The 400s BCE have been a rollercoaster for Rome. It certainly seems to have been a decade of big changes, both in terms of foreign policy and on the domestic front.
Join us for the highlights for the last decade of the fifth century BCE!
Dr Rad – Welcome to the Partial Recap for the 400s BCE! Dr G – I’m Dr G Dr Rad: and I’m Dr Rad Dr G: and this is our highlights edition of the 400s in Rome. We’ll take you through from 409 to 400 in an epitome of our normal episodes. Dr Rad: Perfect for those mornings when you don’t want some lengthy rhetoric with your coffee – but please be warned – the Roman world is a violent one. Dr G: Get ready for a recappuccino.
409 BCE
In 409 BCE, the consuls were Cnaeus Cornelius Cossus and Lucius Furius Medullinus.
The plebeians were SO upset that they could not elect their champion, Menenius, as military tribune with consular power
Capitalising on that, the tribune of the plebs started applying some pressure. DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE SITUATION, PEOPLE OR WE GIVE UP.
There were a staggering number of tribunes from the legendary Icilii family this year, and the plebs did always take them especially seriously. #heroesoftheunderrrepresented
Finally, THREE plebs were elected the quaestorship instead.
This cheered them up immensely as it was the FIRST TIME a pleb had been chosen for this office! Amazeballs.
The patricians naturally fell apart immediately. When they allowed plebs to be elected to the quaestorship, they didn’t really think it would happen! It was too ridiculous! A pleb in office? A pleb chosen over a patrician? This was a worrying sign that the world was ending.
To make matters worse, the Icilii started pushing for elections for military tribunes with consular power in 408. We see what you are SCHEMING, you troublesome tribunes! You want a pleb to hold imperium! Don’t make us SICK.
As the patricians and plebeians battled it out once more for consuls vs military tribunes, the Aequians and the Volscians started attacking the territory of Roman allies.
The consuls attempted to hold a levy to raise an army, but the Icilii refused to let the levy proceed until they got what they wanted – elections for military tribunes!
As the patricians and plebeians entered yet another staring contest, news arrived that the citadel of Carventum had been lost to the enemy.
Still, the tribunes refused to allow the levy to proceed – military success be damned!
This was not a popular move – but it WORKED
The patricians were forced to agree that there would be no consuls in 408 – BUT only on the condition that none of the current tribunes of the plebs could serve again OR be elected as military tribune. They couldn’t kill the Icilli, but they could kill their career prospects!
With all that unpleasantness behind them, the Romans could now march off to Carventum and win back that citadel.
They did not quite pull that off, so instead they captured Verrugo from the Volscians and contented themselves with lots of lovely booty.
408 BCE
In 408 BCE, the military tribunes with consular power were Caius Julius Iullus, Publius Cornelius Cossus, and Caius Servilius Ahala
In spite of the drama in 409, only patricians were elected to serve as the chief magistrates. Who would’ve thought?
The patricians had pulled some shady tricks in the election, but it worked! No plebs were chosen and they could breathe a sigh of relief.
The Antiates, Volscians and Aequians decided to band together and take on the Romans in this year.
The Romans were used to taking on two enemies at a time, but three??? Time for a dictator!
Two of the military tribunes were PRESSED to see their chance for glory and command slip right through their fingers.
Julius and Cornelius complained so much, high-ranking senators had to tell them to build a bridge and get over it.
Only Ahala proved himself worthy of office, as he was willing to do whatever was best for Rome – not himself. AWWWW
This impressed the pants off everyone, including the new dictator, Publius Cornelius Rutilus Cossus. He chose Ahala to serve as his deputy. That’s what happens when you’re a team player!
The Romans could now focus on what they do best – winning! They easily trampled their enemies, perhaps capturing some prisoners and a fortress?
Back at home, the patricians decided to use the same dodgy election tactics to make sure that no plebs were chosen to serve as military tribunes with consular power in 407 – and it worked again!
Who says you have to reinvent the wheel? The wheel is fine!
407 BCE
In 407 BCE, the military tribunes with consular power were Lucius Furius Medullinus, Caius Valerius Potitus Volusus, Numerius Favius Vibulanus and Gaius Servilius Ahala
It may have been in this year that the treaty between the Romans and Veii ran out. Hope that doesn’t have any terrible consequences!
The recently recaptured town or fortress of Verrugo was lost back to the Volscians…. Again.
