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**** WIKIPEDIA: Lucius Munatius Plancus (c. 87 B.C.-c. 15 B.C.) was a Roman senator, consul in 42 B.C., and censor in 22 B.C. with Aemilius Lepidus Paullus. Along with Talleyrand eighteen centuries later, he is one of the classic historical examples of men who have managed to survive very dangerous circumstances by constantly shifting their allegiances.

Bell. Gall. V.24: Tres (legiones) in Belgis collocavit: eis Marcum Crassum quaestorem et Lucium Munatium Plancum et Gaium Trebonium legatos praefecit CÔø‡sar fit hiverner trois lÔø‡gions en Belgique, sous le commandement du questeur Marcus Crassus et des lÔø‡gats Lucius Munatius Plancus et Gaius TrÔø‡bonius. The inscription on his mausoleum in Gaeta states that he founded "Raurica": it has been identified with Augst, the forerunner of Basel, and he is therefore considered a sort of patron of the city; a late‑16c statue of him graces the courtyard of that city's town hall.

When Caesar was assassinated on March 15th, 44 BC, Plancus was the Proconsul of Gallia Comata. But the following year he turned to Mark Antony, and he held the consulship with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus in 42 BC. He became proconsul of Asia in about 40 B.C.. During Mark Antony's expedition to Armenia and Parthia, to avenge Crassus' death, he was proconsul of Syria. But when Antony's campaign against the Parthians failed, he chose to leave him and join Octavian. According to Suetonius, Plancus was the one who suggested (le 16 janvier 27, according to Canu) that Octavian take the title "Augustus" rather than be called Romulus as a "second founder of Rome" (Suet. Aug. 7).

In 22 B.C., Augustus appointed him and Aemilius Lepidus Paullus to fill the office of Censor (Suet. Aug. 37, Claud. 16; Dio, liv.2). Their censorship is famous not for any remarkable deeds, but because it was the last time that such magistrates were appointed. According to Velleius Paterculus (II.95), it was a shame for both of the senators: ". . . the censorship of Plancus and Paullus, which, exercised as it was with mutual discord, was little credit to themselves or little benefit to the state, for the one lacked the force, the other the character, in keeping with the office; Paullus was scarcely capable of filling the censor's office, while Plancus had only too much reason to fear it, nor was there any charge which he could make against young men, or hear others make, of which he, old though he was, could not recognize himself as guilty . . ." Suetonius further claims (Nero, 4), that Nero's grandfather, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus "was haughty, extravagant, and cruel, and when he was only an aedile, forced the censor Lucius Plancus to make way for him on the street": the story seems to hint at the poor reputation Plancus held after his censorship.

Plancus is one of the very few important Roman historical figures whose tomb has survived and is identifiable, although his body has long since vanished. The Mausoleum of Plancus, a massive cylinder tomb now much restored (and incongruously consecrated to the Virgin Mary in the late 19th century), is in Gaeta, on a hill overlooking the sea: it houses a small permanent exhibit in honor of him. **** He was a protégé of Julius Caesar's, serving under him both in the Gallic and the civil wars. He is mentioned as one of Caesar's legates in Gaul in the winter of 54‑53 B.C.; and with C. Fabius, co‑commander of Caesar's troops near Ilerda in Spain at the beginning of 49 B.C. He accompanied Caesar in his African campaign in 46 B.C., and attempted, but without success, to induce C. Considius, the Pompeian commander, to surrender to him the town of Adrumetum. At the end of this year he was appointed one of the praefects of the city, to whom the charge of Rome was entrusted during Caesar's absence in Spain next year. He received a still further proof of Caesar's confidence in being nominated to the government of Transalpine Gaul for 44 B.C., with the exception of the Narbonese and Belgic portions of the province, and also to the consulship for 42 B.C., with D. Brutus as his colleague: he is entrusted with setting up the veterans near Benevento after the victory at Philippi.

