Titus Quinctius Flamininus (c. 228 – 174 BC) was a
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
* Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...
politician and general instrumental in the Roman conquest of
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...
.
Family background
Flamininus belonged to the minor
patrician ''
gens''
Quinctia. The family had a glorious place in the early history of Rome, especially the famous hero
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, but it had somewhat lost its political influence by the middle of the fourth century BC. Flamininus' great grandfather
Caeso Quintius Claudus was still consul in 271, the last time a Quintius is recorded as holding a curule office before 209.
Lucius Quinctius, his grandfather, was ''
flamen Dialis''—the great priest of
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousand ...
—during the third quarter of the third century. The cognomen Flamininus borne by his descendants derives from this prestigious priesthood. Flamininus' great grandson later put an ''
apex'', the head covering of the
Flamen, as a symbol of his family on a denarius he minted. Flamininus' father—also named Titus—is not known. He had two sons: the elder, Titus Flamininus, was born c.228, the younger
Lucius followed soon after. At the end of the third century, the Quinctii regained a good status among the political class, as shown by Flamininus' uncle Caeso who built the
Temple of Concord in 217, his younger brother that became
augur
An augur was a priest and official in the classical Roman world. His main role was the practice of augury, the interpretation of the will of the gods by studying the flight of birds. Determinations were based upon whether they were flying ...
in 213 at a very young age, and his distant cousin Titus Quinctius Crispinus, consul in 208.
The Quinctii were for a long time allied to the
Fabii, one of the most prominent gentes of the Republic. They likely owed them the rare ''
praenomen''
Caeso—a feature of the early Fabii—through marriages. Likewise, Flamininus was probably married to a Fabia, as
Polybius
Polybius (; grc-gre, Πολύβιος, ; ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , which covered the period of 264–146 BC and the Punic Wars in detail.
Polybius is important for his analysis of the mixed ...
says that Quintus Fabius Buteo, who later served under him in Greece, was his wife's nephew. The Buteones were very influential at the time thanks to
Marcus Fabius Buteo, the
Princeps Senatus between 216 and 210; he was also succeeded by another Fabius, the famous
Cunctator.
Early career
Military Tribune (208 BC)
Flamininus' early career was peculiar, as he skipped several steps of the
cursus honorum
The ''cursus honorum'' (; , or more colloquially 'ladder of offices') was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The ''c ...
. The
Second Punic War that was raging in Italy created several unusual careers, that of
Scipio Africanus
Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (, , ; 236/235–183 BC) was a Roman general and statesman, most notable as one of the main architects of Rome's victory against Carthage in the Second Punic War. Often regarded as one of the best military co ...
being the most famous example. Flamininus' career started in 208 as
military tribune, a junior military position. He served under the five time consul
Marcus Claudius Marcellus, who commanded the operations against
Hannibal
Hannibal (; xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋, ''Ḥannibaʿl''; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Pu ...
in Southern Italy. Marcellus died in a Carthaginian ambush near Crotone in 208.
Propraetor of Tarentum (205–202 BC)
Flamininus then became
quaestor
A ( , , ; "investigator") was a public official in Ancient Rome. There were various types of quaestors, with the title used to describe greatly different offices at different times.
In the Roman Republic, quaestors were elected officials who ...
, probably in 206, although some historians have suggested a later date. He was sent to
Tarentum Tarentum may refer to:
* Taranto, Apulia, Italy, on the site of the ancient Roman city of Tarentum (formerly the Greek colony of Taras)
**See also History of Taranto
* Tarentum (Campus Martius), also Terentum, an area in or on the edge of the Camp ...
to second his uncle Quinctius Claudus Flamininus, who was the
propraetor in charge of the Roman garrison. Rome kept a strong military presence into this Greek city because it had previously defected to Hannibal.
His uncle likely died in Tarentum in 205, and it seems that Flamininus was given his command since he was already on-site. Becoming propraetor before 25 was an extraordinary achievement, but it can be explained by the fact that experienced commanders were used abroad at the end of the Second Punic War.
Livy
Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...
tells that he was prorogued in 204, but remains silent on the following years; he might have stayed there until the end of the war in 202. In any case, Flamininus had a good relationship with the Greek population of Tarentum. During his time there, he also became familiar with the Greek language and culture.
Commissions (201-200 BC)
Flamininus is mentioned again in 201 as the last member of a ten-men commission tasked with settling veterans of
Scipio Africanus
Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (, , ; 236/235–183 BC) was a Roman general and statesman, most notable as one of the main architects of Rome's victory against Carthage in the Second Punic War. Often regarded as one of the best military co ...
in Southern Italy (
Samnium
Samnium ( it, Sannio) is a Latin exonym for a region of Southern Italy anciently inhabited by the Samnites. Their own endonyms were ''Safinim'' for the country (attested in one inscription and one coin legend) and ''Safineis'' for the Th ...
and
Apulia
it, Pugliese
, population_note =
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, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 =
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_title1 =
, demographics1_info1 =
, demographic ...
), perhaps because he knew the area after his command at Tarentum. This commission continued its work in 200, but Flamininus was nevertheless appointed to another commission of three men to enrol settlers in
Venusia. It is the only occurrence in Roman history of a man being member of two commissions simultaneously.
Consulate and command in Greece (198–194 BC)
Consular elections (199 BC)
In 199, Flamininus ran for the consulship, while he was not even 30 years old. The ''
cursus honorum
The ''cursus honorum'' (; , or more colloquially 'ladder of offices') was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The ''c ...
'' had not yet been formally organised in these years, but his bid for election still broke the tradition. He was even younger than Scipio Africanus, elected consul in 205 at 31, who had for him impressive military records and prestigious family support. In contrast, Flamininus came from a smaller family and could not boast any notable achievement during the war against Hannibal. At least two
tribunes of the plebs, Marcus Fulvius and Manius Curius, vetoed his candidacy, precisely on the ground that he was too young and had not held any curule office (praetor or aedile). However, the Senate compelled them to remove their veto and allow Flamininus to present himself in the elections.
This anomaly led modern historians to suppose that Flamininus was backed by several powerful politicians. Early
prosopographers such as
Friedrich Münzer
Friedrich Münzer (22 April 1868 – 20 October 1942) was a German classical scholar noted for the development of prosopography, particularly for his demonstrations of how family relationships in ancient Rome connected to political struggles. He ...
and
H. H. Scullard thought that he was a member of the political faction led by the Fabii. However this view has been contested, because the Fabii were in decline after the death of Buteo and the Cunctator.
Flamininus was elected consul, together with the plebeian
Sextus Aelius Paetus Catus, as the consul ''posterior'', which means the
Centuriate Assembly
The Centuriate Assembly (Latin: ''comitia centuriata'') of the Roman Republic was one of the three voting assemblies in the Roman constitution. It was named the Centuriate Assembly as it originally divided Roman citizens into groups of one hundre ...
elected him in second place, after Aelius. Plutarch tells that he owed his success to his land distributions in the commissions that made him popular among the settlers, who voted for him in return. The other consul likewise lacked any notable military achievement, and was elected thanks to his
aedileship the previous year, during which he imported a lot of grain from Africa.
As the two consuls could not agree on the allocation of the provinces between them, they turned to
sortition
In governance, sortition (also known as selection by lottery, selection by lot, allotment, demarchy, stochocracy, aleatoric democracy, democratic lottery, and lottocracy) is the selection of political officials as a random sample from a large ...
. At the time, the main prize was the conduct of the Second Macedonian War against Philip V of Macedon. Although several scholars have thought that the lottery was rigged in favour of Flamininus, it appears that he was just lucky; the known instances of rigged sortitions took place much later.
Campaign of 198 BC
After his election to the consulship he was chosen to replace
Publius Sulpicius Galba who was consul with Gaius Aurelius in 200 BC, according to Livy, as general during the Second Macedonian War. He chased Philip V of Macedon out of most of Southern
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...
, except for a few fortresses, defeating him at the
Battle of the Aous, but as his term as consul was coming to an end he attempted to establish a peace with the Macedonian king. During the negotiations, Flamininus was made
proconsul
A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a consul. A proconsul was typically a former consul. The term is also used in recent history for officials with delegated authority.
In the Roman Republic, military command, or ' ...
, giving him the authority to continue the war rather than finishing the negotiations. In 197 BC he defeated Philip at the
Battle of Cynoscephalae in
Thessaly
Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thes ...
, the Roman
legions making the
Macedonian phalanx obsolete in the process. Philip was forced to surrender, give up all the Greek cities he had conquered, and pay Rome 1,000
talents, but his kingdom was left intact to serve as a buffer state between
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...
and
Illyria
In classical antiquity, Illyria (; grc, Ἰλλυρία, ''Illyría'' or , ''Illyrís''; la, Illyria, ''Illyricum'') was a region in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula inhabited by numerous tribes of people collectively known as the Illyr ...
. This displeased the
Achaean League
The Achaean League ( Greek: , ''Koinon ton Akhaion'' "League of Achaeans") was a Hellenistic-era confederation of Greek city states on the northern and central Peloponnese. The league was named after the region of Achaea in the northwestern P ...
, Rome's allies in Greece, who wanted Macedon to be dismantled completely.
In 198 BC he occupied
Anticyra
Antikyra or Anticyra ( el, Αντίκυρα) is a port on the west coast of the Gulf of Antikyra named after it. That gulf is a north-coast bay of the Gulf of Corinth. The settlement was made basically on a floor and beach fringing the northeast ...
in
Phocis
Phocis ( el, Φωκίδα ; grc, Φωκίς) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Central Greece. It stretches from the western mountainsides of Parnassus on the east to the mountain range of Var ...
and made it his naval yard and his main provisioning port. During the period from 197 to 194 BC, from his seat in Elateia, Flamininus directed the political affairs of the Greek states. In 196 BC Flamininus appeared at the
Isthmian Games in
Corinth
Corinth ( ; el, Κόρινθος, Kórinthos, ) is the successor to an ancient city, and is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part ...
and proclaimed the freedom of the Greek states. He was fluent in
Greek and was a great admirer of Greek culture, and the Greeks hailed him as their liberator; they minted coins with his portrait, and in some cities he was deified. According to
Livy
Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...
, this was the act of an unselfish
Philhellene, although it seems more likely that Flamininus understood freedom as liberty for the aristocracy of Greece, who would then become clients of Rome, as opposed to being subjected to Macedonian hegemony.
With his Greek allies, Flamininus plundered Sparta
Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referr ...
, before returning to Rome in triumph along with thousands of freed slaves, 1,200 of whom were freed from
Achaea, having been taken captive in Italy and sold in Greece during the
Second Punic War.
Meanwhile,
Eumenes II of
Pergamum appealed to Rome for help against the
Seleucid king
Antiochus III
Antiochus III the Great (; grc-gre, Ἀντίoχoς Μέγας ; c. 2413 July 187 BC) was a Greek Hellenistic king and the 6th ruler of the Seleucid Empire, reigning from 222 to 187 BC. He ruled over the region of Syria and large parts of the r ...
. Flamininus was sent to negotiate with him in 192 BC, and warned him not to interfere with the Greek states. Antiochus did not believe Flamininus had the authority to speak for the Greeks, and promised to leave Greece alone only if the Romans did the same. These negotiations came to nothing and Rome was soon
at war with Antiochus. Flamininus was present at the
Battle of Thermopylae
The Battle of Thermopylae ( ; grc, Μάχη τῶν Θερμοπυλῶν, label= Greek, ) was fought in 480 BC between the Achaemenid Persian Empire under Xerxes I and an alliance of Greek city-states led by Sparta under Leonidas I. Lastin ...
in 191 BC, in which Antiochus was defeated.
In 189 BC he was elected
censor along with
Marcus Claudius Marcellus, defeating among others
Cato the Elder
Marcus Porcius Cato (; 234–149 BC), also known as Cato the Censor ( la, Censorius), the Elder and the Wise, was a Roman soldier, senator, and historian known for his conservatism and opposition to Hellenization. He was the first to write hi ...
.
In 183 BC he was sent to negotiate with
Prusias I of Bithynia in an attempt to capture
Hannibal
Hannibal (; xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋, ''Ḥannibaʿl''; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Pu ...
, who had been exiled there from
Carthage
Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...
, but Hannibal committed suicide to avoid being taken prisoner. According to Plutarch, many senators reproached Flamininus for having cruelly caused the death of an enemy who had now become harmless. Although nothing is known of him after this, Flamininus seems to have died around 174.
[Livy 41.28]
Notes
External links
Plutarch's parallel lives – Flamininus– Loeb edn. at Bill Thayer's website (accessed 13 July 2009)
Livy's History of Rome
Bibliography
Ancient sources
*
Livy
Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...
, ''
Ab Urbe Condita
''Ab urbe condita'' ( 'from the founding of the City'), or ''anno urbis conditae'' (; 'in the year since the city's founding'), abbreviated as AUC or AVC, expresses a date in years since 753 BC, the traditional founding of Rome. It is an ex ...
'' (
English translation by Rev. Canon Roberts on
Wikisource).
*
Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...
, ''
Parallel lives''.
*
Polybius
Polybius (; grc-gre, Πολύβιος, ; ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , which covered the period of 264–146 BC and the Punic Wars in detail.
Polybius is important for his analysis of the mixed ...
, ''
The Histories''
English translationby
William Roger Paton on
LacusCurtius).
Modern sources
*
Ernst Badian
Ernst Badian (8 August 1925 – 1 February 2011) was an Austrian-born classical scholar who served as a professor at Harvard University from 1971 to 1998.
Early life and education
Badian was born in Vienna in 1925 and in 1938 fled the Nazis w ...
, "The Family and Early Career of T. Quinctius Flamininus", ''
The Journal of Roman Studies'', Vol. 61 (1971), pp. 102–111.
*
T. Robert S. Broughton, ''The Magistrates of the Roman Republic'', American Philological Association, 1951–1952.
*
Michael Crawford, ''Roman Republican Coinage'', Cambridge University Press (1974, 2001).
*
Friedrich Münzer
Friedrich Münzer (22 April 1868 – 20 October 1942) was a German classical scholar noted for the development of prosopography, particularly for his demonstrations of how family relationships in ancient Rome connected to political struggles. He ...
, ''Roman Aristocratic Parties and Families'', translated by Thérèse Ridley, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999 (originally published in 1920).
*Rene Pfeilschifter, ''Titus Quinctius Flamininus, Untersuchungen zur römischen Griechenlandpolitik'', Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2005.
*
Jörg Rüpke, Anne Glock, David Richardson (translator), ''Fasti Sacerdotum: A Prosopography of Pagan, Jewish, and Christian Religious Officials in the City of Rome, 300 BC to AD 499'', Oxford University Press, 2008.
* Francis X. Ryan, ''Rank and Participation in the Republican Senate'', Stuttgart, Franz Steiner Verlag, 1998.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quinctius Flamininus, Titus
220s BC births
174 BC deaths
2nd-century BC Roman consuls
Ancient Roman generals
Flamininus, Titus
Roman censors
Roman philhellenes
Roman triumphators
Second Macedonian War
Year of birth uncertain