Marcus Minucius Rufus (Consul 221 BC)

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Marcus Minucius Rufus († August 2, 216 BC at Cannae ) was a Roman consul (221 BC), fought in 217 BC. As Magister equitum of the dictator Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus against the great Carthaginian general Hannibal and fell in the battle of Cannae, which was devastating for the Romans .

Life

The father and grandfather of Marcus Minucius Rufus were both called Gaius Minucius , but are otherwise unknown.

221 BC Minucius was consul (together with Publius Cornelius Scipio Asina ). Since the histrians often plundered, they fought Minucius successfully, but without being able to subjugate them permanently.

After the Romans suffered devastating defeats against Hannibal in the Second Punic War , most recently in the Battle of Lake Trasimeno (217 BC), they sought a way out of their desperate situation by appointing a dictator . This office was given to Quintus Fabius Maximus, who later went down in history as a “procrastinator” ( cunctator ), while Minucius was his Magister equitum. Both were elected by the people according to the express testimony of Polybius, although usually a consul appointed the dictator and the latter his equestrian colonel. But the extraordinary crisis situation and the fact that one consul, Gaius Flaminius , had fallen and the other, Gnaeus Servilius Geminus , was cut off from Rome, made this popular election necessary. Therefore Minucius probably had considerably more rights towards the dictator Fabius than usual from the beginning. The two men came from completely different backgrounds, represented completely different war strategies and were also an unequal couple in terms of age. Fabius belonged to one of the oldest patrician families. In contrast, Minucius began his career practically as Homo novus and was probably around 20 years younger than the roughly 60-year-old dictator. With his defensive military strategy, Fabius stood in sharp contrast to the much more offensive fighting style of Minucius, who with this attitude to warfare was close to that of the consul Gaius Flaminius, who died in the battle of Lake Trasimeno, and that of the consul of the next year, Gaius Terentius Varro . It is therefore likely that both men generally belonged to different parties in the Senate. Their major differences have been further elaborated and exacerbated in the more recent sources. The historian Livius , the biographer Plutarch and other authors characterized Minucius even more negatively than the oldest surviving and fairly reliable historian Polybius and contrasted him with the superior wisdom of Fabius.

First, Minucius set up two new legions, as the dictator had ordered, and brought them to the meeting point in Tibur (now Tivoli near Rome). Both now had four legions at their disposal and moved to Apulia to meet Hannibal. Fabius' hesitant and careful warfare angered the army, and Minucius in particular. In order to incite the dictator to a battle, Hannibal burned many fertile areas in Campania , especially the wine-growing region of the Falernergau , but Fabius stuck to his tactics and as a result his men had to watch the Carthaginians' destructiveness. Minucius and other officers harshly criticized this defensive strategy. Then Fabius failed in the well-planned attack on Hannibal, who was moving to winter quarters and from whom the Romans wanted to hunt his prey away. Of course, the dictator was further attacked by this.

Although Minucius had already received independent command of part of the troops in the latter attack on Hannibal, he only received command of the entire armed force when Fabius had to travel to Rome shortly afterwards for religious ceremonies. The Magister Equitum ignored the dictator's order to hold on to cautious conduct of the war. Hannibal, who had set up fortified winter quarters in Gerunium , on the border between Samnium and Apulia , sent large parts of his army to collect grain in the wider area. Minucius was initially able to conquer a hill near Hannibal's camp during a preliminary skirmish. However, many Punic soldiers still had to collect supplies for the winter. As a result, when their camp was particularly weakly guarded, Minucius ordered the attack. His heavily armed infantry attacked Hannibal in the camp while his riders cut down the forageurs. The Carthaginian leader was only able to maintain his quarters and the magazines with difficulty after Hasdrubal had brought him reinforcements. Minucius then withdrew, but in any case had achieved some success.

This at least partial victory was reported to Rome by Minucius in an exaggerated way. The victory blown up by Minucius made a big impression on the capital. In general, people were very dissatisfied with the “un-Roman” defensive warfare of Fabius. After Livius and Plutarch, the tribune of the people, Marcus Metilius, demanded a plebiscite that would put Minucius on an equal footing with Fabius. At the urging of Gaius Terentius Varro, the plebiscite was also held. Unique in Roman history and contradicting all tradition, Fabius and Minucius were elected by popular resolution as dictators for the same area of ​​responsibility, as only Polybios truthfully reports, whose information was confirmed by the discovery of an dedicatory inscription by Minucius in 1862. The more recent sources only report that the cavalry colonel received the same authority in the military command, but do not explicitly name him dictator.