On the death of Caesar in 44 B.C. the political life of Plancus may be said to commence. After declaring himself in favour of an amnesty he hastened to Gaul to take possession of his province, Gallia Comata, as speedily as possible. While here he carried on an active correspondence with Cicero, who pressed him with the greatest eagerness to join the senatorial party, and to cross the Alps to the relief of D. Brutus, who was now besieged by Antony in Mutina. After some hesitation and delay Plancus, at length in the month of April, 43 B.C., commenced his march southwards, but he had not crossed the Alps when he received intelligence of the defeat of Antony and the relief of Mutina by Octavian and the consuls Hirtius and Pansa. Thereupon he halted in the territory of the Allobroges, and being joined by D. Brutus and his army, prepared to carry on the war against Antony. But when shortly afterwards Lepidus joined Antony, and their united forces threatened to overwhelm Plancus, the latter, despairing of any assistance from the senate, was easily persuaded by Asinius Pollio to follow his example, and unite with Antony and Lepidus. He therefore abandoned D. Brutus to his fate, and the latter was shortly afterwards slain in the Alps. Plancus during his government of Gaul (44‑42 B.C.) founded the colonies of Lugdunum and Raurica (Orelli, No. 590; Dion Cass. xlvi. 50; Sen. Ep. 91; Strab. iv. pp. 186, 192.)

In the autumn of the same year, 43 B.C., the triumvirate was formed, and Plancus agreed to the proscription of his own brother L. Plautius. He returned to Rome at the end of the year, and on the 29th of December he celebrated a triumph for some victory gained in Gaul. (Canu says: Il cÔø‡lÔø‡bre son triomphe sur les RhÔø‡tes en 29.) In the inscription given below it is said to have been ex Raetis; and the victory was probably only an insignificant advantage gained over some Alpine tribes, in consequence of which he had assumed the title of imperator even before the battle of Mutina, as we see from his correspondence with Cicero (ad Fam. x. 8, 24).

In 42 B.C. Plancus was consul according to the arrangement made by the dictator Caesar, and had as his colleague M. Lepidus in place of D. Brutus. The Perusian war in the following year, 41 B.C., placed Plancus in great difficulty. He had the command of Antony's troops in Italy; and accordingly when L. Antonius, the brother, and Fulvia, the wife of the triumvir, declared war against Octavian, they naturally expected assistance from Plancus; but as he did not know the views of his superior, he kept aloof from the contest as far as possible. On the fall of Perusia in 40 B.C., he fled with Fulvia to Athens, leaving his army to shift for itself as it best could. He returned to Italy with Antony, and again accompanied him when he went back to the East. Antony then gave him the government of the province of Asia, which he abandoned on the invasion of the Parthians under T. Labienus, and took refuge in the islands. He subsequently obtained the consulship a second time (Plin. H. N. xiii. 3. s. 5), but the year is not mentioned: he may have been one of the consuls suffecti in 36 B.C.. In 35 B.C. he governed the province of Syria for Antony, and was thought by many to have been the cause of the murder of Sex. Pompeius. On his return to Alexandria he was coolly received by Antony on account of the shameless manner in which he had plundered the province. He remained at Alexandria some time longer, taking part in the orgies of the court, and even condescending on one occasion to play the part of a mime, and represent in a ballet the story of Glaucus. He played the arbiter in the famous business about Cleopatra's pearl, but broke with Cleopatra and foreseeing the fall of his patron he resolved to secure himself, and in 32 B.C. fled secretly to Octavian in Rome, taking with him his nephew M. Titius.

Their entrance ticket was the gift they brought Octavian: the necessary grounds for war, in the form of news about an incriminating will of Antony that he had had deposited with the Vestal Virgins in Rome (Plancus and Titius were witnesses of the will). Octavian removed the will from the Virgins himself and read it to the senate. In the will Antony recognized Caesarion as Caesar's son, left large legacies to his children by Cleopatra, and directed that he be buried alongside her in Alexandria.

