person
Lucius Vettius
Vettius
also: Vettius, that informer of ours
A professional informer (index) at the center of the 59 BC "Vettius affair," who alleged a plot to assassinate Pompey and denounced a string of optimates. The story collapsed as incoherent and Vettius soon died in prison.
Reading notes
- Ad Atticum 2.24 §2 That Vettius, that informer of ours
The Vettius affair: L. Vettius, a professional informer, claimed in 59 BC a plot to assassinate Pompey. The murky scheme --- a planted dagger, a staged arrest, contradictory denunciations of Caesar's opponents --- collapsed, and Vettius soon died in prison; Cicero reads it as a fabrication engineered to discredit the optimates.