Publius Licinius Calvus Esquilinus

Publius Licinius Calvus Esquilinus came from the Roman plebeian family of the Licinier and was 400 and 396 BC. Chr. Consular Tribune .

Life

According to the filiation information of the Fasti Capitolini , both the father and the grandfather of Publius Licinius Calvus Esquilinus also carried the prenomen Publius . The Roman historian Titus Livius , who is the main source of the life of Licinius Calvus, probably used the work of the annalist Gaius Licinius Macer for his report , who apparently falsified the historical truth in order to increase the fame of the oldest representatives of his gens , the Liciniern . Several statements made by Livius about Licinius Calvus, which contradict other sources and are rejected by modern antiquity as unhistorical, point to such an interpretation. For example, Livy claims that the consular tribunes of the same name from 400 and 396 BC BC. Father and son, while the Fasti Capitolini assign both tribunates to only one Licinius Calvus, which latter version is considered historically correct.

Furthermore, Livy falsely states that Licinius Calvus, when he lived in 400 BC, Moved up to the consular tribune as the first plebeian to hold this high state office. Rather, plebeians actually held it from the start. 400 BC According to Livius, Licinius Calvus was already a relatively old senator who, according to tradition , owed his election to the popularity of his patrician brother and previous consular tribune Gnaeus Cornelius Cossus , according to a different version of a mediating speech he gave, that of patricians and plebeians alike. The ancient historian Friedrich Münzer believes that Livy found both variants in the annalist Licinius Macer. The former version is more likely to apply and Licinius Calvus as a half-brother of the influential, 401 BC. Gnaeus Cornelius Cossus, elected for the third time as consular tribune, was the son of a patrician. This could also explain the fact that 400 BC BC for the first time two thirds of the six incumbent consular tribunes were plebeians: In this case, the patricians would have accepted Licinius Calvus as the fourth plebeian in this supreme magistrate's college, because he was at least half theirs.

398 BC BC Licinius Calvus may have belonged to a Roman legation to the oracle of Delphi . Two years later, 396 BC. He became consular tribune for the second time. According to Livius, after his re-election, when that of his five former colleagues also seemed secure, he refused to take on this post for reasons of age - which after only four years seems implausible - and made the proposal, which was then accepted, to elect his young son instead. All of his former counterparts would have become members of the highest official body again. This story agrees with Livius' earlier statement that Licinius Calvus was already quite old when he took up his first consular tribunate. However, it is in contradiction both to the Fasti Capitolini , according to which Licinius Calvus was in office a second time, as well as to that of Livy himself for the years 400 and 396 BC. List of names of the six consular tribunes given, according to which only three of them were re-elected. The whole report is likely to be based on a misrepresentation of the election by Licinius Macer.

During Licinius Calvus' second consular tribunate, the dictator Marcus Furius Camillus conquered and destroyed the Etruscan city of Veji, which rivaled Rome . Allegedly, shortly before the fall of the city, he asked the Senate how to distribute the expected booty. The senators were divided. Licinius Calvus, who was the first to be asked for his opinion by his son (allegedly acting as consular tribune), had taken the position that the people should be informed that anyone who wanted could come to Veji to share their booty, while Appius Claudius Crassus Inregillensis (consular tribune 403 BC) rejected such generosity and pleaded for the booty to be paid out to the warriors as wages. The view of Licinius Calvus is said to have prevailed. The people, however, did not thank the dictator or the Senate for this, but only the Licinians, because in their eyes the popular decision that everyone should receive a share of the booty was solely through the initiative of old Licinius Calvus and his son come about. The fact that a plebeian was the first to be questioned contradicts the rules of procedure of the Senate and is probably just as tendentious an invention as Camillus' astonishing inquiry into the Senate about the distribution of booty. The assertion that the Licinians were primarily responsible for distributing the booty to the whole people again seems to point to Licinius Macer as a Livian source. Incidentally, this historian is likely to have characterized representatives of the patrician family of the Claudians as hostile to the plebeians, for example in the depiction of Appius Claudius as an opponent of the popular Licinius Calvus.

literature

• Friedrich Münzer : Licinius 43). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIII, 1, Stuttgart 1926, Col. 234-236.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Friedrich Münzer : Licinius 43). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIII, 1, Stuttgart 1926, Col. 234.
2. ↑ Fasti Capitolini ad annum 400 BC Chr .: ... us P. f. P. n. Calvus Esquilinus ; Livy 5, 12, 9 (Publius Licinius Calvus) ; in Diodorus (14, 47, 1) Licinius' name is absent.
3. ↑ Livy 5:12 , 7-12.
4. ↑ Friedrich Münzer: Licinius 43). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIII, 1, Stuttgart 1926, Col. 234.
5. ↑ Plutarch , Camillus 4, 4; see Thomas Robert Shannon Broughton , The Magistrates of the Roman Republic , Vol. 1, p. 86.
6. ↑ Fasti Capitolini ad annum 396 BC Chr .: … [E] squilinus II ; Livy 5, 18, 1 (Publius Licinius Calvus) ; Diodor 14, 90, 1 (without cognomen).
7. ↑ Livy 5:18 , 1-6.
8. ↑ Friedrich Münzer: Licinius 43). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIII, 1, Stuttgart 1926, column 235.
9. ↑ Livy 5:20 , 1-10; 5, 22, 1f.
10. ↑ Friedrich Münzer: Licinius 43). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIII, 1, Stuttgart 1926, Col. 236.