Gnaeus Fulvius Centumalus (Consul 211 BC)

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Gnaeus Fulvius Centumalus († 210 BC ) was a member of the Roman plebeian family of the Fulvians and 211 BC. Chr. Consul . A year later he fell in a battle against Hannibal .

Life

Gnaeus Fulvius Centumalus was probably a son of the consul of the same name from 229 BC. His political career falls roughly in the middle of the Second Punic War , which Rome waged against Hannibal. The first known office of Fulvius' cursus honorum is his curular aedility , which he gave in 214 BC. Exercised. In this role he organized four-day stage plays for the first time. As praetor , which office he had already one year after his aedility, 213 BC. BC, clothed, he had the supreme command of two legions with which he encamped in the area of ​​the Campanian city of Suessula .

211 BC BC Fulvius Centumalus reached the consulate together with Publius Sulpicius Galba Maximus . Since Hannibal and his relief troops did not succeed in lifting the siege of Capua by the Romans, he turned directly against Rome . He wanted to ensure that the Roman siege army would be withdrawn to protect their capital. Fulvius Centumalus, his consular colleague Sulpicius Galba and, according to the Roman historian Titus Livius, also the proconsul Quintus Fulvius Flaccus , who came from Capua with part of the local army, organized the defense of Rome. Some time after a cavalry battle in front of the Porta Collina , the armies of the war opponents faced each other in a major battle. According to the account of the Greek historian Polybius , a legion of recruits newly formed by the consuls arrived in Rome just in time and Hannibal turned around at the mere sight of this army, which was in battle order in front of the city walls, but not battle-tested. Livy leaves no doubt that the consuls and the proconsul Flaccus were ready to fight, but two violent hailstones are said to have prevented the battle and the Carthaginians regarded this as an ominous supernatural omen. In any case, Hannibal achieved nothing in front of Rome and could not prevent the fall of Capuas.

Fulvius Centumalus had been assigned to Apulia as a province , to which he only went later during his consulate. He then went back to Rome to hold elections for the next year. 210 BC In BC Hannibal attacked Fulvius Centumalus, who had returned to Apulia with a prorogative empire , when he was besieging the fallen city of Herdonia . In the following military confrontation, the proconsul was defeated by the Punic general and fell.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Livy 24, 43, 6f .; 24, 44, 3; 24, 47, 12f .; 25, 3, 3.
  2. ↑ Livy 25:41, 11; Eutropius 3, 14, 1; Orosius 4, 17, 2; among others
  3. ↑ Polybios 9, 6, 6ff .; Livy 26, 11, 1ff .; on this Serge Lancel: Hannibal. A biography. Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf et al. 1998, ISBN 3-538-07068-7 , p. 217 ff.
  4. ↑ Livy 26, 22, 1f.
  5. ^ Livy 27: 1, 4-15; Appian , Hannibalica 48; Plutarch , Marcellus 24, 2; Frontinus , Strategemata 2, 5, 21; among others
personal data
SURNAME Fulvius Centumalus, Gnaeus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Centumalus, Gnaeus Fulvius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman consul 211 BC Chr.
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 210 BC Chr.