', to distinguish him from his half-brother, Marcus Salonianus, the son of Salonia. He was distinguished as a jurist. ...
and also the nephew of
Scipio Aemilianus
Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus (185 BC – 129 BC), known as Scipio Aemilianus or Scipio Africanus the Younger, was a Roman general and statesman noted for his military exploits in the Third Punic War against Carthage and durin ...
. This association, alongside the approval of Panaetius, gave him access to the
Scipionic Circle.
When Scipio Aemilianus died mysteriously in 129 BC, Tubero was responsible for the funeral arrangements. With Cynic-like aesthetics, he arranged Punic couches with goatskin covers and Samian pottery. The lack of public grandeur, allegedly, lost him the election for
praetorship.
Panaetius wrote an epistle to Tubero concerning the endurance of pain.
[Cicero, De Finibus, iv. 9, 23] A disciple of Panaetius (Hecaton of Rhodes) dedicated a treatise called ''De Officiis'' to Tubero.
References
Bibliography
; Modern sources
*
T. Robert S. Broughton, ''The Magistrates of the Roman Republic'', American Philological Association, 1952–1960.
{{Authority control
Roman-era Stoic philosophers