Publius Mucius Scaevola (consul 133 BC)
Publius Mucius Scaevola (c. 176 BC – c. 115 BC) was a leading Roman politician and jurist who served as consul in 133 BC. Earlier he held the offices of tribune of the plebs in 141 BC and praetor in 136 BC, and after his consulship he spent about sixteen years as pontifex maximus, the highest priest in Rome.
His consulship came during a time of political tension after the murder of Tiberius Gracchus. Scaevola helped calm a divided Senate and, according to Cicero, supported the land reforms associated with the Gracchus program, though historians disagree on how deeply he backed them. During the Gracchi crisis, he publicly refused to support Scipio Nasica’s attempt to depose Gracchus, but after Gracchus’s death he worked to restore Senate stability.
Publius Mucius Scaevola belonged to the noble plebeian gens Mucia, the Scaevolae. The family claimed a long Republican lineage, with earlier Scaevolae serving in magistracies long before him, and the legend of Gaius Mucius Scaevola of 508 BC who became famous for his audacity in defense of Rome. His father, also named Publius Mucius Scaevola, was consul in 175 BC with Lepidus. His younger brother Publius Licinius Crassus Dives Mucianus died in 130 BC, and Publius Mucius Scaevola became pontifex maximus in 130 BC after his brother’s death. His son Quintus Mucius Scaevola would become consul in 95 BC and implement the Lex Licinia Mucia, a law dealing with citizenship for Italians living in Rome.
Among his early achievements, as tribune in 141 BC he is noted for a plebiscite that brought Hostilius Tubulus to trial for bribery during his praetorship in 142 BC. As praetor in 136 BC, Scaevola argued against Mancinus’s claim to Roman citizenship after the Numantine War, a controversial case.
In the wider political and military context, Rome was expanding its reach in the Mediterranean. The Attalid kingdom of Pergamum fell to Rome’s influence, and Attalus III’s death led to disputes over his kingdom’s lands. Scaevola’s brother and later his son were involved in further regional conflicts, while the First Servile War in Sicily (135 BC) posed internal challenges during this era. The senate sometimes fell under the oversight of the urban praetor when Scaevola and Piso were away from Rome.
A major achievement of his later career was the publication of the final Annales Maximi, the official annual record kept by the pontifex maximus. These annals traced the magistrates and major events back to 400 BC and had not been continued after his time.
The exact year of Scaevola’s death is unclear. He was still cited as alive in 121 BC by juristic writers but is believed to have died before 114 BC, when another chief pontiff presided over the Vestal Virgin trial.
Historians have debated his character. Some twentieth-century writers portrayed him as a calculating but unprincipled politician who shifted loyalties to survive. Others argued he acted with independence and integrity, aiming to preserve stability in a turbulent period.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 08:43 (CET).