Rebilus

• surname of the legate C. Caninius, v. h. v.

the name of a family of the plebeian Caninia gens.

1. C. Caninius Rebilus, praetor B. C. 171, obtained Sicily as his province. (Liv. 42.28, 31.)

2. M. Caninius Rebilus, probably a brother of the preceding, was sent by the senate into Macedonia, in B. C. 170, along with M. Fulvius Flaccus, in order to investigate the reason of the want of success of the Roman arms in the war against Perseus. In B. C. 167 he was one of the three ambassadors appointed by the senate to conduct the Thracian hostages back to Cotys. (Liv. 43.11, 45.42.)

3. C. Caninius Rebilus, was one of Caesar's legates in Gaul in B. C. 52 and 51, and accompanied him in his march into Italy in B. C. 49. Caesar sent him, together with Scribonius Libo, with overtures of peace to Pompey, when the latter was on the point of leaving Italy. In the same year he crossed over to Africa with C. Curio, and was one of the few who escaped with their lives when Curio was defeated and slain by Juba. In B. C. 46 he again fought in Africa, but with more success, for he was now under the command of Caesar himself. After the defeat of Scipio he took the town of Thapsus, on which occasion Hirtius calls him proconsul. In the following year, B. C. 45, during the war in Spain, there was a report that he had perished in a shipwreck (Cic. Att. 12.37.4, 44.4); but this was false, for he was then in command of the garrison at Hispalis. On the last day of December in this year, on the sudden death of the consul Q. Fabius Maximus, Caesar made Rebilus consul for the few remaining hours of the day. Cicero made himself merry at this appointnlent, remarking that no one had died in this consulship ; that the consul was so wonderfully vigilant that he had never slept during his term of office; and that it might be asked under what consuls he had been consul. (Caes. Gal. 7.83, 90, 8.24, &c., B. C. 1.26, 2.24; Hirt. B. Afr. 86, 93, B. Hisp. 35; D. C. 43.46; Cic. Fam. 7.30; Suet. Jul. 76, Ner. 15; Plin. Nat. 7.53. s. 54; Tac. Hist. 3.37; Plut. Caes. 58; Macrob. Sat. ii 3.)

4. (Caninius) Rebilus, probably a brother of No. 3, was proscribed by the triumvirs in B. C. 43, but escaped to Sex. Pompey in Sicily. (Appian, App. BC 4.48.)

5. C. Caninius Rebilus, probably a son of No. 3, was consul suffectus in B. C. 12 (J. AJ 14.10.20). In the Fasti Capitolini he is said to have died in his year of office, and could not therefore have been the man of consular rank mentioned by Seneca (de Benef. 2.21), according to the supposition of Drumann.

6. (Caninius) Rebilus, a man of consular rank, and of great wealth but bad character, sent a large sum of money as a present to Julius Graecinus, who refused to accept it on account of the character of the donor (Sen. de Benef. 2.21). The name of this Rebilns does not occur in the Fasti, and he must, therefore, have been one of the consules suffecti. As Julius Graecinus was put to death in the reign of Caligula, it is very probable that the Rebilus mentioned above is the same as the C. Aminius Rebius, who put an end to his own life in the reign of Nero. Tacitus describes him as a person of great wealth and bad character, and also states that he was then an old man (Ann. 13.30). As the name of C. Aminius Rebius is evidently corrupt, there can be little doubt that we should change it, as Lipsius proposed, into Caninius Rebilus. (Respecting the Caninii Rebili in general, see Drumann, Geschichte Roms, vol. ii. pp. 107-109.)

One of Caesar's legates in Gaul and in the Civil War. On the last day of December in B.C. 45, on the sudden death of the consul Q. Fabius Maximus, Caesar made Rebilus consul for the few remaining hours of the day (Cic. Ad Fam. vii. 30; Suet. Iul. 76).