The latest date legally possible under the Cornelian law, but in this extraordinary period, as the case of Ventidius Bassus in 43 reveals, legal provisions regarding the holding of offices and the intervals between them were frequently disregarded. On Cocceius, see PIR² 2.2 8 8, no. 1212; De Laet no. 118. (Broughton MRR II)
Legatus (Lieutenant)
41
Gallia Cisalpina
(Broughton MRR II)
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He is listed with Pollio and Cornelius Gallus among those who were distributing land to veterans in Cisalpine Gaul in 41 and 40 (see below, Special Commissions). As a senator, and probably an ex-Praetor, he may have been a Legate, and may even, like Pollio, have held imperium, but there is no mention of a military command. See below, Special Commissions. (Broughton MRR II)
In Donatus, Vit. Verg. (ed. Brummer, p. 16) these three men receive the traditional title Triumviri agris dividendis (see also Schol. Bern., Jahrb. f. Philol., Supb. 9 [1867], p. 743; Iun. Philargyr. II, on Eclogue I, Proem.). Our sources also describe their position as follows: Pollio agris praeerat dividundis (Serv. on Eel. 2.1); qui praeesset Transpadanae regioni (Iun. Philargyr. II on Eel. 6.7; cf. Iun. Philargyr. I and II on Eel. 4.3); Alfenus qui agros divisit (Serv. Dan. on Eel. 9.10); victo enim Antonio Caesar Alphenum, Varum in locum Pollionis constituit (Iun. Philargyr. II on Ecl. 6.7); Gallus a Triumviris praeposilus fuit ad exigendas pecunias ab his municipiis, quorum agri in Transpadana regione non dividebantur (Serv. Dan. on Eel. 6.64). Polio and Alfenus Varus are named also in the following passage: ... fugatoque Asinio Pollione, ab Augusto Alfenum, Varum legatum, substitutum, qui Transpadanae provinciae et agris dividendis praeessel (Sery. Dan. on Eel. 6.6). The activities of these men in the confiscation of land and the settlement of veterans in the Transpadane region brought them into contact with Vergil, whose land in the territory of Mantua was supposedly either confiscated, and later returned to him, or, according the Donatus life of Vergil (ed. Brummer, p. 5), he received an indemnity. The references to their activities deal exclusively with Vergil's land. Bayet (REL 6 [1928] 271-299) interprets these notices to mean that these men formed a board of three like the senatorial land cominissions of Gracchan and earlier times (see p. 276). But Gallus, being a knight, not a senator, was technically ineligible for such an appointment. Moreover, the passage of Serv. Dan. on Ecl. 6.64 indicates that his task was not to divide land but to exact money from towns whose land was not divided, a task more suitable for an equestrian Prefect (cf. on 9.10 for a fragment of his speech of protest to Alfenus Varus for taking too much land from Montua). The system used by Antony and Octavian in dividing the land among their soldiers probably followed closely the system of Prefects and other officers, including Promagistrates, who received grants of imperium for the purpose, which Caesar used for the settlement of his veterans (see 45, Prefects, on C. Clovius; 44, Prefects, on Plotius Plancus; and note also App. BC 2.120, regard- ing the multitude of soldiers in Rome in March, 44, #). Q. Valerius Orca performed this function under Caesar as Legatus pro praetore (see 45, Legates). Munatius Plancus was probably a Proconsul when he distributed lands at Beneventum in this year (ILS 886); and in this period L. Memmius distributed lands at Luca to the sixth and the twenty-sixth legions as Prefect for the purpose (ILS 887). The members therefore of this so-called commission were probably individual appointees, with or without imperium, Pollio probably a Proconsul until he assumed the consulship in 40, Alfenus Varus probably a Legate or a Prefect but possibly also a Promagistrate, and Gallus almost certainly an equestrian Prefect. The old senatorial commissions were practically obsolete (see Grant, From Imperium to Auctoritas 9-11). (Broughton MRR II)
Fast. Mag. Vic., Degrassi 282, 287; Fast. Biond., ibid. 291f., and see 135, 506f.; on Cocceius, Fast. Pinc., ibid. 277f.; on Alfenus, Dig. 1.2.2.44; Porphyr. on Hor. Sat. 1.3.130. On Cocceius, see PIR² 2.288-289, no. 1212 and 1214; De Laet no. 118. Both confuse him with L. Cocceius Nerva, but the identification is clear in Fast. Mag. Vic. (see Degrassi 287). (Broughton MRR II)