Caius Trebonius was the son of a Roman knight, of whom Cicero speaks in his Philippica (XIII. 10). Being quæstor in 694, he opposed the law Herennia, which authorised the adoption of Clodius by a plebeian; as tribune of the people in 699, he proposed the celebrated laws which gave to Pompey and Crassus important provinces, and continued for five years Cæsar’s command in Gaul. Having been called by Cæsar the year after in quality of legate, he remained in Gaul until the commencement of the civil war. He was afterwards sent to Spain against Afranius, and next charged with the siege of Marseilles by land. (Cæsar, De Bello Civili, I. 36.—Dio Cassius, XLI. 19;) In 706, he became præter urbanus (Dio Cassius, XLII. 20); a year later he succeeded Cassius Longinus in the government of one of the two Spains. (Cæsar, De Bello Alexandrino, 64; De Bello Hispano, 7.—Dio Cassius, XLIII. 29.) Compelled to leave the Peninsula, after some checks, he returned to Rome, where Cæsar caused him to be named consul in October, 709, and with the province of Asia, on quitting office. (Dio Cassius, XLIII. 46.—Appian, Civil Wars, III. 2.) All these acts of kindness, however, could not secure to the dictator the devotedness of his lieutenant: even before Trebonius had taken possession of his proconsulate of Asia, he entered into the conspiracy formed against the life of Cæsar. But, detained by Antony outside the curia, he could not strike him with his own hand. (Appian, Civil Wars, II. 117.—Dio Cassius, XLIV. 19.—Cicero, Philippica, II. 14; XIII. 10.) After the death of Cæsar, Trebonius started quietly for his government of Asia, and was in May, 710, at Athens. (Cicero, Epist. Familiar., XII. 16.) During his proconsulship he supported the party of Brutus and Cassius. In February, 711, Dolabella, who had come to replace him, drew him into a snare at Smyrna; slew him, and threw his head at the foot of a statue of Cæsar, thus revenging his friend who had been so shamefully betrayed. (Cicero, Philippica, XIII. 10.—Appian, Civil Wars, III. 26.—Velleius Paterculus, II. 69.—Dio Cassius, XLVII. 29.) Cicero, whose correspondent Trebonius had been, stigmatises this murder, in which Antony saw the just punishment of a villain and a parricide. It is certain that Trebonius had entered the conspiracy without remorse, since afterwards he wrote to Cicero: “If you compose anything on the murder of Cæsar, do not attribute a small part of it to me.” (Cicero, Epist. Familiar., XII. 16.)
During the years 701 to 705 new lieutenants joined Cæsar in Gaul: they were Minucius Basilus, Antistius Reginus, M. Silanus, Caninius Rebilus, Sempronius Rutilus, Marcus Antonius, P. Vatinius, Q. Calenus, and Lucius Cæsar.
16. MINUCIUS BASILUS.
L. Minucius Basilus had taken his name and surname from a rich Roman who had adopted him. Previously his name was L. Satrius. Cicero names him thus in one of his treatises (De Officiis, III. 18), although elsewhere (Epist. ad Atticum, XI. 5) he designates him by his name and surname. He became prætor in 709. (Dio Cassius, XLIII. 47.) Irritated at not having obtained, on leaving office, the province which he coveted, and at having only received money from Cæsar, he entered into the conspiracy formed against the Dictator. (Appian, Civil Wars, II; 113.—Dio Cassius, XLIII. 47.) A few months after, he was assassinated by his slaves, who thus took revenge for his having subjected several of them to the punishment of castration. (Appian, Civil Wars, III. 98.)
17. C. ANTISTIUS REGINUS.
Nothing is known of the antecedents or the end of this lieutenant of Cæsar. To judge by his name, he must have belonged to the family of the Antistii, which produced divers magistrates of the Republic, and several members of which have perpetuated their memory in inscriptions.
18. M. SILANUS.
Marcus Junius Silanus, son of Servilia, was brother, by the mother’s side, to M. Brutus. After the murder of Cæsar, he accompanied his brother-in-law Lepidus in his campaign in the north of Italy, and was sent by him, in 711, to Modena, without precise instructions (Dio Cassius, XLVI. 38); to the great regret of Lepidus, he took the side of Antony. (Cicero, Epist. Familiar., X. 30, 34.) After Antony’s defeat, Silanus, who had lost the confidence of Lepidus, proceeded to Sicily, to Sext. Pompey, and did not return to Rome until the peace of Misenum had been concluded with the latter, in 715. (Velleius Paterculas, II. 77.) Nothing more is known of his life, except that Augustus, in 729, took him as his colleague in the consulship. (Dio Cassius, LIII. 25.).
19. C. CANINIUS REBILUS.
Caius Caninius Rebilus, great-grandson, in all probability, of the person of that name who was prætor in 583, does not appear in history until the war with Gaul. Cæsar sent him, in 705, to Scribonius Libo, to treat of peace with Pompey. (Cæsar, De Bello Civili, I. 26.) Rebilus next accompanied Curio into Africa, and escaped only with a small number from the defeat inflicted upon them by King Juba. (De Bello Civili, II. 24.) In 708 he was still making war in the same province, and took Thapsus after the defeat of Scipio. (Cæsar, De Bello Africano, 86, 93.) In 709 he commanded in Spain the garrison of Hispalis. (Cæsar, De Bello Hispano, 35.) At the end of the same year, Cæsar caused him to be named consul, in the place of Q. Fabius, who had died suddenly: it was on the eve of the Calends of January that this event had taken place. Rebilus consequently was only consul for a few hours, and the short period of his office has excited the jokes of Cicero. (Epist. Familiar., VII. 30.—Dio Cassius, XLIII. 46.—Plutarch, Cæsar, 63.) No other details are known of the life of this lieutenant of Cæsar.