Gaius Poetelius Libo Visolus was a Roman politician and general who lived in the mid-fourth century BC and served multiple times as

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 thro ...

Family

Poetelius was a member of the

plebeian In ancient Rome, the plebeians or plebs were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words "commoners". Both classes were hereditary. Etymology The precise origins of the gro ...

Poetelia gens, a family which had previously had no

s but did have one decemvir named Quintus Poetelius Libo Visolus. As revealed by

filiation Filiation is the legal term for the recognized legal status of the relationship between family members, or more specifically the legal relationship between parent and child. As described by the Government of Quebec: Filiation is the relationship ...

, the father of Poetelius was named Gaius, his grandfather was named Quintus, and he had one known son, Gaius Poetelius Libo Visolus, who was dictator in 313 BC and possibly consul in 326 BC as well.

First consulship and tribuneship

In 360 BC, Poetelius was elected to his first consulship along with a patrician, Marcus Fabius Ambustus. In that year Rome was at war with the city of Tibur, which had allied itself with the Gauls against Rome the year before. The senate tasked Poetelius with subduing the Tiburites, and his colleague Ambustus, the

Hernici The Hernici were an Italic tribe of ancient Italy, whose territory was in Latium between the Fucine Lake and the Sacco River (''Trerus''), bounded by the Volsci on the south, and by the Aequi and the Marsi on the north. History For many y ...

. While Poetelius laid siege to Tibur, news arrived in Rome that the Gauls, who had fled to

Campania Campania is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy located in Southern Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian Peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islan ...

, were returning for a second assault on Rome. The senate appointed Quintus Servilius Ahala dictator with the sole responsibility of defeating the Gallic army. Ahala brought to arms all young men who were not assigned to the army of either consul, with no exceptions, and fought a battle against the Gauls just outside the city, which, though long and hard-fought, eventually brought victory to the Romans. The Gauls fled in defeat towards Tibur, where Poetelius easily defeated them along with the Tiburites, who tried to help them. Ahala then resigned his dictatorship and Poetelius returned to Rome to celebrate his triumphs over Tibur and the Gauls. In 358 BC Poetelius was elected as

Tribune of the plebs Tribune of the plebs, tribune of the people or plebeian tribune () was the first office of the Roman Republic, Roman state that was open to the plebs, plebeians, and was, throughout the history of the Republic, the most important check on the pow ...

, a position with a great deal of power to create and veto laws, and a position only available to plebeians. During his term of office, Poetelius proposed a law against electoral bribery, a proposition whole-heartedly confirmed by the still mostly patrician senate, which believed that the law might hamper prospective plebeian candidates for consular office.

Second and possible third term as consul

In 346 BC, Poetelius served as consul for a second time, with patrician Marcus Valerius Corvus. In that year Rome waged war against the

Volsci The Volsci (, , ) were an Italic tribe, well known in the history of the first century of the Roman Republic. At the time they inhabited the partly hilly, partly marshy district of the south of Latium, bounded by the Aurunci and Samnites on the ...

ans, however only Valerius is mentioned in relation to this. This probably indicates that Poetelius undertook civil duties during his consulate. In 326 BC, Poetelius may have served as consul for a third time, alongside

Lucius Papirius Cursor Lucius Papirius Cursor (c.365–after 310 BC) was a celebrated politician and general of the early Roman Republic, who was five times consul, three times magister equitum, and twice Roman dictator, dictator. He was the most important Roman command ...

, and helped to pass the

Lex Poetelia Papiria The ''lex Poetelia Papiria'' was a law passed in Ancient Rome that abolished the contractual form of ''nexum'', or debt bondage. Livy dates the law in 326 BC, during the third consulship of Gaius Poetelius Libo Visolus,Livy, ''History of Rome'' V ...

, which outlawed the

nexum ''Nexum'' was a debt bondage contract in the early Roman Republic. A debtor pledged his person as collateral (finance), collateral if he defaulted on his loan. Details as to the contract are obscure and some modern scholars dispute its existence. I ...

, a type of

debt bondage Debt bondage, also known as debt slavery, bonded labour, or peonage, is the pledge of a person's services as security for the repayment for a debt or other obligation. Where the terms of the repayment are not clearly or reasonably stated, or whe ...

previously used in

Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

. However it is very possible that the Poetelius of 326 was not this Poetelius, but his son, who later also served as dictator in 313 BC. This confusion stems from vague sources; also, the

Fasti Capitolini The ''Fasti Capitolini'', or Capitoline Fasti, are a list of the chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, extending from the early fifth century BC down to the reign of Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Together with similar lists found at Rom ...

, which records both the names and filiations of Roman consuls, is missing for this year. A default assumption that the elder Poetelius was consul in this year defies chronology. In 326 BC, it had been twenty years since Poetelius' previous consulship and thirty four years since his first. Considering the age when men usually achieved their first consulship, this would likely make Poetelius a very old man in 326. For this reason, the classicist

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 ...

argued that the consul in 326 BC was not the elder Poetelius but instead his son.Broughton, pp.147

References

Bibliography

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

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 i ...

(Titus Livius),

Ab Urbe Condita Libri The ''History of Rome'', perhaps originally titled , and frequently referred to as (), is a monumental history of ancient Rome, written in Latin between 27 and 9 BC by the Roman historian Titus Livius, better known in English as "Livy". ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poetelius Libo Visolus, Gaius 4th-century BC Roman consuls 4th-century BC Roman generals