Gaius Claudius Pulcher (Consul 177 BC)

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Gaius Claudius Pulcher († 167 BC ) was a Roman senator from the old patrician family of Claudians and consul in 177 BC. He was also a successful general.

Family circumstances and early career

Gaius Claudius Pulcher was the third son of the consul from 212 BC. BC, Appius Claudius Pulcher , and probably father of the consul from 143 BC. BC, Appius Claudius Pulcher .

Gaius Claudius Pulcher is first mentioned in the sources for 195 BC. When he became augur , an office that he held until his death in 167 BC. Exercised. As praetor peregrinus fell to him in 180 BC. To lead the investigation into cases of alleged poisonous murders in Rome .

consulate

Claudius Pulcher came to the consulate in 177 BC. Together with Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus . In agreement with the Senate, he first issued a new provision regulating the position of the Italian allies. Since the consuls of the previous year, Marcus Junius Brutus and Aulus Manlius Vulso , had achieved military successes in Istria , Claudius Pulcher, who had become a province of Istria, feared that he would no longer be able to earn military laurels. Without holding the usual religious ceremonies and without the company of lictors, he hurried to Istria, quarreled with the ex-consuls and asked them to leave the province. But the attacked did not obey his order and demanded that he first catch up on the traditional rites in Rome. The angry Claudius Pulcher threatened to send them to Rome in chains, but the Quaestor of Manlius refused to carry out such an order and the army also stood behind its previous generals. Claudius Pulcher had no choice but to return to the capital via Aquileia . There he hastily completed his duties, this time leaving Rome with his lictors, took over a newly formed army in Aquileia and returned to his province. He dismissed the old troops and their commanders, the consuls of the previous year, and continued the siege of Nesactium begun by them, which he succeeded in capturing by diverting a river that supplied the city with drinking water and protected it from attack. The king of the Histrer , Epulo , committed suicide. Claudius Pulcher was also able to conquer two other cities, whereupon the Histrer had to surrender.

On the instructions of the Senate, Claudius Pulcher then marched into Liguria with his legions , defeated the Ligurians on the Scultenna River and then covered their lands with a raid . After these military victories he was allowed to hold a double triumph over the Histrians and Ligurians in Rome .

Later career

Since the Ligurians had conquered the Roman colony of Mutina , Claudius Pulcher led the elections of the new magistrates as quickly as possible, in which the consuls Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Hispallus and Quintus Petillius Spurinus were elected. Claudius Pulcher then went back to his province after extending his command as proconsul and won Mutina back. At the news that the Ligurians had renewed the fighting, he raised additional troops and marched into Liguria. However, he then followed Petillius Spurinus' request to join his army, and soon afterwards the subsequent suffect consul Gaius Valerius Laevinus came to them with his army. The further part that Claudius Pulcher took in the war is unknown, since the main source, the 41st book of Roman history by the historian Titus Livius , has a larger gap at this point.

Since Claudius Pulcher had distinguished himself in any case in many fights, he acted in 171 BC. BC as the military tribune of the consul Publius Licinius Crassus , when he opened the Third Macedonian-Roman War against the last Macedonian king Perseus .

Another important office was Claudius Pulcher in 169 BC. The censorship that he exercised together with his former consulate colleague Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus. They performed their office with great severity, took sharp action against the knights and got into an argument with the tribune Publius Rutilius , who accused them of Perduellio . Claudius Pulcher in particular was threatened by this, but the expression of solidarity by the more popular Gracchus saved him from condemnation by the popular assembly. Against the will of Claudius Pulcher, Gracchus put through a clear restriction of the voting rights of the freedmen .

After the final defeat of Perseus, Claudius Pulcher belonged to 167 BC. BC to a commission of ten who was given the task of reorganizing political affairs in Macedonia. So he went there, but died that same year.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Livy 33, 44, 3.
  2. ↑ Livy 40, 37, 4 and 40, 42, 5.
  3. ↑ Fasti Capitolini ; Polybios 25, 4, 1; Livy 41, 8, 1; among others
  4. ↑ Livius 41, 9, 9ff.
  5. ↑ Livy 41:10, 5-11, 9.
  6. ↑ Livy 41:12, 7-10; 13, 6-8; Triumphal Acts.
  7. ↑ Livy 41:14, 3-6; 41, 16, 7-9.
  8. ↑ Livius 41:17, 9; 41, 18, 1; 41, 18, 5f.
  9. ↑ Livy 42, 49, 8.
  10. ↑ Fasti Capitolini; Livy 43, 14, 1f .; Cicero , Brutus 79; de divinatione 1, 36; Plutarch , Tiberius Gracchus 1, 2 and 14, 4.
  11. ↑ Livy 43:16, 1-16; Cicero, de re publica 6, 2; de inventione 1.48 ; Valerius Maximus 6, 5, 3; among others
  12. ↑ Livy 45, 15, 1-9; among others
  13. ↑ Livy 45:17 , 2; 45, 31, 9; 45, 44, 3; Polybios 30, 13, 8.
personal data
SURNAME Claudius Pulcher, Gaius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pulcher, Gaius Claudius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman consul 177 BC BC and censor 169 BC Chr.
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 167 BC Chr.