Hypsaeus
5. P.
Plautius Hypsaeus, as tribune of the plebs in B. C. 54, exerted himself to procure for Cn. Pompey, whose quaestor he had been, the commission for restoring Ptolemy Auletes to the throne of Egypt. (
Cic. Fam. 1.1.3. In B. C. 54, Hypsaeus was a candidate for the consulship, and since Milo was his opponent, he had the support of P. Clodius and his gladiators. [CLAUDIUS, No. 40.] With his fellow-candidate, Q. Metellus Scipio, Hypsaeus employed in his canvass the most open corruption and violence.
In the tumults that followed the murder of Clodius, Hypsaeus and Scipio besieged the interrex, M. Aemilius Lepidus, in his own house for five days. because he would not consent to hold the comitia illegally. Scipio and Hypsaeus were naturally favourites with the Clodian mob, who carried off the fasces from the temple of Libitina (
Dionys. A. R. 4.15;
Suet. Nero 39), and offered them to these candidates, before they tendered them to Cn. Pompey. Hypsaeus was singled out by Milo's faction for their especial attack.
At the examination of the witnesses at Milo's trial, they demanded that the slaves of Hypsaeus be submitted to torture, and shortly afterwards, through Pompey's law de Ambitu, they procured the banishment of Hypsaeus himself for bribery in his consular canvass. Although he had been an active partizan of Pompey's, his patron deserted him.
He had thrown himself at Pompey's feet, as he was going from the bath to the supper-table; but Pompey rejected his entreaties, and waived him off with " Away; you will spoil my supper !" (
Cic. Att. 3.8,
pro Flacc. 9; Ascon.
in Cic. Milon. p. 31, 36; Schol. Bob.pro
Mil. p. 281, id.
in Or. de Aer. al. Mil. 341, Orelli; Cic.
fraym. p. 456, vol. iv. Orelli; Appian,
App. BC 2.24;
Plut. Pomp. 55;
V. Max. 9.5.3;
Liv. Epit. 107.)
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