Quintus Minucius Thermus (governor of Asia)

{{short description|Roman tribune in 62 BC, praetor, and governor of Asia}}

{{other people||Quintus Minucius Thermus (disambiguation){{!}}Quintus Minucius Thermus}}

Quintus Minucius Thermus ({{fl}} 74–43 BC) was a Roman politician.

He belonged to a long-established senatorial family.{{sfn|Brennan|p=886 n. 376}} His father, of the same name, had been a mint officer in 103 BC, and a war councilor in 89 BC during the Social War.{{sfnm|1a1=Brennan|1p=569|2a1=Crawford|2pp=324–325}} The younger Thermus entered the Senate with his election as quaestor in 75 or 74 BC, and his name appears on a decree of the Senate inscribed at the Greek town of Oropos, dated 73 BC.{{sfn|Brennan|p=569}}{{sfn|Ryan|p=307}} In 62 BC, having been elected tribune of the plebs, Thermus cooperated with his colleague Cato in forcibly opposing a bill by the praetor Julius Caesar to reassign responsibility for the reconstruction of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus to Pompey.{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2006|p=143}} The attempt to overcome Cato and Thermus' veto triggered violent clashes and a senatus consultum ultimum before order was restored to the city.{{Cite journal|last=Frolov|first=Roman M.|date=2017|title=Better than (when) a Magistrate? Caesar's Suspension from Magisterial Functions in 62 BC|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26572883|journal=Mnemosyne|volume=70|issue=6|page=978|doi=10.1163/1568525X-12342265|jstor=26572883|issn=0026-7074}}

Thermus held the office of praetor at some unknown date, perhaps {{circa|60–58 BC}} or possibly as late as 53 BC.{{sfnm|1a1=Brennan|1p=570|2a1=Broughton|2p=238|3a1=Münzer|3loc=col. 1972}} From 51 to 50 BC, he was prorogued to Asia pro praetore and successfully administered the province, so much that even Cicero sent him letters with his compliments.{{cite book |year=1867 |editor-last=Smith |chapter=Thermus, Minucius 6 |editor-first=William |title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology |volume=3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/DictionaryOfGreekAndRomanBiographyAndMythology/Dictionary%20of%20Greek%20and%20Roman%20Biography%20and%20Mythology%20-%20Vol%203/page/n1101/mode/2up?view=theater 1097] |publisher=John Murry }}{{sfn|Brennan|p=538}}

During Caesar's civil war, still holding imperium,{{sfn|Morrell|p=219 n. 107}} he attempted to defend Iguvium (modern Gubbio) from Caesar's invasion of Italy, but his raw recruits deserted before the Caesarian advance under Curio, forcing him to retreat.{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2006|p=388}}{{sfn|Broughton|p=262}}

In 43 BC he was one of several envoys sent by the Senate to negotiate with Sextus Pompeius in Sicily.{{sfn|Broughton|p=351}}