Gaius Hostilius Mancinus

Gaius Hostilius Mancinus was a Roman politician who was particularly popular because of his defeat before Numantia in 137 BC. Is known.

Mancinus comes from the plebeian gens Hostilia , which was found mainly in the 2nd century BC. Chr. Had its climax. His father Aulus Hostilius Mancinus was consul in 170 BC. Around 140 BC. Gaius Hostilius was praetor , 137 BC. He reached the consulate with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus Porcina . Both received Spain as provinciae : Mancinus Hispania citerior , his colleague Hispania ulterior , in which the Spanish war was still bitterly raging. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus also belonged to his staff as quaestor .

Soon after arriving as the successor to Marcus Popillius Laenas , he went to the conquest of Numantia, where he was severely beaten several times. The situation became so precarious that Mancinus had to conclude a regular foedus with the Numantines , but the Senate and the people refused to ratify it. Mancinus and his officers were answerable to the Senate. When his defense failed, he offered to be extradited to the Numantines to cancel the contract. The Numantines, however, refused to accept the Roman standing naked with his hands tied behind his back in front of the city gates. Even so, the Romans continued the war with Numantia; Mancinus was kicked out of the Senate. Presumably he succeeded again in entering the Senate as praetor. The reputation of his family was so badly tarnished that no Hostilier made it into the Senate. Nothing is known about the end of his life either.

Sources and literature

• Orosius , book 5,4,21 (delivery).
• Martin Luik : The difficult path to world power. Rome's conquest of the Iberian Peninsula 218–19 BC Chr. Von Zabern, Mainz 2005, ISBN 3-8053-3471-0 , pp. 74-76 (on Numantia).