Titus Labienus

 ( 100s Bc Births ) 

At Caesar's instigation, Labienus accused Gaius Rabirius of high treason (perduellio) for the murder of the tribune Lucius Appuleius Saturninus and of his uncle Titus Labienus in 100 BC. The purpose of this trial was to discredit the so-called "final decree of the Senate" (senatus consultum ultimum), an emergency measure of the senate commonly used against the Populares and the Roman assemblies. Labienus used the antiquated procedure of the duumviri, used in the early republic, against Rabirius. The procedure bypassed normal criminal law and Rabirius would be tried without defense. Since tribunes were sacrosanct, it was seen as an act against the gods to kill one. Thus punishment of the culprit was seen as more of a cleansing to appease the gods. The killing was seen as a pollution so profound that a normal criminal trial was unnecessary and immediate cleansing was necessary to avoid the wrath of the gods. The duumviri were assigned to accuse under the pretense of obvious guilt and cleanse the culprit through scourging.

Rabirius appealed to the Centuriate Assembly and Cicero spoke in his defense. However, before the assembly could vote, Metellus Celer used his powers as an augur to claim the sightings of bad omens and take down the flag in Janiculum. That postponed the trial. Rabirius was ultimately sentenced to exile, as he was unable to pay an unreasonable fine.Tyrrell (9)

In the same year, Labienus carried a plebiscite returning the elections of the pontifices to the people. That indirectly secured for Caesar the dignity of pontifex Maximus, by his act of supporting Labienus in this cause (Dio Cassius xxxvii. 37).

Labienus was more a soldier than politician and primarily used his office as a gateway to secure himself positions of high military command. After his term as tribune, Labienus served as Caesar's legatus (second-in-command) in Gaul and so he took Caesar's place whenever he was out of Gaul.

Labienus commanded the winter quarters in Vesontio in 58 BC. He also had full command of the legions in Gaul during Caesar's absence, as his legatus pro praetore.Dio (41.4.3) He had this privilege when Caesar was administering justice in Cisalpine Gaul as well as during Caesar's second campaign in Britain (in 54 BC).Bellum Gallicum (5.8)

In 57 BC, during the Belgian campaign, in a battle against the Atrebates and Nervii near Sabis, Labienus, commanding the 9th and 10th legions, defeated the opposing Atrebates force and proceeded to take the enemy camp.BG (2.23) From there he sent the 10th Legion against the rear of the Nervii line while they were engaged with the rest of Caesar's army, single-handedly turning the tide of battle and securing Caesar the victory.BG (2.26)

Labienus is also credited with the defeat of the Treviri under Indutiomarus. Labienus spent days with his army fortified in their camp, while Indutiomarus harassed him daily in an attempt at intimidation and demoralization. Labienus waited for the right moment, when Indutiomarus and his forces were returning to their camp disorganized, to send out his cavalry through two gates. He gave them the orders to first kill Indutiomarus, then his trailing forces on their return. Labienus's men were successful, and with the death of their leader, the Treviri army scattered.BG (5.57) The Treviri forces later regrouped under relatives of Indutiomarus and moved upon Labienus, setting up camp across the river from his legions, waiting for reinforcements from the Germans. Labienus feigned a withdrawal, enticing the Treviri to cross the river, after which he turned around and had his men attack. Being in such a disadvantageous position, the Treviri forces were shattered. After hearing this, the German reinforcements turned around.BG (6.8)

Labienus's victory over the Parisii at Lutetia in the Battle of Lutetia is another example of his tactical genius. Sending five cohorts back towards Agedincum, and himself crossing the Seine River with three legions, he tricked the enemy into thinking that he had divided his army and was crossing the river in three places.BG (7.61) The enemy army split into thirds and pursued Labienus. The main body met Labienus which he subsequently surrounded with the rest of his legions. He then annihilated the reinforcements with his cavalry.BG (7.62)

In September, 51 BC, Caesar made Labienus governor of Cisalpine Gaul.BG (8.52)

Pompey made Labienus commander of the cavalry (magister equitum). Labienus attempted to persuade Pompey to face Caesar in Italy and not retreat to Hispania (Iberian Peninsula, comprising modern Spain and Portugal) to regroup, insisting that Caesar's army was thin and weakened after his campaign in Gaul.Tyrrell (31)

