A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

1. Q.MinuciusThermus, Q. F. L. N. (Fasti Capit.), served under Scipio as tribunus militum in the war against Hannibal in Africa in B. C. 202, was tribune of the plebs B. C. 201, curule aedile B. C. 197, and in the same year was appointed one of the triumviri for founding six colonies on the coast of Italy (Appian, Pun. 36, 44 ; Liv. 30.40, 32.27, 29, 34.45). In the following year, B. C. 196, he was praetor, and received the province of Nearer Spain, where he carried on the war with great success, and received in consequence the honour of a triumph on his return to Rome in B. C. 195 (Liv. 33.24, 26, 44, 34.10; Appian, Hisp. 39). In B. C. 193 he was consul with L. Cornelius Merula. He obtained Liguria as his province, where a formidable insurrection had just broken out. He made Pisae his head-quarters, and carried on the war with vigour; but in consequence of his inferiority to the enemy in numbers, he was obliged to remain on the defensive and was twice in great peril during the campaign. In the following year B. C. 192, his imperium was prolonged, and lie received additional troops, by means of which he was able to assume the offensive, and to gain a decisive victory over the Ligurians. Next year his imperium was again prolonged, and he again gained a victory over the Ligurians, who had made an unexpected attack upon his camp in the night. He returned to Rome in B. C. 190, and Sued for a triumph, but it was refused him, chiefly through the influence of M. Cato, who delivered on the occasion his two orations intitled De decem Hominibus and De falsis Pugnis. Cato accused him of having unjustly put to death ten freemen in his province, and of having in his petition for the triumph invented many false battles, and exaggerated the number of the enemy that had been slain (Liv. 34.54, 55, 35.3, 11, 20, 21, 36.38, 38.46; Gel. 10.3, 13.24; Meyer, Oratorum Romanorum Fragmenta, pp. 40-44, 2d ed. ). There was also an oration of Cato intitled De suis Virtutibus contra Thermum, which is cited by Festus (pp. 182, 234), and other grammarians. Meyer (Ibid. p. 45, foll.) supposes that Cato accused Thermus in B. C. 189, and that this oration was spoken in this year; but this is improbable, as we know that Thermus served under Scipio Asiaticus in this year in the war against Antiochus. He and his brother Lucius were sent by Scipio to receive the oath of Antiochus to the treaty which was concluded at the end of the war. In the course of the same year he was nominated by the senate one of the ten commissioners to settle the affairs of Asia. He was killed in the following year, B. C. 188, while fighting under Cn. Manlius Vulso against the Thracians. (Appian, Syr. 39 ; Plb. 22.26; Liv. 37.55, 38.41, 46.)