Vedius Pollio
historical figure · 3 works · 3 mentions · 3 anchored passages
Vedius
in the texts
On Anger
A Roman host who ordered a slave killed for breaking a crystal cup, until stopped by Augustus.
Caesar was moved by the novelty of the cruelty and ordered him to be released, but all the crystal to be broken before his eyes and the fishpond to be filled in.
you will approach them in various ways and gently, unless perhaps you be so great a person that you can crush the anger, as the deified Augustus did when he was dining with Vedius Pollio.
40.4. Caesar had thus to chastise his friend; he made good use of his power: "Do you order men to be snatched from a banquet and torn apart by new kinds of punishment? If your cup is broken, shall a man's entrails be pulled apart? Will you please yourself so far as to order anyone to be led off where Caesar is?"
On Mercy
A Roman notorious for feeding offending slaves to his lampreys, cited as an example of extreme cruelty toward slaves.
Who did not hate Vedius Pollio worse than his own slaves did, because he fattened his lampreys on human blood and ordered those who had given him any offence to be thrown into the pool—what else than of serpents?
De Pallio
Roman figure cited for cruelly feeding slaves to lampreys.
I plunge likewise the scalpel into that bitterness by which Vedius Pollio threw slaves to be attacked by lampreys.