Losing the territory was bitter, but the slaughter of the Roman garrison made the situation even worse.
And it all could have been avoided if the Romans had just sent reinforcements instead of waiting for their nails to dry.
406 BCE
In 406 BCE, the military tribunes with consular power were Publius Cornelius Rutilus Cossus, Cnaeus Cornelius Cossus, Numerius or Cnaeus Fabius Ambustus and Lucius Valerius Potitus.
406 BCE was a BIG year for the Ancient Romans, as it was apparently the year that their relationship with the Etruscan city of Veii fell apart… for the third time. It’s like Ross and Rachel all over again! Will these two crazy kids stop trying to kill each other and just admit that they are perfect for each other???
NO – the senators at Veii make it very clear that they prefer the killing option.
The Romans were SO offended that war was the only response.
Unfortunately, the young men in the city were kind of all-warred out. The Romans have finally done it. They’ve had enough fighting. Who knew that was possible?
The tribune of the plebs seized on this unhappiness to create some fantastic propaganda about how awful the patricians were. They use war to keep the people too distracted to fight for their own rights! Bastards.
The patricians knew they were in trouble when some veterans started taking their tunics off and showing their wounds. How much more blood do you want, you elite vampires??? Can’t you see they’ve already given all they have???
Instead, the military tribunes decided to head off against the Volscians. Smart to wrap one conflict before starting another!
Three of the military tribunes decided to divide and conquer – taking on Antium, Ecetrae and Anxur.
This was pushing things further south than the Romans had ever gone before!
Through some clever distractions, Fabius managed to capture Anxur, which meant lots of plunder for all!
Such generosity made the plebeians teary. Thanks for letting us profit from this death and destruction guys!
The patricians followed this up with a very unexpected bonus. Military pay! Yeah, it’s now a thing everyone.
If there ever was a moment when the plebeians had their minds blown, it was now. EXPLOSION.
The plebeians were now fully #teampatrician
It’s not just the pay guys. It’s the fact that you anticipated our needs! I mean, we didn’t even have to ask!
The only people who were not popping the champagne were the tribune of the plebs.
The plebeian tribunes tried to slap some sense into the people – HELLO? Where is the money for this going to come from, hmmm??? And why now??? What are the patricians planning???
Unwilling to lose their good publicity, the patricians made very public donations to the military pay fund, and anyone who could afford it started following their example.
The plebeians did not need to see any more – where could they sign? War couldn’t come soon enough! It was the only way to show how much they just LOVED Rome and LOVED the patricians. Nobody has better leaders. Where else do you get PAID to risk your life and limbs?!
The patricians suddenly remembered that they actually WOULD like an army to go and fight Veii. Isn’t that just a coincidence? Or did it all happen the other way round? The war, then the pay? Hmmmm….
By the close of the year, the Romans were ready to avenge the insult from Veii. Nobody is rude to the Romans and gets away with it! Time to teach the Etruscans some manners!
405 BCE
In 405 BCE, the military tribunes with consular power were Titus Quinctius Capitolinus, Quintus Quinctius Cincinnatus, Caius Iulius Iullus, Aulus Manlius, Lucius Furius Medullinus, and Manius Aemilius Mamercus..
The siege of Veii technically began in this year, although the Romans did not make much progress because the Roman army had to leave and deal with those pesky Volscians.
Meanwhile, the Etruscans were having one of their gatherings at the shrine of Voltumna and debating whether they should support Veii in the upcoming struggle with the Romans.
404 BCE
In 404 BCE, the military tribunes with consular power were Caius Valerius Potitus, Manius Sergius Fidenas, Publius Cornelius Maluginensis, Gnaeus Cornelius Cossus, Gaius or Kaeso Fabius Ambustus, Spurius Natius Rutulus.
The Romans won various battles with the Volscians in this year, but the most significant victory was at the town of Artena.
The Romans managed to capture the city, except for the citadel.
Some Volscian warriors had taken refuge there and the Romans just could not break through. What’s a soldier to do?
The Romans were pouting over this predicament when a Volscian slave decided to betray his masters and showed the Romans a secret way into the citadel. (EVIL LAUGHTER)
The Romans captured that annoying citadel and demolished the town.
The slave was freed and given the name of Servius Romanus plus some property for his troubles.
Now the Romans could really focus on Veii.
