Be'stia
2. L.
Calpurnius Bestia, probably a grandson of the preceding, was one of the Catilinarian conspirators, and is mentioned by Sallust as tribune of the plebs in the year in which the conspiracy was detected, B. C. 63.
It appears, however, that he was then only tribune designatus; and that he held the office in the following year, B. C. 62, though he entered upon it, as usual, on the 10th of December, 63.
It was agreed among the conspirators, that Bestia should make an attack upon Cicero in the popular assembly, and that this should be the signal for their rising in the following night.
The vigilance of Cicero, however, as is well known, prevented this. (
Sal. Cat. 17,
43; Appian,
App. BC 2.3;
Plut. Cic. 23; Schol. Bob.
pro Sest. p. 294,
pro Sull. p. 366, ed Orelli.)
Bestia was aedile in B. C. 59, and was an unsuccessful candidate for the praetorship in 57, notwithstanding his bribery, for which he was brought to trial in the following year and condemned.
He was defended by his former enemy, Cicero, who had now become reconciled to him, and speaks of him as his intimate friend in his oration for Caelius. (100.11.) After Caesar's death, Bestia attached himself to Antony, whom he accompanied to Mutina in B. C. 43, in hopes of obtaining the consulship in the place of M. Brutus, although he had not been praetor. (
Cic. Phil. 13.12,
ad Qu. Fr. 2.3,
Phil. 11.5, 12.8, 13.2.)
