5. D.JuniusSilanus, probably a younger son of No. 4, was the step-father
of M. Brutus, the murderer of Caesar, having married his mother Servilia. He was aedile about
B. C. 70, when he exhibited very magnificent games, and
notwithstanding was unsuccessful in his application for the consulship for the year B. C. 64. He was elected consul in the comitia held in the summer of B. C. 63, and in consequence of his being consul designatus was first
asked for his opinion by Cicero in the debate in the senate on the punishment of the Catilinarian conspirators. He declared himself in favour of
inflicting the extreme punishment upon the conspirators; but after the speech of Caesar, he
said that he should vote in favour of the proposition of Tib. Nero, who had recommended that
they should be kept in prison till Catiline was conquered, affirming that he had not
recommended that they should be put to death, but that they should be imprisoned, as this was
the extreme of punishment to a Roman senator. (Cic. de Off. 2.16, ad Att. 1.1; Sall. Cat. 50 ; Cic. in
Cat. 4.4, ad Att. 12.21.7; Appian, App. BC
2.5; Suet. Caes. 14 ;Plut. Cic. 20, 21, Cat. 22). Silanus was consul B. C. 62, with L.
Licinius Murena, along with whom he proposed the Lex Licinia Junia, which enacted that a
rogatio must be promulgated three nundines before the people voted upon it. It confirmed the
Lex Caecilia Didia (Cic. pro Sest. 64, in Vatin. 14, Phil. 5.3, ad Att. 2.9, 4.16). Pliny (Plin. Nat. 2.35)
speaks of Silanus as proconsul. As an orator Silanus owed more to nature than to study. (Cic.
Brut. 68.)