403 BCE
In 403 BCE, the military tribunes with consular power were Aemilius Mamercinus or Mamercus, Lucius Valerius Potitus, Appius Claudius Crassus, Marcus Quinctilius Varus, Lucius Julius Iulus, Marcus Furius Fusus, Marcus Postumius, Marcus Furius Camillus, and Marcus Postumius Albinus Regillensis
Rome and Veii continued to be on the warpath this year, only this time, they both seemed to understand that this would be a duel to the death. It would be victory or utter destruction.
That might have something to do with the extraordinary number of military tribunes that Rome elected!
The people of Veii actually weren’t that interested in more campaigning and decided to elect a king.
Unfortunately, their king was well-known as a douchebag extraordinaire and so the rest of the Etruscan cities said, “You’re on your own, Veii!” Sorry ‘bout it!
The Romans were busily preparing their siege and everyone noticed that winter quarters were being set up so that siege could last as long as it needed to. This was a new development and not everyone was terribly happy about it.
The Tribunes of the Plebs started stirring up trouble in the city, as they tended to do, pointing out that this was EXACTLY what they had suspected when military pay was suddenly introduced a few years ago. TOLD YOU SO!
The patricians were completely out of line. They expected the soldiers to serve endlessly, with no work-life balance?
Why not just make them slaves and be done with it.
This was a new low – and they had seen some real scallywags in the past.
If only the plebeians had elected one of their own to be a military tribune, maybe they wouldn’t all be in this mess!
The military tribunes had anticipated that someone might start getting lippy, so they had left behind Appius Claudius, from the most patrician gens on the block, to deal with any rabble-rousers.
Appius Claudius summoned all his rhetorical powers to savagely attack the tribunes of the plebs.
They were clearly just creating strife so that they could justify their job!
If there were no tribunes, the relationship between the plebs and the patricians would be so much more harmonious – because the patricians are the best people on the PLANET!
Unity was what Rome needed – a united Rome would be unstoppable. They would conquer the world!
But hey, if the people really wanted to insult the soldiers by undoing all their hard work and risk the war moving to Roman territory, that was one way to go .A stupid way to go!
And if the people wanted to call the Roman soldiers snowflakes because they can’t take a few, well, snowflakes, they could diss their own army and make Rome look like a laughing stock in front of all their enemies.
But Appius didn’t believe the ROman really wanted that. They understood that military pay was a totally fair trade for these new circumstances, they had the grit, the determination and the hatred necessary to pounce now whilst Veii was vulnerable!
Of course, they could listen to the tribune of the plebs and be WEAK and totally ruin everything… I mean, they’re basically traitors who were completely planning to undermine the obedience of the army next.
After such a barrage of arguments, some of the people were starting to think Appius was talking sense, but the plebs were divided.
At that moment, word reached Rome of a major setback in the siege at Veii which completely changed everything.
The Patricians and Plebeians started to unite, and more of the plebs found themselves agreeing with what Appius Claudius had said.
Equestrian men donated their service – and that of their own horses – to help with the war effort.
The senators were overwhelmed, but they were about to get ANOTHER present.
The plebs did not want to be outshone by these equestrians, so they rushed to the senate house and volunteered to do whatever it took to defeat Veii. Do you want me to kill for you? Please, ask me to kill for you.
The year ended in a total love-fest – tears, joy flowing on all sides and awkward embraces between the senators and the plebs.
This infusion of fresh meat was just what the campaign needed.
The equestrian volunteers were given a money allowance – which was apparently partly financed by some new taxes on unmarried men and orphans. Thanks censors! We wouldn’t want the rich men on horses to feel the pinch – definitely best to make the orphans cover the costs.
402 BCE
In 402 BCE, the military tribunes with consular power were Caius Servilius Ahala, Quintus Servilius Fidenas, Lucius Verginius Tricostus Esquilinus, Quintus Sulpicius Camerinus Cornutus, Aulus Manlius Vulso Capitolinus, and Manius Sergius Fidenas.
The Romans were so intensely focused on their war with Veii that they let things slide in Anxur, which they had recently added to their collection of territories.
The Roman garrison were given some leave, and whilst they were out picnicking and braiding each other’s hair, the locals recaptured their town.
Meanwhile at Veii, the commanders seemed to be more caught up in a competition with each other than in actually conquering their Etruscan rivals. Sounds like the Romans were cooking up a recipe for disaster!
Verginius and Sergius clearly had some serious beef with each other (hey Livy, where’s the backstory on these two?) and their rivalry could not have come at a worse time.
