Cossutianus Capito
Cossutianus Capito (fl. 1st century AD) was a
Career
Tacitus first mentions Capito following the trial and suicide of
After this incident he became the governor of
Capito had regained his senatorial rank by the year 62, when he reappears in Tacitus' work, with the help of his father-in-law the praetorian prefect Ofonius Tigellinus.[6] In that year he accused the praetor Antistius Sosianus of an act of treason, specifically writing and reciting scurrilous verses about the emperor Nero at a banquet hosted by Marcus Ostorius Scapula. Tacitus notes that this was the first occasion that anyone had been prosecuted for treason under Nero. Although Scapula claimed to have not heard the verses in question, a number of witnesses testified Sosianus had done so. Quintus Junius Marullus, the consul-elect, proposed that Sosianus should be deprived of his praetorship and executed; but once again Thrasea Paetus intervened against Capito, and convinced the Senate to pass a milder verdict of banishment to a desolate island.[7]
These successes of Thrasea Paetus earned him the displeasure of both the emperor and Capito. Four years later, he assisted Titus Clodius Eprius Marcellus in the prosecution Thrasea Paetus; Nero coerced the Senate to find him guilty, which led to Thrasea Paetus' suicide.[8]
His life afterwards is a blank. It is uncertain whether Capito survived the turmoil of the
References
- Annales, XI.6
- ^ Tacitus, Annales, XVI.21
- ^ Tacitus, Annales, XI.6-7
- ^ Eck, Werner (October 2006). "Cossutianus Capito". Brill's New Pauly.
- ^ Tacitus, Annales, XIII.33.3; XVI.21
- ^ Tacitus, Annales, XIV.48
- ^ Tacitus, Annales, XIV.48-49
- ^ Tacitus, Annales, XVI.21-35