Piso
Piso names 4 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Piso A celebrated family at Rome
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
A celebrated family at Rome, eleven of whom had obtained the consulship, and some of whom had been honored with triumphs for their victories. Of this family the most famous were: Lucius Calpurnius, who was tribune of the people about 149 years before Christ, and afterward consul. He gained honor as an orator, a statesman, and a historian. Caius, another of the family, distinguished himself during his consulship by his firmness in resisting the tumults raised by the tribunes and the clamors of the people. Cneius, who was consul under Augustus, rendered himself odious by his cruelty. He IÓOO CLASSICAL CHARACTERS was accused of poisoning Germanicus, and, being shunned by his friends, destroyed himself. Lucius, a governor of Spain, who was assassinated by a peasant. Lucius, a governor of Rome for twenty years, during which time he discharged his duties with moderation and justice. Caius, who was at the head of a conspiracy against Nero. He committed suicide by venesection. Pistor (The Baker). A surname of Jupiter at Rome, because when the Gauls were besieging Rome he suggested to the besieged the idea of throwing loaves of bread among the enemies, to make them believe that the Romans had plenty of provisions.
Piso LUCIUS CALPURNIS, surnamed Frugalis
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
LUCIUS CALPURNIS, surnamed Frugalis, on account of his frugality, consul 14 149 B. C., who terminated the war with Sicily. He composed orations, which are lost. PISO consul 67 B. C., author of a law the factions which usually attend the election of the chief magistrates CNEIUS, consul under Augustus, and governor of Syria under Tiberius situation he behaved with great charged with poisoning Ge He was c cus; on which account he
Piso LUCIUS, a senator
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
LUCIUS, a senator, self, A. D. 20. who attended the Emperor Valerian into Persia in 258. On the death of that emperor he assumed the imperial title; but was defeated by Valens, who put him to death in 261.
Piso an eminent Roman family
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
an eminent Roman family, which produced some great men, as:
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The lists above are still broadly right about who the Calpurnii Pisones were, but one of them has since spoken for himself. Where Collier's in 1921 could only note that Cneius, governor of Syria, was "charged with poisoning Germanicus" and killed himself in A.D. 20, bronze copies of the Senate's actual decree in his case — the senatus consultum de Pisone patre — turned up in southern Spain in the 1980s and were published in the 1990s, giving the official verdict, the terms of his condemnation and a check on Tacitus' narrative. The luxurious Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, with its charred library of Epicurean texts, is now generally assigned to this family, and since 2023 machine-learning techniques have begun reading those scrolls without unrolling them. Modern scholars are far more sceptical than 1921 about the "Piso" who supposedly claimed the purple after Valerian's capture: he comes from the Historia Augusta's roll of thirty tyrants, much of which is regarded as invention.
Written for this edition, 2026.