Sensing which way the wind was blowing and ceding to the guy in Rome rather than the one who was out of town (Antony's big mistake), people claimed to be shocked by all this, and toed the official propaganda line: Antony was a drunk and Cleopatra wore the pants, the antithesis of the chaste and modest values of sober Italy, which had to defend its liberty against this threat of decadent eastern despotism. Antony meant to make Cleopatra queen of Rome and to move the capital of the empire to Alexandria.

Antony was stripped of his designate consulship for the next year, but was not declared a public enemy. Such a declaration would have meant an overt war against Antony, something that Octavian wished to avoid. He wished instead to portray the matter as one involving only the foreigner Cleopatra. Also, by rejecting the declaration of Antony as a public enemy, Octavian avoided difficulties in welcoming supporters of Antony who defected to him and in reconciling Antonian loyalists in the case of victory.

Plancus himself, like other renegades, endeavoured to purchase the favour of his new master by vilifying his old one; and on one occasion brought in the senate such abominable charges against Antony, from whom he had received innumerable favours, that Coponius publicly upbraided him with his conduct: morbo proditor, in omnia et omnibus venalis atteint de la maladie de la trahison, prÔø‡t Ôø‡ se vendre pour tout et Ôø‡ tous, ainsi le dÔø‡finit Velleius Paterculus (II.83). desultor bellorum civilium.

Plancus had no occasion to change again, and quietly settled down to enjoy the fortune he had acquired by the plunder of Syria, caring nothing about the state of public affairs, and quite contented to play the courtier in the new monarchy. It was on his proposal that Octavian received the title of Augustus in 27 B.C.; and the emperor conferred upon him the censorship in 22 B.C. with Paulus Aemilius Lepidus. He restored the temple of Saturn to please the emperor, who expected the wealthy nobles of his court to adorn the city with public buildings. The year in which Plancus died is unknown; Augustus had used him to get where he was, and after that, Plancus was a man of no consequence.

The character of Plancus, both public and private, is drawn in the blackest colors by Velleius Paterculus, who, however, evidently takes delight in exaggerating his crimes and his vices. But even once we discount Velleius' bias, Plancus was clearly a man without any fixed principles, and not only ready to desert his friends when it served his interests, but also to betray their secrets for his own advantage. His private life was equally contemptible: his adulteries were notorious.

The ancient writers speak of him as one of the orators of the time, but we know nothing of him in that capacity. One of Horace's odes (Carm. i.7) is addressed to him. In personal appearance he resembled an actor of the name of Rubrius, who was therefore nicknamed Plancus.

Plancus had three brothers and a sister, a son and a daughter. His brothers and son are spoken of below: his sister Munatia married M. Titius, his daughter Munatia Plancina married Cn. Piso.

Ancient sources for the life of Plancus: Caes. B. G. v. 24, &c., B. C. i. 40; Hirt. B. Afr. 4; Cic. ad Fam. x. 1‑24, xi. 9, 11, 13‑15, xii. 8, Phil. iii. 15, xiii. 19; Suet. Rhet. 6; Plin. H.N. vii. 10. s. 12; Plut. Brut. 19, Anton. 56, 58; Appian, B. C. iii. 46, 74, 81, 97, iv. 12, 37, 45, v. 33, 35, 50, 55, 61, 144; Dio, xlvi. 29, 50, 53, xlvii. 16, xlviii. 24, 1. 3; Vell. Pat. ii. 63, 74, 83; Macrob. Sat. ii. 2; Solin. i. 75.

There are several coins of Plancus. The following one was not struck in 40 B.C., as Eckhel supposes (vol. vi. p. 44), but in 34 B.C. to commemorate the victory over the Armenians (Borghesi, Giorn. Accad. vol. xxv. p359, &c.). It represents on the obverse a lituus and a guttus, which was a vessel used in sacrifices, with the