person
Publius Rupilius
also: P. Rupilium, P. Rupili
P. Rupilius, consul 132 BC, conqueror of the First Sicilian Slave War (132 BC), then organiser of Sicily by the lex Rupilia, the still-current provincial charter regulating jurisdiction between Sicilians and between Sicilians and Romans (Verr. 2.2.32; 2.3.125). One of the founding figures of the province.
Reading notes
- Laelius, On Friendship §73 Scipio could make Publius Rupilius consul
Publius Rupilius reached the consulship of 132 BC through Scipio's backing, but his brother Lucius could not be brought through to the same honor: Laelius's example of the limits of even a great patron's power.
- Tusculan Disputations §4.40 It is written in Fannius that Publius Rupilius bore his brother's rejection for the consulship hard
Publius Rupilius (consul 132 BC) is said by the historian Gaius Fannius to have died of grief at his brother Lucius's failure to win the consulship. Cicero uses it to show that distress admits no safe 'measure.'