Gaius Calpurnius Piso (d. AD 65)

Piso came from a distinguished family and enjoyed a good reputation, as Tacitus writes, for virtue or for its appearance (Annals 15. 48).

Flavius Scaevinus hands a dagger to Milichus: a scene from the Pisonian conspiracy. Illustration by Carl Emil Doepler, 19th century. No identified portrait of this person survives; the image is only related to them.

Piso came from a distinguished family and enjoyed a good reputation, as Tacitus writes, for virtue or for its appearance (Annals 15.48). The conspirators wanted him to take the throne after Nero’s death. The conspiracy was discovered, and Piso and many others died. According to Tacitus he opened his own veins, and in his will he flattered Nero (Annals 15.59). His name remained forever linked with the conspiracy of AD 65.

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  • Image: Carl Emil Doepler, 19th century, Wikimedia Commons, public domain

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