Quintus Varius Severus

Quintus Varius Severus (from 125 to 120 BC; died after 90 BC) was a politician in the late Roman Republic. He was also called Hybrida (of mixed race) because his mother was Spanish^[1][2]

Quintus Varius Severus Hybrida was from Sucro, Spain (in northern Spain, in the contemporary municipality of Candamo) and was the first senator of the Republic to come from the Spanish province. In 90 BC he was elected to the tribune. He wrote a law, the lex Varia, in order to punish all those who had assisted or advised those who took up arms against the Roman people. Under this law many distinguished senators such as Gaius Aurelius Cotta were sent to exile. In the following year after the application of the law, Varius himself was also convicted by the same law he wrote.

References

1. Valerius Maximus, 8,6,4. "Q. autem Varius propter obscurum ius ciuitatis Hybrida",
2. Harry Thurston Peck Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1898)Online copy

Original texts

• Appian, Die Bürgerkriege, Buch 1,37
• Asconius 22
• Cicero, Brutus 304-305
• Valerius Maximus 8,6,4

Literature

• Ernst Badian, "Quaestiones Variae", Historia 4 (1969), pp. 447-491.
• Erich S. Gruen, "The Lex Varia", Journal of Roman Studies, 55 (1965), p. 59-73.
• Jochen Martin, Die Popularen in der Geschichte der späten Republik. Dissertation, Freiburg i. Br. 1965.
• Lukas Thommen, Das Volkstribunat der späten römischen Republik. Stuttgart, 1989 ISBN 3-515-05187-2.