Lucius Basilus |
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| Born | c. 75 BC |
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| Died | summer 43 BC (aged c. 32) |
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| Allegiance |  Rome |
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| Years of service | 53 - 52 BC |
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Lucius Minucius Basilus (died summer 43 BC) was a military commander and politician of the late Roman Republic, a trusted associate of Julius Caesar, who later participated in Caesar's assassination.
It was to Basilus that Cicero wrote his first excited note after hearing of the assassination of Caesar. In the notes to Cicero's Selected Letters, [1] Basilus is described:
L. Minucius Basilus had been a prominent officer, probably a legatus under Caesar in Gaul, and apparently served also in Caesar's Civil War. He was, however, mortally offended because Caesar would not give him a province after his praetorship in 45 BC, but only a sum of money in return for his services, and so joined the conspiracy against him.
Basilus, denied a provincial command despite being a praetor, was insulted that Caesar tried to placate him with money, causing him to join the conspiracy. [2] In 43 BC, he was killed by some of his own slaves whom he had punished by mutilation. He should probably be distinguished from L. Minucius Basilus, who took the name (instead of M. Satrius) on his adoption by a rich uncle, [and] mentioned as assuming by force the position of patronus over certain towns in Italy.
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Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of senators on the Ides of March of 44 BC during a meeting of the Senate at the Curia of Pompey of the Theatre of Pompey in Rome where the senators stabbed Caesar 23 times. They claimed to be acting over fears that Caesar's unprecedented concentration of power during his dictatorship was undermining the Roman Republic. At least 60 to 70 senators were party to the conspiracy, led by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, and Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus. Despite the death of Caesar, the conspirators were unable to restore the institutions of the Republic. The ramifications of the assassination led to his martyrdom, the Liberators' civil war and ultimately to the Principate period of the Roman Empire.
The political career of Marcus Tullius Cicero began in 76 BC with his election to the office of quaestor, and ended in 43 BC, when he was assassinated upon the orders of Mark Antony. Cicero, a Roman statesman, lawyer, political theorist, philosopher, and Roman constitutionalist, reached the height of Roman power, the Consulship, and played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. A contemporary of Julius Caesar, Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.
The gens Caecilia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are mentioned in history as early as the fifth century BC, but the first of the Caecilii who obtained the consulship was Lucius Caecilius Metellus Denter, in 284 BC. The Caecilii Metelli were one of the most powerful families of the late Republic, from the decades before the First Punic War down to the time of Augustus.
The gens Satria was a minor plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are mentioned in the first century BC, and under the early Empire, but none of them rose higher than the rank of praetor. Otherwise the Satrii are known largely from inscriptions.
Rome 