Quintus Varius Severus
Quintus Varius Severus (from 125 to 120 BC; died after 90 BC) was a politician in the late Roman Republic. He was also called Hybrida (of mixed race) because his mother was Spanish.[1][2]
Quintus Varius Severus Hybrida was from Sucro, Spain (in northern Spain, in the contemporary municipality of Candamo) and was the first senator of the Republic to come from the Spanish province. In 90 BC he was elected to the tribune. 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.[3] In practice it was used to prosecute those who had supported giving the Socii citizenship.[3] As a result many distinguished senators, among them Gaius Aurelius Cotta, were sent to exile.[3] In the following year after the application of the law, Varius himself was also convicted by the same law he wrote.[3]
References
- Valerius Maximus, 8,6,4. "Q. autem Varius propter obscurum ius ciuitatis Hybrida",
- Harry Thurston Peck Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1898)Online copy
- Sampson, Gareth C. (2013-09-09). The collapse of Rome : Marius, Sulla and the first Civil War, 91-70 BC. Barnsley, South Yorkshire. ISBN 9781473826854. OCLC 893910287.
Original texts
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 ISBN 3-515-05187-2.