Quintus Minucius Esquilinus ( 457 BC) was, according to tradition, a Roman politician and general from the early

Republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...

, who served 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 ...

in 457 BC as the colleague of Gaius Horatius Pulvillus. During his term of office, a military threat from the Aequi and then the

Sabines The Sabines (, , , ; ) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains (see Sabina) of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The Sabines divided int ...

was said to have prevented internal conflict between the patricians and

plebeians In ancient Rome, the plebeians or plebs were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not Patrician (ancient Rome), patricians, as determined by the Capite censi, census, or in other words "commoners". Both classes were hereditary. Et ...

(

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 ...

, 3.30). Minucius marched with a force against the Sabines, but was unable to bring the enemy to battle. Although most ancient sources agree that the consul of this year was called Quintus Minucius, the historian

Diodorus Siculus Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental Universal history (genre), universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty ...

instead named "Lucius Postumius" in his place. Beloch was inclined to accept this and to regard Minucius as an interpolation from later times. According to the '' Fasti Capitolini'', an inscribed list of magistrates set up in the

Roman Forum A forum (Latin: ''forum'', "public place outdoors", : ''fora''; English : either ''fora'' or ''forums'') was a public square in a municipium, or any civitas, of Ancient Rome reserved primarily for the vending of goods; i.e., a marketplace, alon ...

by the Emperor

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...

, Quintus Minucius was brother and successor in office of Lucius Minucius Esquilinus Augurinus, and probably son of Publius Minucius Augurinus, consul in 492 BC. The inscribed stone omits for Quintus the usual family surname Augurinus (which is thought to be a falsification), while two late Roman sources for unknown reasons call him Hilarius or Hilarianus instead. Münzer suggests that the ancient lists may have contained more names, which were lost at some point.

References

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Minucius Esquilinus, Quintus 5th-century BC Roman consuls Esquilinus, Quintus Ancient Roman generals