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Publius Vedius Pollio (died 15 BC) was a Roman equestrian of the 1st century BC, and a friend of the Roman emperor Augustus, who appointed him to a position of authority in the province of Asia. In later life he became known for his luxurious tastes and cruelty to his slaves – when they displeased him, he had them fed to moray eels that he maintained for that purpose, which was deemed to be an exceedingly cruel act. When Vedius tried to apply this method of execution to a slave who broke a crystal cup, Emperor Augustus (Pollio's guest at the time) was so appalled that he not only intervened to prevent the execution but had all of Pollio's valuable drinking vessels deliberately broken. This incident, along with Augustus's demolition of the massive villa he inherited after Vedius's death in 15 BC, were frequently referred to in antiquity in discussions of ethics and of the public role of Augustus. ==Biography== Publius Vedius Pollio, the son of a freedman whose given name he shared, was born in the 1st century BC and attained membership of the equestrian order.〔Dio (54.23.1 ).〕〔''Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum'' (9.1556 ), translated by Braund, no. 431.〕 Vedius Pollio's first certain appearance in historical sources comes after Octavian (later Augustus) became sole ruler of the Roman world in 31 BC; at some point Vedius held authority in the province of Asia on behalf of the emperor.〔Syme, p. 28. A proconsul of Asia under Claudius cited an enactment of Vedius Pollio, confirmed by Augustus, as a precedent (Braund, no. 586).〕 For a mere equestrian to govern this province was anomalous, and there were presumably special circumstances; Vedius' term of office could have been in 31–30 BC before the appointment of a regular proconsular governor, or after a major earthquake in 27 BC.〔Syme, p. 28; Momigliano ''et al.'', p. 1584.〕 He later returned to Rome, and when Alexander and Aristobulus, the sons of Herod the Great, came to the city in about 22 BC, they may have stayed with him.〔Josephus, ''Antiquities of the Jews'' (15.343 ) says they stayed in "the house of Pollio", which could refer to either Vedius or Asinius Pollio. See Syme, p. 30.〕 Despite these services to the state, it was for his reputed luxury and cruelty that Vedius would become best known.〔 He owned a massive villa on the Gulf of Naples, later described by the poet Ovid as "like a city".〔Ovid, ''Fasti'' (6.641 ).〕 Most notoriously, he kept a pool of lampreys into which slaves who incurred his displeasure would be thrown as food〔Dio (52.23.2 ); Pliny the Elder, ''Natural History'' (9.39 ); Seneca the Younger, ''On Clemency'' 1.18.2.〕 – a particularly unpleasant means of death, since the lamprey "clamps its mouth on the victim and bores a dentated tongue into the flesh to ingest blood".〔Africa, p. 71, citing 〕 Nevertheless, he retained, at least for a while, the friendship of Augustus, in whose honour he built a shrine or monument at Beneventum.〔 On one occasion, Augustus was dining at Vedius' home when a cup-bearer broke a crystal glass. Vedius ordered him thrown to the lampreys, but the slave fell to his knees before Augustus and pleaded to be executed in some more humane way. Horrified, the emperor had all of Vedius's expensive glasses smashed and the pool filled in. According to Seneca, Augustus also had the slave freed; Dio merely remarks that Vedius "could not punish his servant for what Augustus also had done".〔Seneca the Younger, ''On Anger'' 3.40 (= Braund, no. 432); Dio (52.23.2–4 ).〕 There are a number of less certain appearances that may be the same Vedius Pollio. A Vidius or Vedius, possibly the same, is mentioned in a letter of 46 BC as involved in a dispute with the scholar-politician Curtius Nicias.〔Cicero, ''Letters to Friends'' (9.10 )〕〔 Syme, pp. 25-26, 28.〕 As well, Ronald Syme suggests that the "Publius Vedius" who appears in Cicero's letters as a friend of Pompey may also be Vedius Pollio.〔Syme, p. 23-30.〕 Cicero, governor of Cilicia, was travelling near Laodicea in 50 BC, when Publius Vedius met him with a large retinue, and several wild asses and a baboon in a chariot. Unimpressed, Cicero wrote to Atticus, "I never saw a more worthless man."〔Cicero, ''Letters to Atticus'' (6.1 ).〕 About this possible Vedius Pollio, Cicero adds a further anecdote: Publius Vedius, earlier, had left some items with Vindulus, who meanwhile had died. Vindulus's heir later examined the items and found five portrait-busts of married ladies, including the noted patrician Junia Secunda. Cicero took these to be trophies of Vedius' sexual conquests,〔 and, while highly praising her publicly,〔Smith, William, ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Volume 2'', Little and Brown, 1846, p. 657.〕 in correspondence, criticizing her for the indiscretion,〔〔 and her husband and brother for their lack of awareness of her conduct.〔Cic. ad Att. vi. 1〕〔Hall, John, ''Politeness and Politics in Cicero's Letters'', Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 116.〕 (At the same time, an affair, if it did occur, may have been with a sister Junia Prima.) It is certain, as records report, that Vedius died in 15 BC. Among his many heirs, Augustus received a large part of Vedius's estate, including his villa on the Gulf of Naples, along with instructions to erect a suitable monument on the site. The emperor demolished the house and constructed in its place a colonnade in honour of his wife Livia, which he dedicated in 7 BC.〔Dio (52.23.5–6 ),(55.8.2 )〕〔Ovid, ''Fasti'' (6.639–648 ).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Vedius Pollio」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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