BESTIR, the name of a family in ancient Rome, of which the following were the most distinguished: (I .) LUCIUS CALPURNIUS BESTIA, Roman tribune of the people in 12I B.C., consul in III. He was given the command against Jugurtha, but, having been heavily bribed, concluded a disgraceful peace. On his return to Rome he was tried and condemned. He is probably identical with the Bestia who went into exile (9o) to avoid punishment under the law of Q. Varius, whereby those who had aided the Italian allies in their revolt were to be brought to trial (Appian, Bell. Civ. i. 37 ; Val. Max. viii. 6. 4). He is men tioned in a Carthaginian inscription as one of a board of three, perhaps an agricultural commission.
Sallust, Jugurtha; Cicero, Brutus, xxxiv. 128; for the general history, A. H. J. Greenidge, Hist. of Rome (i9o4), vol. i. pp. 346 foil.
one of the Catilinarian con spirators, possibly a grandson of the above. He was tribune elect in 63, and it had been arranged that, after entering upon his office, he should accuse Cicero of responsibility for the impending war. This was to be the signal for revolution. The conspiracy, however, was put down and Bestia had to content himself with a violent attack upon Cicero at the close of his year of office. This Bestia is probably not the Lucius Calpurnius Bestia who was accused of bribery during his candidature for the praetorship in 57, and, in spite of Cicero's defence, was condemned. In 43 he joined Antony's party, apparently in hope of the consulship.
Catiline, xvii. 43 ; Appian, Bell. Civ. ii. 3; Cicero Ad. Q. Fr. ii. 3, 6.
