Gaius Aurelius Cotta
Gaius was one of the family’s more
distinguished senators and consuls. He had the rare honor of being
elected to a second term as consul.
He was also a famed orator, as well as a mentor and personal friend of Cicero. (Now that I know of this relationship, I have an inexpensive 3D-printed miniature copy of a famous bust of Cicero on top of my bookcase, who I can casually describe as “an old friend of the family,” if anybody happens to ask who it is.)
One of Gaius Aurelius Cotta’s more memorable experiences came when he was meeting with the Senate in the Temple of Concordia, and an angry mob surrounded it. Normally, no one would have dreamt of threatening the core power structure of Rome. But these people were desperate for bread, and fed up with the political entities they blamed the shortage on.
The senators and consuls had guards assigned to them, but there weren’t many of these, and their weapons were made more for shooing pedestrians out of the path of a dignitary than for out-and-out lethal combat. The stage was set for a pivotal clash disturbingly similar to the storming of the Bastille. The senators had no idea what to do.
Gaius Aurelius Cotta did.
Disregarding the danger to his own life, he strode out to speak to the rioters. The extemporaneous speech he gave would later be described as having been such an eloquent admixture of his characteristic level-headedness, logic, fairness, and concern for the rights of the people that the mob eventually lost its fury, turned around, and went home.
He was also a famed orator, as well as a mentor and personal friend of Cicero. (Now that I know of this relationship, I have an inexpensive 3D-printed miniature copy of a famous bust of Cicero on top of my bookcase, who I can casually describe as “an old friend of the family,” if anybody happens to ask who it is.)
One of Gaius Aurelius Cotta’s more memorable experiences came when he was meeting with the Senate in the Temple of Concordia, and an angry mob surrounded it. Normally, no one would have dreamt of threatening the core power structure of Rome. But these people were desperate for bread, and fed up with the political entities they blamed the shortage on.
The senators and consuls had guards assigned to them, but there weren’t many of these, and their weapons were made more for shooing pedestrians out of the path of a dignitary than for out-and-out lethal combat. The stage was set for a pivotal clash disturbingly similar to the storming of the Bastille. The senators had no idea what to do.
Gaius Aurelius Cotta did.
Disregarding the danger to his own life, he strode out to speak to the rioters. The extemporaneous speech he gave would later be described as having been such an eloquent admixture of his characteristic level-headedness, logic, fairness, and concern for the rights of the people that the mob eventually lost its fury, turned around, and went home.
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WINTER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
