Vetus
2. C.
Antistius Vetus, son of the preceding, was taken as quaestor by Caesar out of gratitude to his father, when he was propraetor in Further Spain in B. C. 61. In B. C. 57 Vetus was tribune of the plebs and supported Cicero in opposition to Clodius.
In the civil war he espoused Caesar's party, and we find him in Syria in B. C. 45, fighting against Q. Caecilius Bassus, who had formerly been on the Pompeian side, and who now attempted to seduce the troops in the East from their allegiance to Caesar.
He besieged Bassus in Apameia, but was obliged to retire on the approach of the Parthians. In B. C. 34 Vetus carried on war against the Salassi, and in B. C. 30 was consul suffectus.
He accompanied Augustus to Spain in B. C. 25, and on the illness of the emperor continued the war against the Cantabri and Astures, whom he reduced to submission. (
Plut. Caes. 5; Cic.
ad Q. Fr. 2.1.3,
ad Att. 14.9.3;
D. C. 47.27; Appian,
App. Ill. 17;
D. C. 53.25;
Vell. 2.90; Florus,
4.12.21.)
The annexed coin seems to have been struck by this C. Antistius Vetus, as triumvir of the mint.
It contains on the obverse a female head with ANTISTIVS VETVS IIIVIR, and on the reverse various utensils of the pontifices with IMP. CAESAR AV(G.) COS. XI.
