Lucius Papirius Mugillanus was a

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...

of the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Ki ...

in 427 BC,

consular tribune A consular tribune was putatively a type of magistrate in the early Roman Republic. According to Roman tradition, colleges of consular tribunes held office throughout the fifth and fourth centuries BC during the so-called " Conflict of the ...

in 422 BC and censor in 418 BC. Papirius belonged to the patrician Papiria gens. He was the son of Lucius Papirius Mugillanus, consul suffect in 444 and censor in 443 BC.

Marcus Papirius Mugillanus Marcus Papirius Mugillanus was a consular tribune in 418 and 416 BC, and perhaps consul of the Roman Republic in 411. Papirius belonged to the Papiria gens, one of the oldest patrician families. The family had, according to legend, been among t ...

, consul in 418 BC, would have been a younger brother or son of Papirius, while later Papirii Mugillani, such as Lucius Papirius Mugillanus, consular tribune in 382 BC, should probably be considered grandchildren or grand-nephews.

Career

In 427 BC Papirius held the consulship together with

Gaius Servilius Structus Ahala Gaius Servilius Structus Ahala (died 478 BC) was a Roman senator from the early Republic, who held the office of consul in 478 BC. During his term of office he commanded two legions in a war against the Volsci. His lack of success and the heavy ...

. Nothing is known of the events during their consulship. Chronograph of 354 Five years later, in 422 BC, Papirius would again reach the ''

imperium In ancient Rome, ''imperium'' was a form of authority held by a citizen to control a military or governmental entity. It is distinct from '' auctoritas'' and '' potestas'', different and generally inferior types of power in the Roman Republic a ...

'', this time as a consular tribune together with

Lucius Manlius Capitolinus The gens Manlia () was one of the oldest and noblest patrician houses at Rome, from the earliest days of the Republic until imperial times. The first of the gens to obtain the consulship was Gnaeus Manlius Cincinnatus, consul in 480 BC, and ...

and Quintus Antonius Merenda. There is little recorded of the actions of the consular college, but the year saw a large trial being held against the former consul

Gaius Sempronius Atratinus Gaius Sempronius Atratinus was a consul of the Roman Republic in 423 BC. Sempronius belonged to the patrician Sempronia gens and the branch known as the Sempronii Atratini, one of the republic's oldest consular families, having reached the consu ...

. Sempronius had the previous year held command against the Volscians and was being prosecuted for needlessly endangering his legion. The prosecution was led by the

Tribunes of the Plebs Tribune of the plebs, tribune of the people or plebeian tribune ( la, tribunus plebis) was the first office of the Roman state that was open to the plebeians, and was, throughout the history of the Republic, the most important check on the power o ...

, of which Lucius Hortensius was the main prosecutor. Sempronius had succeeded with getting four of his former officers elected as Tribunes of the Plebs to oppose Hortensius. The tactic only partially worked and simply delayed his conviction, which came in 420 BC in the form of heavy fines. In the same year as the conviction fell for Sempronius, 420 BC, Papirius was appointed as

Interrex The interrex (plural interreges) was literally a ruler "between kings" (Latin ''inter reges'') during the Roman Kingdom and the Roman Republic. He was in effect a short-term regent. History The office of ''interrex'' was supposedly created follow ...

to hold the comitia. In this role he most likely oversaw the change from consuls in the previous year to a return to the use of consular tribunes. Papirius was elected as one of two censors in 418 BC. His colleague in the office is not known. This was the first year of consular office for his son or brother

and the second term as consular tribune for his former consular colleague Servilius. The actions of the censors are not recorded as ancient chroniclers instead focused on the events relating to the war with the

Aequi 300px, Location of the Aequi (Equi) in central Italy, 5th century BC. The Aequi ( grc, Αἴκουοι and Αἴκοι) were an Italic tribe on a stretch of the Apennine Mountains to the east of Latium in central Italy who appear in the early hist ...

and Labici.

Conflicting Traditions

The Papirius who held the consulship in 427 BC can not be certified to be a different individual from that of Lucius Papirius Mugillanus, suffect consul in 444 BC, nor can the consular tribune of 422 BC with certainty be identified as the same person as the consul of 427 BC. The classicist scholar Münzer notes uncertainty with the identification while the later scholar

Degrassi ''Degrassi'' is a Canadian television franchise created by Kit Hood and Linda Schuyler in 1979. It is centred on a multigenerational teen drama about an ensemble cast of teenagers attending the namesake Toronto school as they navigate their ...

points towards the lack of iteration in the ancient records indicates them as being two different individuals (one consul in 444 BC and a son of this consul in 427 BC). Broughton follows Degrassi and adds that "it is resonable to suppose that the consul of 427 and the military tribune of 422 were the same person".Broughton, vol i, pp.66 (427 BC:note 1)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Papirius Mugillanus, Lucius 327 5th-century BC Roman consuls Mugillanus, Lucius 327 Roman censors Roman consular tribunes

Career

Conflicting Traditions

See also

References