Va'tia or
Va'tiaIsauricus1. P.ServiliusVatia, C. F. M. N., surnamed ISAURICUS, was the grandson of Q. Metcllus Macedonicus. (Cic. pro
Dom. 47.) He is first mentioned in B. C. 100, where he took up
arms with the other Roman nobles against Saturninus. (Cic. pro C. Rabir.
perd. 7.) He was raised to the consulship by Sulla in B. C. 79,
along with Ap. Claudius Pulcher, and in the following year (B. C. 78)
was sent as proconsul to Cilicia, with a powerful fleet and army, in order to clear the seas
of the pirates, whose ravages now spread far and wide. He was a man of integrity, resolution,
and energy, and carried on the war with great ability and success. At first he sailed against
the pirates, and defeated them in a naval engagement off the coast of Cilicia. The pirates
then abandoned the sea and took refuge in their strongholds among the mountains which skirt
the southern coast of Asia Minor. Servilius proceeded to attack their fortresses, which were
defended with the greatest obstinacy and courage. We have only fragmentary accounts of this
war, which occupied Servilius about three years; but it appears that the Romans experienced
all the sufferings and dangers to which regular troops are generally exposed in a warfare
among mountains defended by brave and hardy inhabitants. Servilius, after landing, first took
Olympus, a town of Lycia, situated on a mountain of the same name, which was resolutely
defended by a robber chief, called Zenicetus, who perished with his followers in the flames of
the place. He next obtained possession of Phaselis in Pamphylia, as well as
other places of less importance, in his march through the country; and he then penetrated into
Cilicia, where he took the strong fortress of Corycus on the coast. Having thus subdued the
strongholds of the pirates on the coast, he resolved to carry his arms against the
robber-tribes in the interior of the country, and for this purpose crossed Mount Taurus, which
was the first time that a Roman army had passed these mountains. His arms were chiefly
directed against the Isauri, and he laid siege to their capital, Isaura, of which he obtained
possession by diverting the course of a river, and thus depriving the inhabitants of water,
who were in consequence compelled to surrender. This was reckoned his most brilliant success :
his army gave him the title of Imperator, and he obtained the surname of Isauricus. After
giving Cilicia and the surrounding country the organization of a Roman province, he sailed
home and entered Rome in triumph in B. C. 74. His triumph was a
brilliant one. The people flocked to see the formidable Nicon, and the other leaders of the
pirates, who walked in the procession, and also the rich booty which he had obtained in the
captured cities and which he conscientiously deposited in the public treasury, without
appropriating any portion to himself, after the fashion of most proconsuls. But brilliant as
his success had been, it was not complete; the pirates were only repressed for a time, and
their ravages soon became more formidable than ever. (Liv. Epit.
90, 93; Oros. 5.23; Flor. 3.6; Eutrop. 6.3; Strab. xiv. pp.
667, 671; Frontin. Strat. 3.7.1; Cic. Ver.
1.21, 3.90, 5.26, 30, de Leg. Agr. 1.2, 2.19 ; V. Max. 8.5.6; comp. Drumann, Geschichte Roms,
vol. iv. pp. 396, 397.)
Servilius, after his return, was regarded as one of the leading members of the senate, and
is frequently mentioned in the orations and letters of Cicero in terms of great respect. In
B. C. 70 he was one of the judices at the trial of Verres; in B. C. 66 he supported the rogation of Manilius for conferring upon Pompey
the command of the war against the pirates; in B. C. 63 he was a
candidate for the dignity of pontifex maximus, but was defeated by Julius Caesar, who had
served under him in the war against the pirates; in the same year he assisted Cicero in the
suppression of the Catilinarian conspiracy, and spoke in the senate in favour of inflicting
the last penalty of the law upon the conspirators; in B. C. 57 he
joined the other nobles in procuring Cicero's recall from banishment ; in B.
C. 56 he opposed the restoration of Ptolemy to his kingdom; and in B. C. 55 he was censor with M. Valerius Messala Niger. The other occasions on which
his name occurs do not require notice. He took no part in the civil wars, probably on account
of his advanced age, and died in B. C. 44, the same year as Caesar.
By the Leges Annales, which were strictly enforced by Sulla, Servilius must have been at the
least 43 years of age at his consulship, B. C. 79, and must therefore
have been about 80 at the time of his death. The respect in which he was held by his
contemporaries is shown by a striking tale, which is related by Valerius Maximus and Dio
Cassius. (Cic. Ver. 1.21, pro Leg. Man. 23, ad
Att. 12.21, de Prov. Cons. 1, post Red. ad Quir. 7, post Red. in Sen.
10, ad Fam. 1.1, 16.23, Philipp 2.5 ; V.
Max. 8.5.6; D. C. 45.16.)