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Gaius Manilius

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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Roman tribune of the people in 66 B.C. At the beginning of his year of office (Dec. 67) he succeeded in getting a law passed (de libertinorum suffragiis ), which gave freedmen the privilege of voting together with those who had manumitted them, that is, in the same tribe as their patroni; this law, however, was almost immediately declared null and void by the senate. Both parties in the state were offended by the law, and Manilius endeavoured to secure the support of Pompey by proposing to confer upon him the command of the war against Mithradates with unlimited power (see Pompey). The proposal was supported by Cicero in his speech, Pro lege Manilia, and carried almost unanimously. Manilius was later accused by the aristocratical party on some unknown charge and defended by Cicero. He was probably convicted, but nothing further is heard of him.

See Cicero's speech; Dio Cassius xxxvi. 25-27; Plutarch, Pompey, 30; Vell. Pat. ii. 33; art. ROME: History, § II.