Re'bilus
3. C.
Caninius Rebilus, was one of Caesar's legates in Gaul in B. C. 52 and 51, and accompanied him in his march into Italy in B. C. 49. Caesar sent him, together with Scribonius Libo, with overtures of peace to Pompey, when the latter was on the point of leaving Italy.
In the same year he crossed over to Africa with C. Curio, and was one of the few who escaped with their lives when Curio was defeated and slain by Juba. In B. C. 46 he again fought in Africa, but with more success, for he was now under the command of Caesar himself.
After the defeat of Scipio he took the town of Thapsus, on which occasion Hirtius calls him proconsul.
In the following year, B. C. 45, during the war in Spain, there was a report that he had perished in a shipwreck (
Cic. Att. 12.37.4,
44.4); but this was false, for he was then in command of the garrison at Hispalis. On the last day of December in this year, on the sudden death of the consul Q. Fabius Maximus, Caesar made Rebilus consul for the few remaining hours of the day. Cicero made himself merry at this appointnlent, remarking that no one had died in this consulship ; that the consul was so wonderfully vigilant that he had never slept during his term of office; and that it might be asked under what consuls he had been consul. (
Caes. Gal. 7.83,
90,
8.24, &c., B. C. 1.26, 2.24; Hirt.
B. Afr. 86, 93,
B. Hisp. 35;
D. C. 43.46;
Cic. Fam. 7.30;
Suet. Jul. 76,
Ner. 15;
Plin. Nat. 7.53. s. 54;
Tac. Hist. 3.37;
Plut. Caes. 58; Macrob.
Sat. ii 3.)
