Gaius Valerius Potitus (Consul 331 BC)

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Gaius Valerius Potitus was a Roman politician in the 4th century BC. BC, consul of the year 331 BC With Marcus Claudius Marcellus .

He was the son of Lucius Valerius Poplicola , who was consular tribune five times . The first name of Valerius Potitus is erroneously passed down with Titus in Titus Livius , and Livius also fluctuates between Flaccus and Potitus in the cognomen .

Livy narrates that in the year of his consulate in Rome an epidemic broke out, which killed numerous members of the upper class. After the curule aedile Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus received a complaint for poisoning, the two consuls are said to have initiated an investigation and caught two women carrying out a poisoning, 170 other women were convicted.

To ward off the epidemic and to calm the people, Gnaeus Quinctius Capitolinus was appointed dictator clavi figendi causa , and Valerius Potitus became his Magister equitum after he is said to have resigned his post as consul. The historicity of this story told by Livy is extremely controversial.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ T. Robert S. Broughton : The Magistrates Of The Roman Republic . Vol. 1: 509 BC - 100 BC Case Western Reserve University Press, Cleveland, Ohio 1951. Reprinted unmodified 1968. (Philological Monographs. Ed. Of the American Philological Association. Volume 15, Part 1), p. 143
  2. ↑ Livy VIII 18, 1f.
  3. ^ Livy VIII 18; Orosius II, 10.2 names 370 convicted women.
  4. ↑ Hans Volkmann : Valerius 306) . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classical antiquity . Second row. Volume 8.1: Valerius Fabrianus to P. Vergilius Maro . (RE VIII A, 1) Alfred Druckermüller Verlag, Stuttgart 1955, Sp. 191.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Valerius Potitus, Gaius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Potitus, Gaius Valerius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman consul 331 BC Chr.
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 4th century BC Chr.