Marcus Minucius Thermus was an ancient Roman soldier and statesman. He was praetor in 81 BC and governor of Asia the following year,T.R.S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, vol. 2 (New York 1952), pp. 76, 78, 81, citing Suetonius, Divus Iulius 2.1, where he is identified as a praetor, and David Magie, Roman Rule in Asia Minor (Princeton University Press, 1950), vol. 1, p 246f. and vol. 2, p. 1124, note 41. succeeding Murena.Arthur Keaveney, Lucullus: A Life (Routledge, 1992), p. 182 online. Keaveney argues that Minucius assumed his post in Asia in 79 (pp. 182–187). The capture of Mytilene occurred during his governorship; Mytilene had been in revolt against Rome and was suspected of actively or tacitly aiding so-called pirates in the region.Philip de Souza, Piracy in the Graeco-Roman World (Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 123 online. Suetonius credits Thermus with the victory,Harold B. Mattingly, "C. Verres and the Pirates," in From Coins to History: Selected Numismatic Studies (University of Michigan Press, 2004). p. 180, note 10 online. but the siege may have been conducted by or in coordination with Lucius Licinius Lucullus. Little else is known of his life or career.Ronald T. Ridley, "The Dictator's Mistake: Caesar's Escape from Sulla," Historia 49 (2000) 227–228.
Julius Caesar began his military service under Thermus after his pardon by Sulla during the proscriptions of 82 BC.Matthias Gelzer, Caesar: Politician and Statesman, trans. Peter Needham (Oxford: Blackwell, 1968), It was Thermus who sent the young Caesar as an envoy to the court of Nicomedes IV of Bithynia to request aid in the form of a fleet.
Although Thermus was a Sullan partisan, in 86 BC his younger brother Quintus had been a legate in Asia under appointment by the rival Marians. Quintus had replaced Fimbria after his mutiny.
References
Sources Further discussion by T. Corey Brennan, The Praetorship in the Roman Republic (Oxford University Press, 2000), vol. 2, p. 557 online.