Publius Vatinius

Publius Vatinius was a Roman statesman during the last decades of the Republic.

Vatinius was quaestor in 63 BC, the same year Marcus Tullius Cicero was consul. Cicero believed that Vatinius was elected on account of the influence of one of the consuls. Cicero sent him to Puteoli to prevent the gold and silver from being carried away from the city; but his extortions were so oppressive that the inhabitants were obliged to complain of his conduct to the consul. He later served as a legatus under Gaius Cosconius. Again Cicero claims that while there he carried out robbery and extortion.

In 59 BC he was tribune of the plebs and sold his services to Gaius Julius Caesar, who was then consul along with Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus. Vatinius was a most zealous partisan for Caesar. He brought forward several proposals before the people, including the bill by which Caesar received the provinces of Cisalpine Gaul and IIlyricum for five years, to which the senate afterwards added the province of Transalpine Gaul. Cicero accuses him of setting the auspices at defiance, of offering violence to the consul Bibulus, of filling the forum with soldiers, and of crushing the veto of his colleagues in the tribunate by force of arms. It was during his tribunate that Vatinius brought forward the informer Lucius Vettius, who accused many of the most distinguished men in the state, and among others Cicero, of a plot against the life of Pompey.

Vatinius left Rome with Caesar to serve as a legatus in Gaul. But soon he returned to Rome to run for further political offices; but he failed in standing for the praetorship. His animosity towards Cicero continued and he appeared as a witness against Milo and Sestius, two of Cicero's friends. Cicero spoke on behalf of Sestius with a scathing speech against the character of Vatinius.

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