Marcus Junius Pera

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Marcus Junius Pera came from the Roman plebeian family of Junier . He was 230 BC Chr. Consul , 225 BC Chr. Censor and 216 BC Chr. Dictator .

Life

According to the filiation of the Fasti Capitolini, both the father and the grandfather of Marcus Iunius Pera carried the prenomen Decimus . Accordingly, Marcus Iunius Pera was the son of the consul from 266 BC. BC, Decimus Junius Pera . The lower offices of his career are not known; it is not mentioned in the sources until 230 BC. Mentioned when he exercised the consulate together with Marcus Aemilius Barbula . The fight against the Ligurian tribe was entrusted to both consuls . The next station of Junius Peras cursus honorum was censorship , which he carried out in 225 BC. Exercised, whereby his counterpart Gaius Claudius Centho was.

After the Romans in 216 BC After suffering the devastating defeat in the Battle of Cannae against Hannibal in the Second Punic War , Junius Pera was appointed dictator for warfare (rei gerundae causa) and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus as his master's equitum in the summer of the same year . Above all, he was supposed to ensure that the heavily decimated Roman troops received fresh forces through extensive mobilization. To fulfill his task, he recruited very young, not yet conscripted men from the age of 17, as well as offenders and even 8,000 slaves, whom the Roman state bought free for this purpose. In the meantime Hannibal sent ten men, who were among the numerous Romans who were captured by Carthaginians after the defeat at Cannae, to ask for their ransom. They were accompanied by Hannibal's authorized representative, Karthalo , who was supposed to explain the Punic terms of peace. In his capacity as dictator, however, Junius Pera ordered Karthalo to leave Rome immediately. He negotiated in the Senate with the envoys of the captured Romans, but in the end it was decided not to ransom the detained compatriots.

While Capua fell to Hannibal, the nearby Casilinum , which dominated the crossing over the Apennine river Volturnus (in the place of which is today's Capua ), offered decisive resistance to the Punic general. Therefore, Junius Pera moved in the autumn of 216 BC. BC with his newly raised troops to Campania in order to get Casilinum in Roman possession. While he was temporarily returning to Rome to renew the auspices , Casilinum fell into enemy hands, according to the account of the Roman historian Titus Livius . Other authors also report the detail not mentioned by Livius that Junius Pera fell for Hannibal's ruse and suffered a military defeat during an attack. This defeat was probably partly to blame for the fact that the Romans could not maintain Casilinum. The ancient historian Friedrich Münzer believes that the minor successes of Iunius Pera probably gave cause for displeasure and led, contrary to the usual practice at the end of the year, to make Marcus Fabius Buteo the second dictator (with the task of supplementing the Senate) and never again a dictator rei gerundae to appoint causa .

Finally, for the second time, Iunius Pera traveled to the capital to preside over the elections for next year. The supreme command of his troops was then taken over by the new consuls. From this point on, Iunius Pera is no longer mentioned.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Fasti Capitolini: Marcus Iunius D. f. D. n. Pera .
  2. ↑ Fasti Capitolini; Zonaras 8, 19; among others
  3. ↑ Fasti Capitolini.
  4. ↑ Fasti Capitolini; Livy 22, 57, 9ff. and 23, 14, 2ff .; Valerius Maximus 7, 6, 1; Zonaras 9, 2; among others
  5. ^ Livy 22, 58, 1 - 22, 61, 10.
  6. ^ Livius 23, 19, 3ff .; 23, 22, 4.
  7. ↑ Zonaras 9: 3; Frontinus , Strategemata 2, 5, 25; Polyainos , Strategika 6, 38, 6.
  8. ↑ Friedrich Münzer: Junius 126). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume X, 1, Stuttgart 1918, column 1077.
  9. ↑ Livy 23:24 , 1-5.
  10. ↑ Livius 23, 25, 6ff.
personal data
SURNAME Junius Pera, Marcus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pera, Marcus Junius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman consul 230 BC BC, censor 225 BC BC, dictator 216 BC Chr.
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 3rd century BC BC or 2nd century BC Chr.