Gaius Memmius (proquaestor)
(Redirected from
Gaius Memmius (brother-in-law to Pompey)
)Gaius Memmius (died 75 BC) was a
plebeian
and a soldier of the late Roman republic.
Biography
His father was probably Gaius Memmius Mordax, the tribune of 111 BC.Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, making him Pompey's brother-in-law. They likely had a son by the same name whom became a moneyer.[2] He is recorded to have served Pompey during his Sicilian command in 81 BC at the end of Sulla's civil war.[3] When Pompey sailed to Africa, to fight the remnants of the Cinna-Marian faction under Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, he put Memmius in command on Sicily.[4]
During the
New Carthage, secure it as a base, and from there move up the coast. Memmius and his force were immediately blockaded in the city, probably by Sertorius's pirate allies, and was unable to play his part in the campaign.[5] In 75 BC at the Battle of Saguntum, he was killed during the early stages of the battle when Sertorius launched an attack at Pompey's command; Pompey survived the attack but Memmius died defending his brother-in-law.[6] Plutarch called him 'the most capable of Pompey's lieutenants'.[7]
Sources
- Plutarch, Parallel Lives, Life of Sertorius, 11 and 19.
- Plutarch, Parallel Lives, Life of Pompey, 21.
Notes and references
- ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, pp. 1026, 1027 ("Memmius"); Cicero, Pro Balbo, 5; Plutarch, Life of Pompey, 11, Life of Sertorius, 21; Orosius, v. 23.
- ISBN 9780713476729.
- ^ John Leach, Pompey the Great, pp 28-29.
- ^ John Leach, Pompey the Great, p. 30.
- ^ a b John Leach, Pompey the Great, p.45.
- ^ John Leach, Pompey the Great, p. 50; Appian, Civil Wars, I. xiii. p.110; Plutarch, Life of Pompey, 19.
- ^ Philip Matyszak, Sertorius and the Struggle for Spain, p.126; Plutarch, Life of Sertorius, 21.