Scaptius

1. P. Scaptius. It is related that the inhabitants of Aricia and Ardea having a dispute about certain land, made the Roman people the arbiters; and that the latter, upon the testimony and advice of P. Scaptius, adjudged that the land belonged to neither of these people, but to themselves, B. C. 466 (Liv. 3.71, 72; Dionys. A. R. 11.52). But as the district in question lay in the region of the Scaptian tribe, Niebuhr observes that it is very doubtful whether such a person as Scaptius ever existed. He also makes some other remarks upon the tale which are worth reading, (Hist. of Rome, vol. ii. p. 449, note 985.)

2. P. Scaptius, a Roman citizen, who carried on the trade of a negotiator, or money-lender, in the province of Cilicia. The town of Salamis in Cyprus owed him a sum of money; and in order to obtain from the Salaminians what was due to him, as well as the usurious interest which he chose to charge, App. Claudius, the predecessor of Cicero in the government of Cilicia, had made Scaptius praefectus in the town, and had also placed some troops of cavalry at his disposal, for the purpose of enforcing his claims. When Cicero succeeded Claudius in the province, M. Brutus, who was a friend of Scaptius, warmly recommended his interests to Cicero; but the latter very properly declined to be a party to such infamous proceedings, recalled the cavalry from Cyprus, and refused the praefecture to Scaptius, on the ground that such an appointment ought not to be given to any negotiator. Scaptius is mentioned at a subsequent period in Cicero's correspondence. (Cic. Att. 5.21, 6.1-3, 15.13, Pseudo-Cic. ad Brut. 1.18.)

A Roman who traded in Cilicia, lending money to the people of Salamis in Cyprus, and using the troops of Appius Claudius to enforce his usurious terms. Cicero deprived him of the prefecture of Salamis which Claudius had given him, and refused him any further military aid (Cic. Ad Att. v. 21; vi. 1-3; xv. 13).