Scaevola

Scaevola (Quintus Mucius Scaevola), d. 82 BC, Roman jurist. He was tribune of the people (106 BC) and consul (95 BC) with Lucius Licinius Crassus (see under Crassus , family); together they collaborated on a law that caused a purge of the rolls of citizenship. The wholesale disfranchisement of allies under this law brought on the Social War. He was proconsular governor of Asia, where the people esteemed him highly. Later he was elected pontifex maximus, but his sacred inviolability did not prevent his murder in the proscription of Marius . He made a systematic compilation of the civil law.

Scaevola (family Goodeniaceae) A genus mostly of shrubby trees, with some herbs, in which the flowers are zygomorphic, with the corolla tube split to the base on the top side. The fruit is a berry. There are 130 species, occurring in the tropics and subtropics, and especially in Australia.

Scaevola (‘left-handed’), traditionally the name given to the legendary Roman hero Gaius Mucius, who is said to have saved Rome from the Etruscan king Lars Porsena, c.509 bc, during the attempt to restore the Tarquins to rule in Rome. Captured in the Etruscan camp while planning to kill Lars Porsena, and threatened with torture, Gaius Mucius showed his lack of fear by thrusting his right hand into the fire. The king, impressed by such fortitude, ordered his release.