Since there were now two completely equal dictators, the problem arose of how the four legionary army was to be led. Fabius presented his colleague with the two options of either changing command of the entire army regularly between them or dividing the troops in two halves at separate camps, whereupon Minucius chose the second option. In contrast to this version brought by the trustworthy Polybius, all later authors reverse the roles of the two men: Minucius then made the suggestion mentioned and then rejected Fabius the first possibility. Now Minucius let Hannibal lure him into a fight. Between their camps was a mountain that Hannibal had chosen as his opponent's target. More than 5000 Punians, divided into several groups, took up positions in hidden caves and pits in the valley of the Fortore during the night in order to be able to intervene in the fight from this ambush. When a small Punic force stormed the mountain at dusk, Minucius initially had riders and lightly armed men, after reinforcements on the enemy side, both legions advance towards the hill. Now, however, the Carthaginians, who were waiting hidden in the caves and pits, attacked the Roman soldiers in the back, so that they would probably have been badly beaten, perhaps even completely worn out. Fabius and his troops came to the rescue in good time and saved his colleague.

Not only the carelessness of Minucius compared to the foresighted reluctance of Fabius is depicted in detail and exaggeratedly by the younger sources, but also the remorse and gratitude shown by Minucius to his helper. This is said to have submitted to the supreme command of Fabius again. The fact that Minucius resigned from his office as dictator contradicts the statement of Polybius that the dictators only after the election of the consuls in 216 BC. BC resigned their office, and also that of Livy, that the one consul of the year 217 BC. Chr., Gnaeus Servilius Geminus, command of the two legions of Minucius and the suffect consul Marcus Atilius Regulus, nominated to replace the fallen Gaius Flaminius, received command of the two legions of Fabius, so the armies had apparently been divided up until then. Accordingly, only the separation of the army was abolished, but Minucius did not abdicate as dictator before Fabius, as claimed by the Roman annals, but both at the same time after their term of office had expired by handing their troops over to their successors.

As of 216 BC Countless Romans fell in the catastrophic defeat of Hannibal in the battle of Cannae, numerous nobles were among them, including Minucius, who had acted as one of the commanders in the Roman center. In the eyes of his compatriots, he died a heroic death.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ The date of death refers to the pre-Julian Roman calendar .
  2. ↑ Fasti Capitolini in the year 217 BC Chr.
  3. ↑ Zonaras 8:20 ; among others
  4. ↑ Eutropius 3, 7, 1; Orosius 4, 13, 16; Zonaras 8, 20.
  5. ↑ Polybios 3, 87, 6-9; also Livy 22, 8, 6; wrong Plutarch , Fabius 4, 1.
  6. ↑ Münzer (see Lit.), 1958f.
  7. ↑ Livy 22:11 , 3
  8. ↑ Polybios 3, 90, 6; Livy 22, 12, 11f .; Plutarch, Fabius 5, 3-6; among others
  9. ↑ Polybios 3, 92, 4; Livy 22:14, 3-15 (exaggerating); Plutarch, Fabius 5, 6.
  10. ↑ Livy 22, 15, 11f.
  11. ↑ Polybios 3, 94, 9f .; Livy 22:18, 8-10; Plutarch, Fabius 8, 1; among others
  12. ↑ Polybios 3, 100, 1-3, 102, 11; Livius 22, 23, 9–22, 24, 10 (with a diminution of the success of Minucius and the addition of a different combat report [22, 24, 11–14]); Plutarch, Fabius 8, 2f .; the slaughter site is now assumed to be between Larinum and Luceria (Münzer, Sp. 1959).
  13. ↑ Polybios 3, 103, 1; Livy 22:24, 14; 22, 25, 2; Plutarch, Fabius 8, 3f., Et al
  14. ↑ Livy 22, 25f .; Plutarch, Fabius 8, 4-9, 3.
  15. ↑ Polybios 3, 103, 2-5; CIL I² 607 (in it Minucius, as dictator, vows a gift to Hercules ).
  16. ↑ z. B. Livius 22, 25, 10.16 and ö .; somewhat more precisely Plutarch, Fabius 9, 3–10, 1.
  17. ↑ Polybios 3, 103, 6-8.
  18. ↑ Livy 22, 27, 1-11; Plutarch, Fabius 10, 5-11, 1; among others
  19. ↑ Polybios 3, 104, 1-3, 105, 11; Livy 22, 28, 1–22, 29, 6, Plutarch, Fabius 11, 1… 12, 6; among others
  20. ^ Livy 22, 29, 7-22, 30, 10; Plutarch, Fabius 13, 1-9; among others
  21. ↑ Polybios 3, 106, 1; Livy 22, 32, 1.
  22. ↑ Livy 22:49, 16; among others
personal data
SURNAME Minucius Rufus, Marcus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rufus, Marcus Minucius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman consul and general
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH August 2, 216 BC Chr.
Place of death Cannae