Piso Licinianus

Family: Roman · Role: noble and adopted successor · First appears: Histories I.14-16

Piso Licinianus was noble on both sides, the son of Marcus Crassus and Scribonia, and a descendant of Cnaeus Pompeius. He formed a friendship with Laco after meeting him at Rubellius Plautus’ house. Galba adopted him and offered him the imperial throne, declaring, “Your distinguished qualities and your patriotism have persuaded me to offer to you peacefully and quietly the throne for which our ancestors fought on the field of battle, and which I too won by war.”

On the tenth of January, Galba announced the adoption to the soldiers as an imperial and military tradition, and publicly created Piso emperor, with the others addressing him accordingly. Five days after being made Caesar, Piso remained Galba’s designated successor; he was sent first to the camp as Galba’s representative. His succession brought him into rivalry and then open enmity with Otho and Titus Vinius.

When Otho’s authority rose, Sulpicius Florus and Statius Murcus were sent to kill Piso. Sempronius Densus, who had been assigned by Galba to protect him, confronted the assassins and enabled Piso to escape despite his wounds, but Piso was later dragged out and butchered on the threshold of the temple of Vesta. His wife Verania and his brother Scribonianus laid out his body; his brothers Magnus and Crassus had also been executed, and Piso’s only advantage in having been adopted before his elder brother was that he was killed first.