Marcus Pomponius Matho (Praetor 204 BC)

Marcus Pomponius Matho was born in the 3rd century BC. And was possibly a son of the consul of the same name from 231 BC. His family name belonged to the plebeian family ( gens ) of the Pomponians , who traced his descent to a direct descendant of the legendary second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius .

It is known that M. Pomponius Matho was born in 207 BC. Held the office of plebeian aedile . Two years later he was a member of an embassy that made an offering of thanksgiving in the Delphic Temple of Apollo. Raised his official career ( cursus honorum ), he practiced in the still young Roman province of Sicily in 204 BC. The Praetur from.

In the same year, the praetor was commissioned by the Roman Senate as head of a special commission to investigate the general Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus and his legatus Quintus Pleminius in southern Italy. The coastal town of Lokroi , which defected to Hannibal during the Second Punic War , was 205 BC. BC was recaptured and occupied by the Romans. Under the ruthless and brutal attack on the civilian population in command of the occupation, Pleminius, violent clashes broke out within the Roman troops. Here Scipio came under suspicion of having either actively approved or passively tolerated the crimes as the direct superior of his commander-in-chief.

Pomponius regulated the situation on site, restored public security and order, in order to finally hand over the identified suspects to the judiciary in Rome. He stood with Scipio, who remained unaffected by the investigation, and was entrusted logistically with the shipment of troops to Africa to fight Carthage , until the year 202 BC. Chr. Supporting. A possibly existing family relationship between Pomponius and Scipio, from which a bias of Pomponius as investigator is derived, is the subject of controversial discussions in modern research.

No further information is known about Marcus Pomponius Matho, so the time and details of his demise must remain open.

literature

Marieluise Deißmann-Merten : Pomponius I, 7. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 4, Stuttgart 1972, column 1035.
Wolfgang Kunkel : State order and state practice of the Roman Republic . Second part. The Magistratur (= Handbook of Classical Studies . Volume 10,3,2,2). CH Beck, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-406-33827-5 , p. 580.
Jens-Uwe Krause : Prisons in the Roman Empire (= Heidelberg ancient historical contributions and epigraphic studies . Volume 23). Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-515-06976-3 , p. 13.
Tassilo Schmitt : The Marci Pomponii Mathones . In: Göttingen Forum for Classical Studies . Volume 3, 2000, pp. 83–110 (PDF; 235 KB)

swell

Titus Livius , Ab Urbe Condita 29.11.11, 13.2, 13.6, 20.4, 20.8-11, 24.9, 25.6, 26.7, 30.2.3, 31.12.3.

personal data
SURNAME	Pomponius Matho, Marcus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Matho, Marcus Pomponius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	plebeian aedile and praetor
DATE OF BIRTH	3rd century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH	3rd century BC BC or 2nd century BC Chr.