Publius Sittius
Roman knight and mercenary
Publius Sittius (died 44 BC) was a Roman eques and mercenary commander. As a mercenary he was employed by king Bocchus II of East-Mauretania. Sittius fought for Bocchus against king Juba I of Numidia, capturing Juba's capital of Cirta and defeating the Numidian army under general Saburra (the victor of the Battle of the Bagradas). He also supported Julius Caesar in the civil war between Caesar and the Optimates, ultimately catching and killing Faustus Cornelius Sulla and Lucius Afranius as well as destroying Scipio's fleet off Hippo Regius. He was a personal friend of Marcus Tullius Cicero.
Biography
Publius Sittius hailed from Nuceria in Campania. His father, also called Publius Sittius, supported Rome during the War of the Allies.
During the Catilinarian Conspiracy Publius Sittius supported Catiline and raised troops to aid Catiline in Mauretania. After Catiline was defeated Sittius sold his Spanish and Italian holdings and remained in Mauretania with his men and became a mercenary.
When the Great Civil War between Caesar and the Optimates started Publius Sittius was still in Mauretania.
The public source identifies “Publius Sittius” as roman knight and mercenary. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Publius, Sittius and Roman.
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This entry incorporates text from “Publius Sittius” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.