Quintus Lutatius Catulus

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For a poet, see Catullus

Quintus Lutatius Catulus Caesar (Latin: Q·LVTATIVS·C·F·CATVLVS·CAESAR) was a Roman general of the gens Lutatius and was a consul with Gaius Marius in 102 BC. His son, Quintus Lutatius Catulus, figured prominently in Roman politics as a consul and censor near the end of the Republic. His name was originally Sextus Julius Caesar, and he was Gaius Julius Caesar's father's first cousin.

In the war against the Cimbri and Teutones he was sent to defend the passage of the Alps but found himself compelled to retreat across the Po River, his troops having been reduced to a state of panic. But the Cimbri were defeated on the Raudine plain, near Vercellae, by the united armies of Catulus Caesar and Marius. When the chief honour was given to Marius, Catulus Caesar became his bitter opponent. He sided with Lucius Cornelius Sulla in the civil war, was included in the proscription list of 87, and when Marius declined to pardon him, committed suicide.

He was distinguished as an orator, poet and prose writer, and was well versed in Greek literature. He is said to have written the history of his consulship and the Cimbrian War after the manner of Xenophon; two epigrams by him have been preserved, one on Quintus Roscius the celebrated actor (Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Nat. Deorum, I. 28), the other of an erotic character, imitated from Callimachus (Aulus Gellius xix. 9).

Catulus Caesar was a man of great wealth, which he spent in beautifying Rome. Two buildings were known as "Monumenta Catuli": the temple of Fortuna Huiusce Diei, to commemorate the day of Vercellae, and the Porticus Catuli, built from the sale of the Cimbrian spoils. See Plutarch, Marine, Sulla; Appian, B.C. i. 74; VeIl. Pat. ii. 21; Florus iii. 21; Val. Max. vi. 3, ix. 13; Cicero, De Oratore, iii, 8, Brutus, 35.

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• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Preceded by Lucius Aurelius Orestes and Gaius Marius

Consul of the Roman Republic with Gaius Marius 102 BCE

Succeeded by Manius Aquillius and Gaius Marius