Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (Consul 215 BC)

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Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus († 212 BC ) was a politician of the Roman Republic from the noble family of Sempronians and in the years 215 and 213 BC. Chr. Consul .

Early career

Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was the son of the consul of the same name from 238 BC. For the first time it is in 216 BC. Attested as a curular aedile . After the devastating defeat for the Romans in the battle of Cannae against Hannibal in the same year, the dictator Marcus Iunius Pera elected Gracchus as his master's equitum . After the dictator left the troops, Gracchus tried to get supplies to the besieged residents of Casilinum , but otherwise could not distinguish himself. Nevertheless, his promotion to the rank of cavalry colonel had created good conditions for him to achieve the highest office in the next year.

First and Second Consulate

215 BC Gracchus took up his first consulate. His comrade was supposed to be the two-time consul Lucius Postumius Albinus , who died shortly before taking office in the war against the Boier tribe . A by-election was therefore necessary, and under the leadership of Gracchus, the militarily successful Marcus Claudius Marcellus was unanimously nominated as a suffect consul. But the augurs canceled the election because of allegedly unfavorable omens, since the patricians did not want to accept two plebeians as the highest civil servants. When the election was repeated, Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus , who was highly influential at the time and who belonged to the committee of augurs and who had been quite successful against Hannibal during his dictatorship, was appointed the new consul.

Many unfree members served in the army, which was now under Gracchus'. He moved south from Sinuessa along the coast of Campania towards Liternum . Despite the successes of Hannibal, the inhabitants of Cumae remained loyal to Rome and asked Gracchus to put an occupation in their city. The consul was then able to repel an attack by Hannibal on Cumae. Not far from the city, negotiators between Hannibal and the Macedonian King Philip V tried to land with their ships; but they were intercepted by Gracchus. At the end of the year Hannibal moved from Campania to Puglia to winter . Gracchus hurried after him and chose the well-fortified Luceria as his place for the cold season.

The next year (214 BC) Gracchus initially stayed at his post and received an extended empire for it . When the Carthaginian general Hanno moved from Bruttium with reinforcement troops to Samnium , Gracchus was to prevent Hannos from joining Hannibal on the orders of this year's consuls Fabius Verrucosus and Claudius Marcellus. Therefore Gracchus went to Beneventum and was able to completely defeat Hanno in a battle fought near this city , who allegedly managed to escape with only 2000 men. As a reward, the slaves ( volones ) who played a key role in the Roman success were granted freedom. Gracchus celebrated his victory with a painting that was placed in his father's Temple of Libertas on the Aventine . Due to his success he was also elected again as consul for the next year 213 BC. Secured. Conversely, Hanno was soon able to beat Gracchus in Lucania .

As Gracchus in 213 BC When he became head of the state for the second time in BC, he received Quintus Fabius Maximus as co-consul, who was a son of his former consular colleague Fabius Verrucosus. In Lucania Gracchus was only involved in minor battles. After his term of office he was to remain in his theater of war and therefore appointed a dictator who would vote for the consuls in 212 BC. Had to hold.

death

The new consuls gave Gracchus orders to move with his cavalry and light infantry from Lucania to Beneventum. But he got caught in an ambush by his previous host Flavus. After Hannibal's capture of Taranto , Flavus, as the leader of the League of Lucanian Tribes, had fallen away from the Romans to the Carthaginians and wanted to prove his determination to change sides by removing Gracchus. A Punic army under the command of Magos des Samnites waited at an agreed point for Gracchus, who was led there by Flavus with false arguments, who was probably killed with his little escort at the so-called Campi Veteres ("Old Fields") in Lucania despite strong resistance . Mago sent his body to Hannibal, who gave it an honorable cremation. This version of Gracchus' death is likely to have already represented the reliable historian Polybius in his history. It is handed down by the annalist Titus Livius as the main variant described in detail, as well as by other authors who are independent of Livius, and is believed to be at least essentially correct by many researchers.

A second variant reproduced by Livius, which diverges completely from the previous report, is very unlikely. Thereafter Gracchus was attacked and killed while he was bathing with a few companions in the Calor River near Beneventum; its severed head is said to have been sent to Hannibal and delivered by him to the Romans, who solemnly buried it. The third possibility cited by Livy probably agrees with the main variant with regard to the place and the burial of Gracchus, but introduces the connection of his death with an ominous prodigium as a new aspect: During the usual act of sacrifice, two snakes appeared and had the liver of the sacrificial animal devoured; on the advice of the augurs, Gracchus wanted to atone for this bad omen in a place a little outside his camp when he was killed there by the Numidians. Since the tribune Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, according to the story of his son Gaius Sempronius Gracchus recorded by the Roman historian Lucius Coelius Antipater , is said to have experienced a similar prodigium of his death, the third variant reported by Livius should ultimately go back to a tradition of the Gracchi. This was perhaps merged by Coelius Antipater with the mainstream account of the ambush that Flavus set on Gracchus.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Fasti Capitolini : Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus Ti. F. Ti. N.
  2. ↑ Livy 23:24 , 3; 23, 30, 16.
  3. ↑ Fasti Capitolini; Livy 22:57, 9; Zonaras 9, 2.
  4. ↑ Livy 23:19 , 3-12.
  5. ↑ Livy 23:24 , 1-3.
  6. ↑ Fasti Capitolini; Livy 23:24, 3-5; 23, 25, 1-11; 23, 30, 14 and 18; 23, 31, 7-14 and ö; Zonaras 9, 3; among others
  7. ^ Livy 23, 36, 1 - 23, 37, 9.
  8. ↑ Livy 23:38, 1-4.
  9. ↑ Livy 23:39, 5; 23, 48, 3, 24, 3, 16f.
  10. ↑ Livy 24:10 , 3; 24, 11, 3.
  11. ↑ Livius 24, 14, 1-24, 16, 9 (heavily decorated and unreliable in the details); among others
  12. ↑ Livy 24:19 , 4; 24, 20, 1f.
  13. ↑ Livy 24, 43, 5 and ö .; Nepos , Hannibal 5, 3; among others
  14. ↑ Livy 24:44, 9; 24, 47, 12; 25, 1, 5; 25, 2, 3.
  15. ↑ Livy 25:15 , 20.
  16. ↑ Cf. Polybios 8, 35, 1.
  17. ↑ Livy 25:16, 5-25; 25, 17, 4 f.
  18. ↑ Cicero , Tusculanae disputationes 1, 89; Nepos, Hannibal 5, 3; Diodorus 26, 16; Appian , Hannibalica 35; Zonaras 9, 5.
  19. ↑ For example Serge Lancel, Hannibal , German 1998, p. 215 f. and Article Sempronius [I 14]. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 11, Metzler, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-476-01481-9 , Sp. 391.
  20. ↑ Livy 25, 17, 1 f .; 25, 17, 6 f.
  21. ↑ Livy 25:16 , 1-4; 25, 17, 3.
  22. ↑ Cicero, de divinatione 1, 36; 1, 56.
  23. ↑ F. Münzer, RE II A, 2, col. 1403.
personal data
SURNAME Sempronius Gracchus, Tiberius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gracchus, Tiberius Sempronius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman consul
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 212 BC Chr.