5. pro Planc. 21). He was tribune of the plebs, de Off 2.21). He seems to have brought forward this measure chiefly with the
view of acquiring popularity, and he quietly dropped it when he found there was no hope of
carrying it. In pro C.
Rabir. 7). He was a candidate for the consulship DRUSUS, No. 6]. It is sufficient to state here
that Drusus at first enjoyed the full confidence of the senate, and endeavoured by his
measures to reconcile the people to the senatorial party. Philippus was a personal enemy of
Drusus, and as he belonged to the popular party, he offered a vigorous opposition to the
tribune, and thus came into open conflict with the senate. The exasperation of parties rose to
the greatest height, and even the senate itself was disgraced by scenes of turbulence and
indecorum. On one occasion Philippus declared in the senate that he could no longer carry on
the government with such a body, and that there was need of a new senate. This roused the
great orator L. Licinius Crassus, who asserted in the course of his speech, in which he is
said to have surpassed his usual eloquence, that that man could not be his consul who refused
to recognise him as senator (de Vir. 3.66). The opposition of the consul was, however, in vain; and the laws of the
tribune were carried. But a reaction followed almost immediately: de Prov. Cons. 9, de Leg. 2.12, Fragm. vol. iv. p.
449, ed. Orelli; Ascon. in Cornel. p. 68). Nothing else is recorded of
the consulship of Philippus, except that he reconmended the senate to lay claim to Egypt, in
consequence of its having been left to them by the will of Alexander. (Cic. de Leg. Agr.
2.16.)
In pro Dom. 32.)
In the civil wars between Marius and Sulla, Philippus took no part. His original
predilections might have led him to join Marius; but the experience he had had of the Roman
mob in his consulship, together with his reconciliation to the senate, led him probably to
desire the success of Sulla, Cicero speaks of him as belonging to the party of the latter; but
as he continued at Rome during Cinna's usurpation, and was suffered to remain unmolested, he
must have been regarded as neutral in the strife (Hist. 1.18, 19). But Philippus was no
friend to the aristocracy in heart, and accordingly gave his support to Pompey, by whose means
the people eventually regained most of their former political power. Thus he was one of those
who advocated sending Pompey to conduct the war in Spain against Sertorius, and is reported on
that occasion to have said "Non se Pompeium sua sententia pro consule, sed pro consulibus
mittere." (Cic. pro Leg. Man. 21, Phil. 11.8;
Philippus was one of the most distinguished orators of his time. His reputation continued
even to the Augustan age, whence we read in Horace (
"Strenuus et fortis causisque Philippus agendis
Clarus."
Cicero says that Philippus was decidedly inferior as an orator to his two great
contemporaries Crassus and Antonius, but was without question next to them. In speaking he
possessed much freedom and wit; he was fertile in invention, and clear in the development of
his ideas; and in altercation he was witty and sarcastic. He was also well acquainted with
Greek literature for that time (de Or. 2.78): hence in his old age it was
with both contempt and anger that he used to listen to the studied periods of Hortensius
(R. R. 3.3.10; Colum. viii 16; PUBLICOLA]. (Our knowledge respecting Philippus is chiefly derived from Cicero, the
various passages in whose writings relating to him are collected in Orelli, Onom. Tull vol. ii. p. 380, &c.; comp Meyer, Orator. Roman.
Frtagm. p. 323, &c., 2d ed.; Westermann, Cesch. der Rlm.
Beredtsamkeit, ยง 42,.)