Quintus Varius Severus (from 125 to 120 BC; died after 90 BC) was a politician in the late

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...

. He was also called Hybrida (of mixed race) because his mother was from Hispania.Harry Thurston Peck ''Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities'', (New York: Harper and Brothers, 189
"Varius Hybrida"
/ref> Quintus Varius Severus Hybrida was from Sucro, Hispania (in eastern Iberian peninsula, in the contemporary municipality of Albalat de la Ribera) and was the first senator of the Republic to come from the province of Hispania. In 90 BC he was elected to 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 ...

. He wrote a law, the '' lex Varia'', in order to punish all those who had “assisted” those who took up arms against the Roman people. In practice it was used to prosecute those who had supported giving the

Socii The ''socii'' ( ) or ''foederati'' ( ) were confederates of ancient Rome, Rome and formed one of the three legal denominations in Roman Italy (''Italia'') along with the core Roman citizens (''Cives Romani'') and the extended ''Latin Rights, Lat ...

citizenship. As a result, many distinguished senators, among them Gaius Aurelius Cotta, were sent to exile. In the following year after the application of the law, Varius himself was also convicted by the same law he wrote.

References

Original texts

Appian, Die Bürgerkriege, Buch 1,37Cicero, Brutus 304-305

Literature

*Ernst Badian, "Quaestiones Variae", ''Historia'' 4 (1969), pp. 447–491. *Erich S. Gruen, "The Lex Varia", ''Journal of Roman Studies'', 55 (1965), p. 59–73. *Jochen Martin, ''Die Popularen in der Geschichte der späten Republik''. Dissertation, Freiburg i. Br. 1965. * Lukas Thommen, ''Das Volkstribunat der späten römischen Republik''. Stuttgart, 1989 . {{DEFAULTSORT:Varius Severus, Quintus 2nd-century BC Romans 1st-century BC Romans Tribunes of the plebs

Quintus Quintus is a male given name derived from ''Quintus (praenomen), Quintus'', a common Latin language, Latin forename (''praenomen'') found in the culture of ancient Rome. Quintus derives from Latin word ''quintus'', meaning "fifth". Quintus is ...

120s BC births 1st-century BC deaths Year of birth uncertain Year of death unknown