Presented as part of the Classics Seminar Series

In 29 BCE, M. Licinius Crassus (cos. ord. 30), proconsul of Macedonia and homonymous grandson of the great dynast of the Late Republic, boldly claimed the right to dedicate the so-called Spolia Opima to Jupiter Feretrius for having slain Deldo, king of the powerful Bastarnae, in single combat. This seminar examines how Octavian Caesar, anxious to prevent Crassus from receiving this unrivalled honour, decided to enlist the unparalleled prestige of the great M. Terentius Varro to bend Rome’s religious regulations and, for that matter, its very history, for this purpose. Last but not least, this paper will also briefly discuss some of the momentous short and long term consequences of this historic debate on the (right to dedicate the) Spolia Opima.