Lucius Munatius Plancus

Lucius Munatius Plancus (c. 87 BCE - c. 15 BCE) was a Roman senator, consul in 42 BCE, and censor in 22 BCE 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.

His early career is rather unclear, and we know little about him. He was Julius Caesar's officer during the conquest of Gaul and the civil war against Pompey. When Caesar was assassinated on March 15, 44 BCE, 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 BCE. He became proconsul of Asia in about 40 BCE. 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 Octavian adopt the title "Augustus" rather than be called Romulus as a "second founder of Rome" (Suet. Aug. 7).

In 22 BCE, 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' Roman history (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 . . ."

In Suetonius' Life of Nero (ch. 4), we read that the emperor Nero's grandfather, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, whose wife was Antonia Major, daughter of Mark Antony, "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.