Vetus

the name of a family of the Antistia gens.

1. Antistius Vetus, propraetor in Further Spain about B. C. 68, under whom Caesar served as quaestor. (Vell. 2.43; Plut. Caes. 5; Suet. Jul. 7.)

2. C. Antistius Vetus, son of the preceding, was taken as quaestor by Caesar out of gratitude to his father, when he was propraetor in Further Spain in B. C. 61. In B. C. 57 Vetus was tribune of the plebs and supported Cicero in opposition to Clodius. In the civil war he espoused Caesar's party, and we find him in Syria in B. C. 45, fighting against Q. Caecilius Bassus, who had formerly been on the Pompeian side, and who now attempted to seduce the troops in the East from their allegiance to Caesar. He besieged Bassus in Apameia, but was obliged to retire on the approach of the Parthians. In B. C. 34 Vetus carried on war against the Salassi, and in B. C. 30 was consul suffectus. He accompanied Augustus to Spain in B. C. 25, and on the illness of the emperor continued the war against the Cantabri and Astures, whom he reduced to submission. (Plut. Caes. 5; Cic. ad Q. Fr. 2.1.3, ad Att. 14.9.3; D. C. 47.27; Appian, App. Ill. 17; D. C. 53.25; Vell. 2.90; Florus, 4.12.21.) The annexed coin seems to have been struck by this C. Antistius Vetus, as triumvir of the mint. It contains on the obverse a female head with ANTISTIVS VETVS IIIVIR, and on the reverse various utensils of the pontifices with IMP. CAESAR AV(G.) COS. XI.

3. C. Antistius Vetus, son of No. 2, was consul in B. C. 6 with D. Laelius Balbus; and as he lived to see both his sons consuls, he must have been alive at least as late as A. D. 28. (D. C. 55.9; Vell. 2.43.) He was a friend of Velleius Paterculus, from whom we learn (l.c.) that Vetus was a pontifex.

4. C. Antistius Vetus, son of No. 3, was consul A. D. 23 with C. Asinius Pollio. (Vell. 2.43; Dio Cass. Index, lib. lvii.; Tac. Ann. 4.17; Frontin. Aquaed. 102.)

5. L. Antistius Vetus, son of No. 3, was consul suffectus A. D. 28. (Vell. 2.43 ; Fasti.)

6. C. Antistius Vetus, probably son of No. 4, was consul under Claudius A. D. 50 with M. Suilius Nerulinus. (Tac. Ann. 12.25.)

7. L. Antistius Vetus, probably also a son of No. 5, was consul with the emperor Nero in the first year of his reign, A. D. 55. Three years afterwards, A. D. 58, Vetus commanded a Roman army in Germany, and as he had no war to carry on, he formed the project, in order that his soldiers might not remain idle, of connecting the Mosella(Moselle) and the Arar (Saone) by a canal, by which means a water communication would be established between the Mediterranean and the Northern Ocean, as troops could be conveyed down the Rhone and the Saone into the Moselle through the canal, and down the Moselle into the Rhine, and so into the Ocean. The daughter of Vetus was married to Rubellius Plautus; and when Nero resolved upon the death of the latter in A. D. 62, his father-in-law pressed him to take up arms against the emperor. [Plautus, p. 411b.] Plautus was put to death, but Vetus escaped for a time. Three years later, A. D. 65, the tyrant resolved upon his death, and Vetus accordingly anticipated his sentence by opening his veins in the bath. His mother-in-law Sextia and his daughter Pollutia likewise opened their veins and perished along with him. (Tac. Ann. 13.11, 53, 14.57, 58, 16.10, 11.)

8. C. Antistius Vetus, consul with C. Manlius Valens in the last year of the reign of Domitian, A. D. 96. (D. C. 67.14.)

9. Antistius Vetus, consul under Trajan, A. D. 116, with Aelianus. (Fasti.)

10. Antistius Vetus, consul under Antoninus Pius, A. D. 150, with Gallicanus. (Fasti; Cod. 2. tit. 13. s. 1.)

(1) Propraetor in Further Spain about B.C. 68, under whom Caesar served as quaestor (Plut. Caes. 5).

(2) Gaius, son of the preceding, quaestor in B.C. 61, and tribune of the plebs in 57, when he supported Cicero in opposition to Clodius. In the Civil War he espoused Caesar's party, and we find him in Syria in 45, fighting against Q. Caecilius Brassus. In 34 Vetus carried on war against the Salassi, and in 30 was consul suffectus. He accompanied Augustus to Spain in 25, and on the illness of the emperor continued the war against the Cantabri and Astures, whom he reduced to submission (Cic. Ad Q. Fr. ii. 1; Dio Cass. xlvii. 27, liii. 25; Flor. iv. 12, 21).

(3) Lucius, Roman consul with the emperor Nero, A.D. 55. In 58 he commanded a Roman army in Germany, and formed the project of connecting the Mosella (Moselle) and the Arar (Saône) by a canal, and thus forming a communication between the Mediterranean and the Northern Ocean, as troops could be conveyed down the Rhone and the Saône into the Moselle through the canal, and down the Moselle into the Rhine, and so into the Ocean. Vetus put an end to his life in 65, in order to anticipate his sentence of death, which Nero had resolved upon (Tac. Ann. xiii. 11, 53; xiv. 57; xvi. 10).