Quintus Minucius Term (praetor)

Belonged to the plebeian clan of Minutsiev ; his father, presumably, could be Quintus Minucius , who was apparently the younger brother of Marc Minucius Terme , under whose leadership young Caesar served as a conturnal . About the career of Quintus Sr. is known only that about 103 BC. e. he minted a coin ^[1] , and at the final stage of the Allied war 91–88. BC e. among others, he attended the military council of Gnei Pompey Strabo (possibly in the rank of quaestor ^[2] ), where he decreed the granting of Roman citizenship to Spanish horsemen who participated in the war on the side of the Romans (mid November 89 BC ^[3] .). In 86 BC. e. appointed by the consul-suffix of the current year, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, a military tribune instead of the rebellious Fimbria ^{[4] [5]} and left him as the legate of the prophet in Byzantium during the reconnaissance operation near Chalkedon , but was soon expelled from there by legionnaires incited by Fimbria ^[6] . Nothing is known about his fate ^[7] .

The first mention of Quintus Minutia dates back to the beginning of 62 BC. e., when his colleague in the tribune , Metell Nepot , barely taking office, began to revolt the people in the Assembly and, at the instigation of Caesar, under a plausible pretext, introduced a law calling on Gnei Pompey Magna to come with an army to Italy and take over saving the state from the troubles that the surviving catilinaries are preparing for it (in reality, the purpose of this proposal was the supposedly legitimate transfer of supreme power over Rome into the hands of Pompey). Having found out about this and reported everything to Mark Cato , Therm went with him to the Forum , where Metell, surrounded by armed foreign mercenaries, gladiators and slaves, attempted to approve the bill in the public assembly in absentia, without the knowledge of his colleagues: when Cato forbade the priest-herald read out the text of the document, Cecilius began to read it himself, provoking Cato, who tore the scroll from him. Then Metellus began to pronounce this text by heart, and Minute Term had to force his mouth to shut; as a result of the ensuing mass brawl, the Senate supported Mark Porcia and resolutely opposed the bill, which was causing the city rebellion and civil war ^{[8] [9]} .

Based on the hypothesis in modern historiography that Minucius became the prophet in Asia on the basis of the Pompeyev law on provinces (52 BC), the American researcher T. Brennan admits the version about the passage of the Praetor Therm in 60-58 BC. e ^[10] . At the end of July 51 BC e. Mark Tullius Cicero , being sent with the pro-consular empire to Cilicia , bordering Asia, apparently, at the request of Pomponius, Attica visited Minucius at Ephesus . Here he interceded to Term, entrusting him with the affairs and trusted people of Attica, to which Quintus promised to do everything possible from him ^[11] ; in addition, at the end of this year and March of the following, Cicero sent a couple of letters of recommendation to the Asian governor asking for assistance to his legate, Mark Anney , in a lawsuit with the inhabitants of Sard ^[12] . When Minucius was preparing to return to Rome, without waiting for a successor, he first planned to leave in his place not a quaestor , as was customary, but one of the legates. But Cicero, who was still in Cilicia at that time, in a letter dated May 50, advised Therma to opt for Lucius Anthony ^[13] , the newly elected quaestor, since another decision, according to Cicero, would be dishonorable for Lucius and would make Terme enemies of all the Antoniev brothers ^[14] . Quintus Minucius followed this advice, and Lucius remained for some time at the head of the province (in 49 BC) ^[13] , which he soon passed on to Guy Fannius .

Upon returning to the Apennine Peninsula at the end of 50 BC. e., Term, learning about the treacherous actions of Julius Caesar ( night transport of legionary soldiers through the Rubicon and the subsequent capture of the border with Cisalpine Gaul Aria ), at the head of five cohorts he was sent to the epicenter of events, to Umbria , where Iguvius took up and launched activities to strengthen the city . But with the news of the approach of the Caesarian Kourion with three cohorts, not completely trusting the mood of the municipalities, Minucius withdrew his army from the city and fled ^{[15] [16]} ; at the same time, Caesar writes that the soldiers left him and went home ^[17] , and Cicero, referring to the freedman Attik Filotim, that they, under the leadership of Lentulus Spinter and Terme himself, connected with the army of Lucius Domitius Agenobarb , who stood at Corfinius ^[18] . There is no information about the further actions of Quintus Minucius during the civil war : most likely, after the surrender of the Corfu fortress, the dictator pardoned him.

The next mention of Minucius dates back to February 43 BC. e., when he, while in Massilia, together with Emilius Paul and a certain Guy Fanny , on behalf of the Senate held talks with Sextus Pompey about the military support of the latter Republicans in the fight against Anthony . Sextus hesitated, taking a wait and see attitude, probably due to the mood of his father's veterans ^[19] . Probably, at the end of '43, Term, like his fellow ambassadors Lucius Lepidus and Fanny, was included in the triumvirates in the pro cess list ^[20] , so he was forced to flee to Sicily to Sextus Pompey Magnus, whom, however, he changed by going to 35 BC e. to the service of Anthony ^[21] . Nothing is known of his passing.

In a marriage with an unknown, Minucius had a daughter ^[22] , whom her father married to the praetor 49 years BC. e. Avla Allien , adherent of Caesar ^[23] .

• William Smith , Ed. Thermus, Minu'cius (neopr.) . A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology . William Smith, Ed. ;
• Minucii // The Real Dictionary of Classical Antiquities / ed. F. Lubker ; Edited by members of the Society of Classical Philology and Pedagogy F. Gelbke , L. Georgievsky , F. Zelinsky , V. Kansky , M. Kutorgi and P. Nikitin . - SPb. , 1885 .;
• Münzer F. Minucius 67 // Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (RE). - Stuttgart, 1932. - Band XV 2. - Kol. 1072-1074.