Publius Claudius Pulcher (Consul 249 BC)

Publius Claudius Pulcher was a Roman politician and general from the Claudian family . He was believed to be the son of the politician Appius Claudius Caudex (it is also, chronologically questionable, Appius Claudius Caecus is called as his father) and the first Claudian to be given the cognomen Pulcher ("pretty").

He was in the year 253 BC. Curular aedile and in 249 BC Chr. Consul . As consul he was in command of the Roman fleet in the First Punic War . He lost the Battle of Drepana to the Carthaginians , supposedly because he ignored a bad omen when the sacred chickens refused to eat. After Suetonius and Cicero , Claudius threw them into the water, ut biberent, quando esse nollent ("so that they drink when they don't want to eat"). He was recalled to Rome and instructed to appoint a dictator . The nomination of his subordinate Marcus Claudius Glicia was overruled. He was accused of incompetence and impiety and was fined. He died a short time later, possibly by suicide.

The legendary Claudia Quinta may have been his daughter.

Individual evidence

^ T. Robert S. Broughton : The Magistrates Of The Roman Republic. Volume 1: 509 BC - 100 BC (= Philological Monographs. Vol. 15, Part 1, ZDB -ID 418575-4 ). American Philological Association, New York NY 1951, to 253 BC. See pp. 211 f., To 249 BC. Chr. P. 214 f, (Unchanged reprint 1968).

personal data
SURNAME	Claudius Pulcher, Publius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Pulcher, Publius Claudius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Roman general in the First Punic War
DATE OF BIRTH	4th century BC BC or 3rd century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH	3rd century BC Chr.

[1] T. Robert S. Broughton : The Magistrates Of The Roman Republic. Volume 1: 509 BC - 100 BC (= Philological Monographs. Vol. 15, Part 1, ZDB -ID 418575-4 ). American Philological Association, New York NY 1951, to 253 BC. See pp. 211 f., To 249 BC. Chr. P. 214 f, (Unchanged reprint 1968).