Roman Blood

Daily random passages from ancient sources about the crimson excesses of the Romans. Twitter feed: @bloody_romans

[bloody-romans]

After Caudine Forks consuls often let dictators fight the Samnites while they stayed in Rome, with armies handed from dictator to dictator. Interesting in itself, but also hints the "6 month rule" was a later invention. http://markbwilson.com/php/dictator.php?dictnum=51

[bloody-romans]

Sometimes we get glimpses of a lifetime in the story of the dictatorship: we met Titus as a youth defending his father, as a war hero earning his nickname, and now holding elections in his old age. http://markbwilson.com/php/dictator.php?dictnum=50

[bloody-romans]

Coming to a long story like the dictatorship that recedes back into the mist you expect things to become clearer as events proceed closer to the better-documented periods. But people are more certain of their legends than they are of their recent past.http://markbwilson.com/php/dictator.php?dictnum=49

[bloody-romans]

Some call this one a dupe, since we know nothing about it, he has the same mag.eq. in 314 (what, you never decided you liked working with a guy?), and some idiots read "within 10 years" as "10 years ago". http://markbwilson.com/php/dictator.php?dictnum=48

[bloody-romans]

M. Aemilius, replacing a vitiated dictator, is explicitly "dictator suffectus" in Livy, paralleling the term used for consuls. Even as dictator, he only got one shot at elections; he couldn't keep trying. http://markbwilson.com/php/dictator.php?dictnum=47

[bloody-romans]

The image of the humiliated consuls hiding in their houses, not even coming out to hold elections, while all of Rome agonizes and grieves is one of the more palpably emotional moments of Roman history. http://markbwilson.com/php/dictator.php?dictnum=46

[bloody-romans]

We can be grateful that Livy, encountering contradictory records, often elected to relate both of them, letting readers decide which tale they preferred. Choose Your Own Adventure is older than we think. http://markbwilson.com/php/dictator.php?dictnum=45

[bloody-romans]

A key moment in the dictatorship: L. Papirius must protect military discipline and the ability of a dictator—any general, in fact—to command, while also recognizing the people's sovereignty. http://markbwilson.com/php/dictator.php?dictnum=44

[bloody-romans]

This time a dictator's vitiation was publicly impugned as politically motivated on the part of the augurs. The only result was more turbulence; it took 14 interreges to get consuls elected. http://markbwilson.com/php/dictator.php?dictnum=43

[bloody-romans]

A pestilence is a bad sign… but so is a bunch of sociopathic biddies knocking off the ruling elite. Either way, best propitiate the gods and lock these portents behind an iron nail. http://markbwilson.com/php/dictator.php?dictnum=42

[bloody-romans]

The funny thing about this story is that Livy went on to add that it looked like there *might* be war with the Samnites, but Epirus attacked them instead and took the war for themselves. http://markbwilson.com/php/dictator.php?dictnum=41

[bloody-romans]

The thing about vitiation is that it's an annulment, yet the dictator is still recorded. This confirms that the Fasti are a record of actions and events (the appointment), not of offices or officials. http://markbwilson.com/php/dictator.php?dictnum=40

[bloody-romans]

Dictator always meant whatever was needed to save the Republic; by now this could mean a mighty warrior, a pious supplicant, or a domestic stand-in so the consuls could both fight for Rome in the field. http://markbwilson.com/php/dictator.php?dictnum=39

[bloody-romans]

There were only two ways to remove a dictator: pressure him to resign, as in 363 and 249; and vitiation, the augurs' finding of fault with the consul's nomination ritual. (A third method was discovered in 44.) http://markbwilson.com/php/dictator.php?dictnum=38

[bloody-romans]

Philo is notable as one of only two or three dictators who got away with doing something other than what he had been named for; the people enthusiastically endorsed his reforms. http://markbwilson.com/php/dictator.php?dictnum=37

[bloody-romans]

A rare case of a dictator not really resolving the problem that brought about his appointment… unless you look at the problem as being not the raids from Antium but the consul's incapacity. http://markbwilson.com/php/dictator.php?dictnum=36

[bloody-romans]

The speech Livy gives to Corvus about his character determining his administration of "this dread dictatorship" is one of the more effective statements of how the office required both power and man. http://markbwilson.com/php/dictator.php?dictnum=35