Licinius Macer

A member of the ancient plebeian clan Licinia, he was tribune in 73 BC. Sallust mentions him agitating for the people's rights.^[1] He became praetor in 68 BC, but in 66 BC Cicero succeeded in convicting him of bribery and extortion, upon which Macer committed suicide.^[2]

Macer wrote a history of Rome, in 16 books. The work is now lost, but from Livy and Dionysius who both used it, we know that it began with the founding of the city,^[3] and that Pyrrhus appeared in Book II. Livy casts doubt on Macer's reliability, suggesting that he misrepresented events in order to glorify the Licinii,^[4] but notes that he quotes original sources such as the Linen Rolls.^[5] According to Macrobius, he credited Romulus with the introduction of intercalation to the Roman calendar.^[6]

• Licinius Macer Calvus, his son and a noted poet.