Gaius Sulpicius Peticus

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Gaius Sulpicius Peticus was in the first half of the 4th century BC. An important politician of the Roman Republic . He was 380 BC Chr. Consular tribune , had to be 366 BC Abdicate as a censor following the death of his colleague, dressed in 364 and 361 BC. His first and second consulate and fought as dictator in 358 BC. Supposedly successful against the Gauls . 355, 353 and 351 BC He officiated again as consul.

Life

Gaius Sulpicius Peticus came from the Roman patrician family of the Sulpicians . According to the Fasti Capitolini , his father used the prenomen Marcus and his grandfather the prenomen Quintus .

Sulpicius is mentioned for the first time by the sources in 380 BC. Mentioned when he held the consular tribunate. The majority of his public career falls in the period immediately following the enforcement of the Licinian-Sextic Laws (376–367 BC). These laws gave the plebeians greater political say; so they could now, for example, be elected to the highest office of the state. 366 BC When a plebeian, Lucius Sextius Sextinus Lateranus , held the consulate for the first time , Sulpicius was censor, but had to resign from this position when his colleague died while in office.

364 BC Sulpicius held his first consulate. His counterpart was not, as the Roman historian Titus Livius claims, the pioneer of the plebeians, Gaius Licinius Stolo , but rather Gaius Licinius Calvus , according to the testimony of the Fasti Capitolini . Since there was a great plague epidemic at that time, Etruscan stage plays were staged for the first time in Rome to appease the gods. 362 BC According to the possibly correct Livian representation, Sulpicius was legate of the plebeian consul Lucius Genucius Aventinensis in the war against the hernians . After the consul had fallen, Sulpicius is said to have repulsed an enemy attack on the Roman camp before the dictator Appius Claudius Crassus Inregillensis appeared on the battlefield.

For the second time, Sulpicius reached 361 BC. The consulate, this time together with Gaius Licinius Stolo. Livy reports a resumption of the fighting against the hernics, the victorious advance of the consuls into enemy territory and their conquest of Ferentinum , a city ​​of the hernics in Lazio . The Acts of Triumph probably attributed a triumph (not mentioned by Livius) to Sulpicius due to his war successes. According to the annalist Gaius Licinius Macer , Sulpicius wanted to be re-elected as consul, but his counterpart prevented this by appointing Titus Quinctius Pennus Capitolinus Crispinus as dictator for holding the elections. This claim was rejected by Livius, in which the ancient historian Friedrich Münzer agrees .

Around this time, after a break of thirty years, the attacks of the Gauls began again. According to the very reliable Greek historian Polybios , the Romans did not dare to face their enemies. In contrast, Livius reports that Sulpicius 358 BC. Because of the Gauls incursion to dictator and Marcus Valerius Poplicola to his Magister equitum . The Roman historian then gives a very detailed war report that is often unhistorical in its details. Accordingly, Sulpicius initially delayed the decisive battle, which his soldiers were angry about. Perhaps the defensive strategy that the dictator Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus in 217 BC provided. Chr. In the fight against Hannibal , the template for this detail from Livius' depiction of the battles of the dictator Sulpicius. Livy continues that Sulpicius finally decided to battle and devised a ruse to be used by later Roman generals. The historian Appian tells - historically just as unreliable - completely different things about the tactical innovations used by Sulpicius, as his opponents the Boier appear in this report . After the dictator had clearly defeated the Gauls, according to Livy he held a triumph over them and offered a considerable amount of gold from the booty at the Capitol as an offering. This was already his second triumph after the Acta Triumphalia.

356 BC Sulpicius was one of the Interreges to hold the elections for the next year and contributed to the fact that, contrary to the Licinian-Sextic laws , two patricians held the highest office of the state. He himself was elected and was able to do so in 355 BC. His third consulate, which he held together with his former Magister equitum Marcus Valerius Poplicola. Both consuls argued violently with the tribunes because they wanted to push through the election of two patrician consuls again for the next year. Despite fierce resistance, they were able to realize their plan. About the warlike actions of the year 355 BC BC Livius reports that, according to some Roman historians, both consuls went to the field against the Tiburtines and had effortlessly conquered the city of Empulum , while according to other sources Valerius carried out this act alone and Sulpicius meanwhile fought the Etruscan Tarquinians .

353 BC Sulpicius was elected consul for the fourth time. He again had Marcus Valerius Poplicola as a colleague and led his army against Tarquinii. After he died at the end of 352 BC. Was the first Interrex, the second Interrex Marcus Fabius helped him to his fifth consulate, which he held in 351 BC. Together with the dictator of 361 BC BC, Titus Quinctius Pennus Capitolinus Crispinus. Now Sulpicius was able to successfully end the war against the Tarquinians after the devastation of their territory and granted them a 40-year peace.

Livy claims that Sulpicius was one of those Roman generals who opposed Alexander the Great in the event of his campaign against Italy. However, Livy should not have had any explicit references from which it could have been deduced that Sulpicius was still alive at the time of Alexander's campaign.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Fasti Capitolini on the years 380, 366 and 361 BC As well as acts of triumph for the year 358 BC Chr .: Gaius Sulpicius M. f. Q. after Peticus .
  2. ↑ Fasti Capitolini (mention Sulpicius as the fifth of a total of nine consular tribunes); Diodorus 15, 50, 1 (lists Sulpicius without cognomen as the fifth of eight consular tribunes); Livy 6, 27, 4f. (Sulpicius does not mention in his list of six consular tribunes, but a censor Gaius Sulpicius Camerinus , who resigned due to the death of his colleague Spurius Postumius Regillensis , a duplicate of the year 366 BC that should be rejected).
  3. ↑ Fasti Capitolini (only express source for the censorship of Sulpicius in 366 BC); Livy 7, 1, 8 (reports that one of the censors died of a plague epidemic).
  4. ↑ Fasti Capitolini ; Livy 7, 2, 1; Diodorus 15, 95, 1; among others
  5. ^ Friedrich Münzer : Sulpicius 83). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IV A, 1, Stuttgart 1931, Col. 818.
  6. ↑ Livy 7, 2, 3ff.
  7. ↑ Livy 7, 7, 1ff.
  8. ↑ Fasti Capitolini ; Livy 7, 9, 1; Diodorus 16, 6, 1; among others
  9. ^ Livy 7: 9, 1.
  10. ↑ Livy 7: 9, 4f .; on this Friedrich Münzer: Sulpicius 83). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IV A, 1, Stuttgart 1931, Col. 818.
  11. ↑ Polybios 2, 18, 6.
  12. ^ Livy 7, 12, 9--7, 14, 5.
  13. ↑ Livy 7, 14, 6ff .; Frontinus , strategemata 2, 4, 5.
  14. ↑ Appian, Celtica 1, 1.
  15. ↑ Livy 7:15 , 8.
  16. ↑ Livy 7, 17, 11ff .; Diodorus 16, 37, 1; among others
  17. ^ Livy 7:18, 2-10.
  18. ↑ Livy 7, 19, 6 and 7, 19, 8; Diodorus 16, 46, 1; among others
  19. ↑ Livy 7:22, 2f .; Diodorus 16, 53, 1; among others
  20. ↑ Livy 7, 22, 4f.
  21. ^ Livius 9, 17, 8, on this Friedrich Münzer: Sulpicius 83). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IV A, 1, Stuttgart 1931, Col. 820.
personal data
SURNAME Sulpicius Peticus, Gaius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Peticus, Gaius Sulpicius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION five-time Roman consul (364, 361, 355, 353, 351 BC), censor 366 BC BC, dictator 358 BC Chr.
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 4th century BC Chr.