Marcus Minucius Thermus

Marcus Minucius Thermus was an ancient Roman soldier and statesman. He was praetor in 81 BC and governor of Asia the following year,[1] succeeding Murena.[2] The capture of Mytilene occurred during his governorship; Mytilene had been in revolt against Rome and was suspected of actively or tacitly aiding so-called pirates in the region.[3] Suetonius credits Thermus with the victory,[4] but the siege may have been conducted by or in coordination with Lucius Licinius Lucullus. Little else is known of his life or career.[5]

Julius Caesar began his military service under Thermus after his pardon by Sulla during the proscriptions of 82 BC.[6] It was Thermus who sent the young Caesar as an envoy to the court of Nicomedes IV of Bithynia to request aid in the form of a fleet.

Although Thermus was a Sullan partisan, in 86 BC his younger brother Quintus had been a legate in Asia under appointment by the rival Marians. Quintus had replaced Fimbria after his mutiny.[5]

References
  1. T.R.S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, vol. 2 (New York 1952), pp. 76, 78, 81, citing Suetonius, Divus Iulius 2.1, where he is identified as a praetor, and David Magie, Roman Rule in Asia Minor (Princeton University Press, 1950), vol. 1, p 246f. and vol. 2, p. 1124, note 41.
  2. Arthur Keaveney, Lucullus: A Life (Routledge, 1992), p. 182 online. Keaveney argues that Minucius assumed his post in Asia in 79 (pp. 182–187).
  3. Philip de Souza, Piracy in the Graeco-Roman World (Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 123 online.
  4. Harold B. Mattingly, "C. Verres and the Pirates," in From Coins to History: Selected Numismatic Studies (University of Michigan Press, 2004). p. 180, note 10 online.
  5. Ronald T. Ridley, "The Dictator's Mistake: Caesar's Escape from Sulla," Historia 49 (2000) 227–228.
  6. Matthias Gelzer, Caesar: Politician and Statesman, trans. Peter Needham (Oxford: Blackwell, 1968), ISBN 0-631-10430-5

Sources
  • Further discussion by T. Corey Brennan, The Praetorship in the Roman Republic (Oxford University Press, 2000), vol. 2, p. 557 online.
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