Editing Gaius Calpurnius Piso (conspirator)

{{Short description|Roman senator and conspirator against Nero (died 65 AD)}}
{{Other people||Gaius Calpurnius Piso (disambiguation){{!}}Gaius Calpurnius Piso}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Gaius Calpurnius Piso
| image         = 
| caption       = 
| birth_date    = 
| birth_place   = 
| death_date    = AD 65
| death_place   = 
| death_cause   = [[Forced suicide]]
| occupation    = Senator
| known_for     = Instigating the [[pisonian conspiracy]]
| spouse        = [[Livia Orestilla]]<br>[[Atria Galla]]
| children      = [[Calpurnius Piso Galerianus]]
| father        = [[Lucius Calpurnius Piso (consul 27)|Lucius Calpurnius Piso]]
| mother        = Licinia
| family        = [[Calpurnia gens|gens Calpurnia]]
}}

'''Gaius Calpurnius Piso''' (died AD 65) was a Roman senator in the first century. He was the focal figure in the [[Pisonian conspiracy]] of AD 65, the most famous and wide-ranging plot against the throne of Emperor [[Nero]].

==Character and early life==

He was the son of the consul [[Lucius Calpurnius Piso (consul 27)|Lucius Calpurnius Piso]] and his wife Licinia, daughter of the consul [[Marcus Licinius Crassus Frugi (consul 14 BC)|Marcus Licinius Crassus Frugi]] and sister of [[Marcus Licinius Crassus Frugi (consul 27)|Marcus Licinius Crassus Frugi]], a senator.{{cn|date=April 2023}}

Piso was extremely well liked throughout Rome. Through his father he inherited connections with many distinguished families, and from his mother great wealth. Piso came from the ancient and noble house of the [[Calpurnia gens|Calpurnii]]<ref name="Bunson">Bunson, Matthew. "Piso, Gaius Calpurnicus." ''Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire''. New York: Facts on File, 1994</ref> and he distributed his great wealth among many beneficiaries of all Roman social classes. Among a wide range of interests, Piso sang on the tragic stage, wrote poetry, played an expert game of [[Ludus latrunculorum|Latrunculi]], and owned the villa Pisoni at [[Baiae]].<ref name="robert">Rogers, Robert Samuel. "Heirs and Rivals to Nero." ''Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philogical Association'', Vol. 86. 1955, pp. 190-212</ref> 

Piso was tall, good-looking, affable, and an excellent orator and advocate in the courts. Despite these facts Piso's overall integrity was questionable. According to [[Tacitus]], Piso used his eloquence to defend his fellow citizens and was generous and gracious in speech, but lacked earnestness and was overly ostentatious, while craving the sensual.<ref name="Bunson"/> In AD 40, the Emperor [[Caligula]] banished Piso from Rome after he took a fancy to Piso's wife, [[Livia Orestilla]]. Caligula forced Piso's wife to leave him, and then accused Piso of adultery with her in order to establish cause for banishment.<ref name="Hazel">Hazel, John. "Piso, 1." ''Who's Who in the Roman World''. London: Routledge, 2001.</ref> Piso would return to Rome one year later, after Caligula's assassination. He later married [[Atria Galla]], after she left her first husband Domitius Silus.

==Pisonian conspiracy and death==
{{main|Pisonian conspiracy}}
[[Claudius]] recalled Piso to Rome, probably soon after his accession in AD 41. He was suffect consul in an unknown year.<ref>{{Cite Pauly|III,1|1377|1379|Calpurnius 65|Edmund Groag|RE:Calpurnius 65}}</ref> Piso then became a powerful senator during the reign of Emperor [[Nero]] and in AD 65 led a secret initiative to replace Emperor Nero that became known as the [[Pisonian conspiracy]].

Piso leveraged senatorial anger with Nero to gain power. Already in AD 62, there had been talk among those of senatorial rank, in the nobility, and among the ''[[equites]]'' that Nero was ruining Rome.<ref name="bun">Bunson, Matthew. "Pisonian Conspiracy." ''Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire''. New York: Facts on File, 1994.</ref> By AD 65, the city had endured the [[Great Fire of Rome]], spurring groups of conspirators to come together under the leadership of Piso with the goal of killing Nero.

On 19 April AD 65, the [[freedman]] [[Milichus]] betrayed Piso's plot to kill the emperor<ref name="bun"/> and the conspirators were all arrested. In all, 19 were put to death and 13 exiled,<ref name="bun"/> reflecting the massive scope of the conspiracy. Piso was ordered to commit [[Forced suicide|suicide]] and so he killed himself. His properties including the Villa Pisoni in [[Baiae]] were confiscated to become imperial property.

Piso was survived by his son, [[Calpurnius Piso Galerianus]], who married Calpurnia, daughter of [[Licinia Magna]] and [[Lucius Calpurnius Piso (consul 57)|Lucius Calpurnius Piso]],<ref>Tacitus, ''[[Annales (Tacitus)|Annales]]'', IV.49</ref> who served as one of the consuls in AD 57.<ref>Elsner, ''Life, Death and Representation: Some New Work on Roman Sarcophagi'', p. 57</ref> Galerianus was executed in AD 70 for opposing the Emperor [[Vespasian]].<ref>Anne Publie. "Les Cneuius". [http://perso.orange.fr/publie/pison/cneius.htm#66] & Anne Publie. "Les Caesoninus" [http://perso.orange.fr/publie/pison/caeso.htm#17]</ref>

==Legacy==
Piso is probably the one referred to by [[Calpurnius Siculus]] under the name of "Meliboeus", and he is the subject of the panegyric ''De laude Pisonis'' (''On the praise of Piso'').<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Piso|display=Piso s.v. 4. Gaius Calpurnius Piso|volume=21|page=652}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Calpurnii Pisones]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
{{gutenberg book|no=10704|name=''The History of Rome'', Book IV|author=[[Theodor Mommsen]]}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Calpurnius Piso, Gaius}}
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:65 deaths]]
[[Category:Calpurnii Pisones|Gaius]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman politicians]]
[[Category:Suffect consuls of Imperial Rome]]
[[Category:Senators of the Roman Empire]]
[[Category:Members of the Pisonian conspiracy]]
[[Category:Forced suicides]]
[[Category:Suicides in Ancient Rome]]