Appius Claudius Caecus

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Appius Claudius Caecus ( Latin caecus = "the blind one"; * around 340 BC ; † 273 BC ) was an important politician and statesman of the central Roman Republic .

Coming from a wealthy Roman patrician family, Appius Claudius Caecus made an astonishingly fast and successful career precisely because he took on the rights of the lower class, the plebeians and the freed slaves. For example, he made it possible for former slaves to take part in elections and even for the children of freedmen to join the Senate . He reformed the Roman legal system, published for the first time a court calendar and procedural formulas, the knowledge of which had previously been reserved for the pontifices .

Appius Claudius was censor in 312, and in 307 and 296 BC. Consul and between 292 and 285 BC Chr. Dictator .

As a censor he had 312 BC A drinking water pipeline, the aqueduct Aqua Appia named after him , to Rome . From the year 311 BC. On the 2nd century BC, Appius had the most famous paved road of antiquity , the Via Appia , built from Rome to Capua . As consul in 296 BC He fought against a united army of the Etruscans and Samnites . Before the decisive battle, he vowed to build a temple of Bellona .

Appius implemented a spelling reform for the Latin language and dealt with literature and rhetoric. Already blind, he delivered a famous speech against an envoy from King Pyrrhos I of Epeiros ; it is the earliest political speech in Latin of which we are aware and was known at least until the time of Cicero.

In the first (I, 1, 2) of his epistolae ad Caesarem, Sallust handed down one of the aphorisms of Appius from his carmina: "[...] fabrum esse suae quemque fortunae" (everyone is the blacksmith of their own fortune), a well-known "Lehn" - Proverb . The emphasized position of the faber at the beginning of his Saturnian also explains the meaning of the saying “constant, diligent forging”.

In the Roman state, Appius Claudius Caecus broke the restriction of full municipal citizenship to those living in Rome and broke with the old financial system . In addition to aqueduct and road construction, Roman jurisprudence , Roman rhetoric (eloquence) and Latin grammar date from his time . The beginnings of a Latin written prose as well as a Latin art- poetry originate from him . Sextus Pomponius wrote in his digest that Appius was so learned (maximam scientiam habuit) that he was therefore called "Mr. Hunderthand" (hic Centemmanus appellatus est) .

literature

Overview representations

  • Werner Suerbaum : Ext. Claudius Caecus. In: Werner Suerbaum (Ed.): The archaic literature. From the beginnings to Sulla's death (= Handbook of the Latin Literature of Antiquity. Volume 1). CH Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-48134-5 , pp. 80-83.
  • Gregor Maurach : History of Roman Philosophy. An introduction. 3rd, revised edition. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2006, ISBN 3-534-19129-3 , pp. 7-14.

introduction

Investigations

  • Martin Jehne : Democracy in Rome? The role of the people in the politics of the Roman Republic (= Historia . Einzelschriften. 96). Steiner, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-515-06860-0 .
  • Karl-Joachim Hölkeskamp: The Origin of Nobility. Studies of the social and political history of the Roman Republic in the 4th century BC Chr. Steiner, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-515-04621-6 (also: Bochum, University, dissertation, 1984).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Claudius Caecus, Appius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Caecus, Appius Claudius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Politician and statesman of the Roman Republic
DATE OF BIRTH around 340 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 273 BC Chr.