But Labienus's ill fortune under Pompey was as marked as his success had been under Caesar. From the defeat at the Battle of Pharsalus, where he commanded the cavalry, he fled to Corfu, and after hearing of the death of Pompey then proceeded to Africa. He created confidence in the followers of Pompey by lying to them, claiming that Caesar had received a mortal wound at the Battle of Pharsalus.Sextus Julius Frontinius: Stratagems Book II He was able through sheer force of numbers to inflict a slight check upon Caesar at the Battle of Ruspina in 46 BC. Bellum Africum Book 41 By arranging his troops into dense formations, he tricked Caesar into thinking he had only foot soldiers, and was able to rout Caesar's cavalry and surround his army. However, Labienus was unable to defeat Caesar's forces, and was compelled to leave the field. After the defeat at the Battle of Thapsus, he joined the younger Gnaeus Pompeius in Hispania.

Death came to Labienus in the Battle of Munda, an evenly matched conflict between the armies of Caesar and the sons of Pompey. Bogud, an ally of Caesar, approached the Pompeians with his army from the rear. Labienus was commanding the Pompeians' cavalry unit at the time, and seeing this, took the cavalry from the front lines to meet him. The Pompeian legions misinterpreted this as a retreat, became disheartened and began to break.Dio (43.38) Pompeians suffered massive casualties during the rout, in which Labienus himself was killed. This defeat ended Caesar's Civil War. According to Appian, (BC2.105), his head was brought to Caesar, who then dispatched men to locate the body of his old friend, and buried him with full honours.

• Labienus is featured in The Gods of War, a novel by British author Conn Iggulden, though in a much reduced role, as his historical position as Caesar's second-in-command is filled instead by Marcus Junius Brutus, whose relationship with Caesar is conversely greatly expanded.
• Labienus was an important minor character in the earlier Masters of Rome novels by Australian author Colleen McCullough. In these, his first appearance is in the Trial of Rabirius, but this is placed rather later in the political year than it is usually stated as having been, orchestrated by Caesar as a reaction to Cicero's decision to have several Catiline conspirators executed without trial while the "Senatus Consultum Ultimum" is in force – rather than as a prior warning against such an action before the decree was even in place. He then falls on hard times because he had drawn the disfavour of Pompey for having an affair with his wife Mucia Tertia, the daughter of Quintus Mucius Scaevola Pontifex, the pontifex maximus and consul in 95 BC, and thus a member of Rome's nobility that he moved to his vast estates in Picenum. He is portrayed latterly as a very capable but fierce and cruel soldier and commander, whose brilliance wins battles in Gaul, but whose brutality went some way towards alienating Caesar's Gallic allies and thus causing the battles in the first place. McCullough takes a somewhat different interpretation of the events, and has Caesar shunning Labienus, instead of Labienus defecting to Pompey. In the novels, Caesar disowns Labienus when it comes to civil war, not wanting him on his side because he is too cruel and unpredictable.
• Labienus was also featured in the BBC One docudrama .
• Labienus is a significant character in Simon Turney's series Marius' Mules.
• Labienus features in the campaign of the video game Praetorians. He is a playable character in several missions set in the Gallic Wars to finally re-emerge as the main antagonist in the last mission set at the end of the Civil War. In the game's version of events, Labienus did not die in the Battle of Munda, but has managed to flee to the Pompeian encampment where he makes his final stand.
• In the 2021 series Dogmatix and the Indomatibles, based on the world-famous Asterix comics, Labienus is featured as the accomplished conquerer and de facto ruler of Lutetia, now known as Paris, in 52 B.C., similar to his real-life counterpart. In the show, Labienus owns a siamese cat named Monalisa, whom Dogmatix opposes.

• Labiena (gens)

• Caesar's Bellum Africum
• Caesar's Bellum Civile
• Caesar's Bellum Gallicum
• Cassius Dio's Roman History
• Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares
• Sextus Julius Frontinus
• Tyrrell, William B. Military and Political Career of T. Labienus (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Washington, 1970).