Lucius Licinius Crassus

Lucius Licinius Crassus (140 BC – 91 BC) was a Roman consul. He was considered the greatest Roman orator of his day, by his pupil Cicero.

He became consul in 95 BC. During his consulship a law was passed (the lex Licinia Mucia) requiring all but citizens to leave Rome, an edict which provoked the Social War. In 92 BC he was elected censor with Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus.

Licinius Crassus was married to Mucia Tertia, younger daughter of the Consul Quintus Mucius Scaevola Augur by his wife Laelia, daughter of Gaius Laelius Sapiens. They had two surviving children:

• Licinia Crassa Prima or Major married to the Praetor of 93 BC, Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica, the son of Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio and descendant of Scipio Africanus and Scipio Nasica, and by whom she had issue
• Licinia Crassa Secunda or Minor, who married Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, eventually Pontifex Maximus who adopted Licinia Crassa Major's son, who then became known as Metellus Scipio.

According to both Plutarch and Cicero, a Licinia, daughter of this man, was married to Gaius Marius the Younger. The marriage may have taken place around 95 BC, though the date is pure supposition by scholars, based on the known political alliance between the two fathers (Crassus and Gaius Marius), the fact that men could not marry before they turned 14, but that leading families tended to marry early to cement alliances. Nothing is known of Licinia after Marius the Younger's death in 82 BC, although in the time of Caesar Amatius, a Pseudo-Marius, appeared in Rome claiming to be their son - Cicero seems to have accepted the possibility that he might indeed be a Marius, though he tried not to involve himself in a politically difficult situation.

He is also noted by Cicero in De Oratore that Licinius Crassus was a friend of Marcus Vigellius.^[1]

See also

• Licinia (gens)

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). "^{article name needed}". The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne.