Titus Manlius Imperiosus Torquatus was a famous politician and general 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 ...

. He had an outstanding career, being

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 ...

three times in 347, 344, and 340 BC, and

dictator A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a small clique. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to rule the republic in tim ...

three times 353, 349, and 320 BC. He was one of the early heroes of the Republic, alongside

Cincinnatus Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus ( – ) was a Roman patrician, statesman, and military leader of the early Roman Republic who became a legendary figure of Roman virtue—particularly civic virtue—by the time of the late Republic. Cincinnatus ...

, Cornelius Cossus, Furius Camillus, or Valerius Corvus. As a young military tribune, he defeated a giant Gaul in single combat in one of the most famous duels of the Republic, which earned him the cognomen Torquatus after the

torc A torc, also spelled torq or torque, is a large rigid or stiff neck ring in metal, made either as a single piece or from strands twisted together. The great majority are open at the front, although some had hook and ring closures and a few had ...

he took from the Gaul's body. He was also known for his moral virtues, especially his severity as he had his own son executed after he had disobeyed his orders in a battle. His life was seen as a model for his descendants, who tried to emulate his heroic deeds, even centuries after his death.

Career

His father Lucius was appointed dictator in 363 BC in order to fulfil religious duties, but instead undertook preparations for war. This resulted in strong opposition from the

plebeian tribune 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 ...

s and he was brought to trial at the beginning of the next year, after he had resigned the dictatorship. Amongst the charges against him was that he had banished Titus from Rome on account of his speaking difficulties and made him work as a labourer. Upon hearing of these accusations against his father, Titus went to the home of the tribune Marcus Pomponius, where he was expected by the latter to provide further charges and was thus promptly admitted. However, once they were alone, he drew his hidden knife and threatened to stab the tribune unless he made a public oath not to hold an assembly to accuse Lucius Manlius, which Pomponius agreed to and duly performed. Titus Manlius' reputation grew on account of his filially pious actions, which helped him to be elected as a

military tribune A military tribune (Latin ''tribunus militum'', "tribune of the soldiers") was an officer of the Roman army who ranked below the legate and above the centurion. Young men of Equestrian rank often served as military tribune as a stepping stone ...

later in the year. In 361 BC, Titus Manlius fought in the army of

Titus Quinctius Poenus Capitolinus Crispinus Titus Quinctius Pennus Capitolinus Crispinus was a politician of the Roman Republic. In 361 BC he was a dictator of Rome and obtained a triumph following a successful battle against the Gauls. In 360 BC he was '' magister equitum'', and he continued ...

against the

Gauls The Gauls ( la, Galli; grc, Γαλάται, ''Galátai'') were a group of Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age and the Roman period (roughly 5th century BC to 5th century AD). Their homeland was known as Gaul (''Gallia''). They s ...

during the Battle of the Anio River. When a Gaul of enormous size and strength challenged the Romans to single combat, Manlius accepted the challenge with the approval of Poenus after the rest of the army had held back from responding for a long period of time. Despite being physically inferior, he killed the Gaul with blows to the belly and groin, after which he stripped the corpse of a

and placed it around his own neck. From this, he gained the

agnomen An ''agnomen'' (; plural: ''agnomina''), in the Roman naming convention, was a nickname, just as the ''cognomen'' was initially. However, the ''cognomina'' eventually became family names, so ''agnomina'' were needed to distinguish between simil ...

Torquatus, a title that was passed down also to his descendants. The son of Malinus Taquatus, proveked beyond endurane by the taunt of the Latin Champion, rode out from the ranks

The son of Malinus Taquatus, proveked beyond endurane by the taunt of the Latin Champion, rode out from the ranks

In 353 BC, he was named dictator and prepared to attack

Caere : Caere (also Caisra and Cisra) is the Latin name given by the Romans to one of the larger cities of southern Etruria, the modern Cerveteri, approximately 50–60 kilometres north-northwest of Rome. To the Etruscans it was known as Cisra, t ...

, but they responded by sending envoys and were granted peace. The campaign was then directed towards the

Falisci Falisci ( grc, Φαλίσκοι, ''Phaliskoi'') is the ancient Roman exonym for an Italic tribe who lived in what is now northern Lazio, on the Etruscan side of the Tiber River. They spoke an Italic language, Faliscan, closely akin to Latin. ...

, but the Roman army found on arrival that the Falisci had disappeared. They ravaged the land but spared the cities before returning to Rome. He was appointed dictator again in 348 BC to oversee elections. A year later, he was elected to his first consulship. His second consulship came in 345 BC. In 340 BC, when Manlius was consul for the third time, Rome had leadership over the

Latin League The Latin League (c. 7th century BC – 338 BC)Stearns, Peter N. (2001) ''The Encyclopedia of World History'', Houghton Mifflin. pp. 76–78. . was an ancient confederation of about 30 villages and tribes in the region of Latium near the ancient ...

. It received a delegation from member states headed by

Lucius Annius Lucius Annius was a nobleman of ancient Rome of the Annia gens who lived in the 4th century BCE. Annius lived in Setia, a Roman colony (modern Sezze), and was praetor of the Latins in 340, at the time of the Latin War. He was sent as ambassador t ...

, demanding coequal status in Roman government, such as a place in the senate and a consulship, but Manlius, appealing to

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-thousandth t ...

, refused them. Roundly abusing the Roman Jupiter, Annius fell down the steps of the public assembly, senseless. Manlius said he would strike down Rome's enemies as Jupiter struck down Annius. The Latin embassy required a safe conduct and an escort of

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judic ...

s to leave Rome unmolested. Rome realigned itself with the Samnites against the Latins. During the conduct of the war, Manlius and his co-consul,

Publius Decius Mus The gens Decia was a plebeian family of high antiquity, which became illustrious in Roman history by the example of its members sacrificing themselves for the preservation of their country. The first of the family known to history was Marcus Deciu ...

, decided that the old military discipline would be reinstated, and no man was allowed to leave his post, under penalty of death. Manlius's son, seeing an opportunity for glory, forgot this stricture, left his post with his friends, and defeated several Latin skirmishers in battle. Having the spoils brought to him, the father cried out in a loud voice and called the legion to assemble. Berating his son, he then handed him over for execution to the horror of all his men. Thus, "Manlian discipline." After Decius Mus sacrificed himself to achieve victory at the

battle of Vesuvius The Battle of Vesuvius (also known as the Battle of the Veseris) was the first recorded battle of the Latin War. The battle was fought near Mount Vesuvius in 340 BC between the Romans, with their allies the Samnites, against a coalition of sever ...

, Manlius was able to crush the Latin allies and pursue them into Campania. He defeated them again at Trifanum, bringing the war to an end, and returned to Rome. He was unable on account of ill health to conduct a further campaign against the Antiates and appointed Lucius Papirius Crassus as dictator to fulfil this role instead.

Legacy

In painting

File:Manlius Torquatus Fighting a Gaul (Ludwig Refinger) - Nationalmuseum - 17246.tif, Manlius' duel against the Gaul, a typical battle scene of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

by the German Ludwig Refinger (mid 16th century). File:Consul Titus Manlius Torquatus laat zijn zoon onthoofden Rijksmuseum SK-A-613.jpeg, The Dutch Baroque painter

Ferdinand Bol Ferdinand Bol (24 June 1616 – 24 August 1680) was a Dutch painter, etcher and draftsman. Although his surviving work is rare, it displays Rembrandt's influence; like his master, Bol favored historical subjects, portraits, numerous self-port ...

depicted the son's decapitation (1661–64). Sacrifice to the state was one of the favourite themes of French Neoclassical painters at the end of the 18th century and especially during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

. The story of Torquatus' execution of his son was logically used by several of them. File:Barthelemy-manlius-tours.jpg, Jean-Simon Berthélemy (1785). File:Reproduction de "Manlius Torquatus condamnant son fils à mort".jpg, Alphonse Gaudar de Laverdine (1799). File:Honnet Prix de Rome.JPG, Alexandre-Romain Honnet (1799).

''Stemma'' of the Manlii Torquati

''Stemma'' taken from Münzer until "A. Manlius Torquatus, d. 208", and then Mitchell, with corrections. All dates are BC.Münzer, ''PW'', vol. 27, pp. 1181-1182.

References

Bibliography

Ancient works

* Titus Livius (

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 ...

), ''

History of Rome The history of Rome includes the history of the city of Rome as well as the civilisation of ancient Rome. Roman history has been influential on the modern world, especially in the history of the Catholic Church, and Roman law has influenced m ...

''. *

Valerius Maximus Valerius Maximus () was a 1st-century Latin writer and author of a collection of historical anecdotes: ''Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX'' ("Nine books of memorable deeds and sayings", also known as ''De factis dictisque memorabilibus'' ...

, ''

Factorum ac Dictorum Memorabilium ''Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX'' ("nine books of memorable deeds and sayings", also known as ''De factis dictisque memorabilibus'' or ''Facta et dicta memorabilia'') by Valerius Maximus (c. 20 BC – c. AD 50) was written arou ...

'' (Memorable Deeds and Sayings).

Modern works

* T. Robert S. Broughton, ''The Magistrates of the Roman Republic'', American Philological Association, 1952–1986. *

Michael Crawford Michael Patrick Smith, (born 19 January 1942), known professionally as Michael Crawford, is an English tenor, actor and comedian. Crawford is best known for playing both the hapless Frank Spencer in the sitcom '' Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em'' a ...

, ''Roman Republican Coinage'', Cambridge University Press, 1974–2001. * Jane F. Mitchell, "The Torquati", in '' Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte'', vol. 15, part 1, (January 1966), pp. 23–31. *

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 d ...

, ''Roman Aristocratic Parties and Families'', translated by Thérèse Ridley, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999 (originally published in 1920). * August Pauly,

Georg Wissowa Georg Otto August Wissowa (17 June 1859 – 11 May 1931) was a German classical philologist born in Neudorf, near Breslau. Education and career Wissowa studied classical philology under August Reifferscheid at the University of Bresla ...

, ''et alii'', '' Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft'' (abbreviated ''PW''), J. B. Metzler, Stuttgart (1894–1980). *

Robert Rosenblum Robert Rosenblum (July 24, 1927 – December 6, 2006) was an American art historian and curator known for his influential and often irreverent scholarship on European and American art of the mid-eighteenth to 20th centuries. Biography Rosenblum wa ...

, Transformations in Late Eighteenth Century Art, Princeton University Press, 1967. *

Lily Ross Taylor Lily Ross Taylor (born August 12, 1886, in Auburn, Alabama - died November 18, 1969, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania) was an American academic and author, who in 1917 became the first female Fellow of the American Academy in Rome. Biography Born in ...

and T. Robert S. Broughton, "The Order of the Two Consuls' Names in the Yearly Lists", ''Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome'', 19 (1949), pp. 3–14. * F. W. Walbank, A. E. Astin, M. W. Frederiksen, R. M. Ogilvie (editors), ''

The Cambridge Ancient History ''The Cambridge Ancient History'' is a multi-volume work of ancient history from Prehistory to Late Antiquity, published by Cambridge University Press. The first series, consisting of 12 volumes, was planned in 1919 by Irish historian J. B. Bur ...

, vol. VII, part 2
The Rise of Rome to 220 B.C.
', Cambridge University Press, 1989. {{DEFAULTSORT:Manlius Imperiosus Torquatus, Titus 4th-century BC deaths 4th-century BC Roman consuls 4th-century BC Roman generals Characters in Book VI of the Aeneid Filicides Titus, Imperiosus Ancient Roman dictators Roman patricians Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown