office
legatus
legate
also: legate, legatio libera, free legation
A legatus was a deputy or staff officer attached to a magistrate or province; a legatio libera (free legation) was a nominal commission granted to a senator so that he could travel on private business with the dignity and privileges of a public envoy.
Reading notes
- Ad Atticum 4.2 §6 one of Pompey's legates
A legatus was a senior deputy appointed to a commander's staff; the post let a senator travel on public business while keeping his standing. Cicero took a free-floating legateship under Pompey's grain command so as to keep his options open.
- Ad Familiares 3.3 §1 your legate Q. Fabius Vergilianus
A legatus was a senior deputy appointed to assist a governor or general with military and administrative authority; Vergilianus served Appius in this role in Cilicia.
- Ad Familiares 12.21 §1 appointed legate to Africa on a free legation
A legatio libera (free legation) was a fiction by which a senator travelling on private business was given the status and escort of a public envoy. Cicero himself denounced the abuse, yet here secures one for his friend.
- Ad Quintum Fratrem 1.1 §10 legates
Legati were senior senatorial deputies assigned to assist a provincial governor; men of standing who shared in the dignity and the responsibility of the command.
- Ninth Philippic §1 his report on the embassy
The three-man embassy (Sulpicius, L. Calpurnius Piso, and L. Marcius Philippus) was sent in early 43 BC to demand that Antony lift the siege of Mutina. Sulpicius died on the journey before it could be carried through.
- For Quintus Ligarius §2 went out as legate
A legatus was a senior deputy serving under a provincial governor; Ligarius accompanied the proconsul C. Considius Longus to the province of Africa before the civil war began.