1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Glabrio

GLABRIO. 1. Manius Acilius Glabrio, Roman statesman and general, member of a plebeian family. When consul in 191 B.C. he defeated Antiochus the Great of Syria at Thermopylae, and compelled him to leave Greece. He then turned his attention to the Aetolians, who had persuaded Antiochus to declare war against Rome, and was only prevented from crushing them by the intercession of T. Quinctius Flamininus. In 189 Glabrio was a candidate for the censorship, but was bitterly opposed by the nobles. He was accused by the tribunes of having concealed a portion of the Syrian spoils in his own house; his legate gave evidence against him, and he withdrew his candidature. It is probable that he was the author of the law which left it to the discretion of the pontiffs to insert or omit the intercalary month of the year.

Censorinus, De die natali, xx.; Macrobius, Saturnalia, i. 13; index to Livy; Appian, Syr. 17-21.

2. Manius Acilius Glabrio, Roman statesman and general, grandson of the famous jurist P. Mucius Scaevola. When praetor urbanus (70 B.C.) he presided at the trial of Verres. According to Dio Cassius (xxxvi. 38), in conjunction with L. Calpurnius Piso, his colleague in the consulship (67), he brought forward a severe law (Lex Acilia Calpurnia) against illegal canvassing at elections. In the same year he was appointed to supersede L. Lucullus in the government of Cilicia and the command of the war against Mithradates, but as he did absolutely nothing and was unable to control the soldiery, he was in turn superseded by Pompey according to the provisions of the Manilian law. Little else is known of him except that he declared in favour of the death punishment for the Catilinarian conspirators.

Dio Cassius xxxvi. 14, 16. 24; Cicero, Pro lege Manilia, 2. 9; Appian, Mithrid. 90.