Gaius Trebonius (died 43 BC) was a military commander and politician of the late
Roman RepublicThe Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c...
, a trusted associate of
Julius CaesarGaius Julius Caesar , , was a Roman military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
who later participated in his assassination.
His father was an
eques, but had not been a magistrate, and the son was considered a
novus homoNovus homo was the term in ancient Rome for a man who was the first in his family to serve in the Roman Senate or, more specifically, to be elected as consul...
, one of several in Caesar's circle. He served as
quaestorQuaestor is a type of public official.In the Roman Republic a quaestor was an elected official who supervised financial affairs...
around 60 BC, and was
tribuneTribune was a title shared by 10 elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. Also, the tribune could summon the Senate and lay proposals before it...
of the
plebsThe Plebs was the general body of Roman citizens in Ancient Rome. They were distinct from the higher order of the patricians. A member of the plebs was known as a plebeian...
in 55, where he lent his name to the
Lex TreboniaThe Lex Trebonia was passed in 55 BC during the second joint consulship of Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. Sponsored by the tribune Trebonius, the legislation granted each outgoing consul an extended five-year proconsular command. Crassus received the province of Syria, with...
that gave five-year commands to
PompeyGnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey /'pɑmpi/, Pompey the Great or Pompey the Triumvir , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
and Crassus.
Gaius Trebonius (died 43 BC) was a military commander and politician of the late
Roman RepublicThe Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c...
, a trusted associate of
Julius CaesarGaius Julius Caesar , , was a Roman military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
who later participated in his assassination.
His father was an
eques, but had not been a magistrate, and the son was considered a
novus homoNovus homo was the term in ancient Rome for a man who was the first in his family to serve in the Roman Senate or, more specifically, to be elected as consul...
, one of several in Caesar's circle. He served as
quaestorQuaestor is a type of public official.In the Roman Republic a quaestor was an elected official who supervised financial affairs...
around 60 BC, and was
tribuneTribune was a title shared by 10 elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. Also, the tribune could summon the Senate and lay proposals before it...
of the
plebsThe Plebs was the general body of Roman citizens in Ancient Rome. They were distinct from the higher order of the patricians. A member of the plebs was known as a plebeian...
in 55, where he lent his name to the
Lex TreboniaThe Lex Trebonia was passed in 55 BC during the second joint consulship of Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. Sponsored by the tribune Trebonius, the legislation granted each outgoing consul an extended five-year proconsular command. Crassus received the province of Syria, with...
that gave five-year commands to
PompeyGnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey /'pɑmpi/, Pompey the Great or Pompey the Triumvir , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
and Crassus. Subsequently he spent five years as a
legatusA legatus was a general in the Roman army, equivalent to a modern general officer. Being of senatorial rank, his immediate superior was the dux, and he outranked all military tribunes...
to Caesar, who reported well of him, during his campaigns in
GaulGaul is a historical name used in the context of the Roman Empire in references to the region of Western Europe approximating present day France and Belgium, but also sometimes including the Po Valley, western Switzerland, and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the River...
. He accompanied Caesar during his second expedition to
BritainThe British Iron Age is a conventional name in the archaeology of Great Britain referring to the prehistoric and proto-historic phases of the Iron-Age culture of the main island and the smaller islands, typically excluding Ireland...
in 54 BC. In 49, Trebonius commanded at the
siege of MassiliaThe Siege and naval Battle of Massilia was an episode of Caesar's civil war, fought in 49 BC.Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, who was an Optimate, had become proconsul of Gaul and sent to gain control of Massilia in order to oppose Caesar and the Populares...
.
Elected
praetorPraetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, either before it was mustered or more typically in the field, or an elected magistrate assigned duties that varied depending on the historical period. The...
in 48, he was sent to
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
in 47 to fight against Pompey's forces, but was unsuccessful.
Caesar appointed him suffect consul in 45, but even then it was said that Trebonius plotted against him, and in the assassination of the following March, Trebonius was the person who kept
Mark AntonyMarcus Antonius , known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and General. He was an important supporter and the loyal friend of Gaius Julius Caesar as a military commander and administrator, being Caesar's second cousin, once removed, by his mother Julia Antonia...
outside the
SenateThe Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the Greek historian Polybius, our principal source on the Constitution of the Roman Republic, the Roman Senate was the predominant branch of government...
while Caesar was being stabbed.
Trebonius was
proconsul-Ancient Rome:In the Roman Republic, a proconsul was a promagistrate who, after serving as consul, spent a year as a governor of a province...
for Asia in 43; while at
SmyrnaSmyrna was the ancient city now in Turkey, represented by modern İzmir. Located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia and aided by its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prominence before the Classical Era....
, he was murdered in an act of treachery by
Publius Cornelius DolabellaPublius Cornelius Dolabella, 70 BC- 43 BC, was a Roman general, by far the most important of the Dolabellae, a plebian family within the patrician gens Cornelia...
.