The Faliscans and Capenates decided to join their Etruscan brothers suddenly in their war with Rome – we’re sure it was out of the goodness of their hearts and not because they realised that the Romans would be coming after them if Veii fell.
The Romans already despised the Faliscans as they had fought against them in the past. How dare they cross them AGAIN?
However this surprising union of Etruscan peoples put the Romans on the backfoot. Were all of the Etruscans coming after them?
More concerningly, Roman forces were now caught between two attacking forces.
Sergius was the man on the ground and he knew the ROmans needed some reinforcements from their main camp. But he wasn’t going to ASK for help – that would mean asking his rival, Verginius, for aid.
Back at the main camp, Verginius heard that the Romans were in distress, but he wasn’t going to send help to SERGIUS – not unless he begged.
If you’re sensing that this battle did not go Rome’s way, you would be correct.
Sergius decided to run back to Rome to tattle on Verginius and demand that he be stripped of his command.
The Senate were not impressed with this situation and decided to just clean sweep it – get rid of all these tribunes, hold some early elections and start fresh.
Sergius and Verginius started to backpeddle furiously – they weren’t going to have their military tribunate cut short!
The tribune of the plebs weighed in on the issue, threatening the military tribunes with prison if they did not resign early.
Ahala, one of the other military tribunes, chimed in, telling the tribunes of the plebs that they had no right to send any magistrates to prison. Perhaps it was time for a dictator!
Everyone loved Ahala’s strong stance. It did the trick! The tribunes of the plebs and Sergius & Veginius all backed down, allowing elections to be called early for the following year.
401 BCE
In 401 BCE, the military tribunes with consular power were Lucius Valerius Potitus, Marcus Furius Camillus, Manius Aemilius Mamercinus or Mamercus, Cnaeus Cornelius Cossus, Kaeso Fabius Ambustus, and Lucius Julius Iulius Vospisci.
Rome was on scandal overload in 401 BCE.
The first drama was caused by the new military tribunes as they started to levy troops. They needed LOTS of men with all of the campaigns they were running – battling Veii, Capena, Falerii and the Volscians.
However, it was not a good look when they started enlisting the young and elderly.
But the more men they enlisted, the more money they needed to fund the new military pay system.
An attempt was made to introduce a special war-tax and this went down about as well as most new taxes.
The plebs were feeling very put upon and the tribune of the plebs decided to make the most of this. They stirred up so much angst that the elections of the next tribunes were a bit of a non-event, and there weren’t enough plebeian men elected to office.
The patricians were keen to undermine this position and they seem to have leaned on some of the elected tribunes to co-opt candidates that they found ….acceptable.
One of the remaining tribunes, Gnaeus Trebonius, fought hard against this. His ancestor had campaigned in 448 BCE to protect the tribunate from exactly this kind of corruption and the Lex Trebonia was now being blithely ignored.
The guilty tribunes who had made a deal with the patricians knew their reputation was in danger. They decided to harness all the negative feeling towards themselves, the tax, the levy, the wars, and channel it into attacking Sergius and Verginius.
Sergius and Verginius were the military tribunes from the previous year who had let their personal hatreds seriously jeopardise the fighting against Veii.
Insinuating that they were part of some evil deep state patrician conspiracy to drag out the wars so that the people did not have the time or energy to push for greater plebeian rights.
Hey Britney, it’s getting toxic in here.
It’s just as well Sergius and Verginius were totally guilty as they did not stand much chance of being declared innocent.
The two douchebags were issued a heavy fine, but the tribunes weren’t going to stop there. Why not try to secure land reform and refuse to pay the war-tax whilst they were at it? After all, Rome was not exactly vanquishing its’ enemies – they were mostly holding their own – was this worth a special tax?
This had a serious effect on those out in the field. Where was this pay they had been promised?
But in the city itself, all the outrage finally seemed to be paying off – a plebeian was elected to serve as military tribune with consular power in the very next year.
It only took a hundred or so years to get to this point!
400 BCE
In 400 BCE, the military tribunes with consular power were Publius Licinius Calvus Esquilinus, Publius Manlius Vulso, Lucius Titinius Pansa Saccus, Publius Maelius Capitolinus, Spurius Furius Medullinus, and Lucius Publilius Philo Volscus VOLSCUS
In this year, The Romans recaptured Anxur from the Volscians. Huzzah!
The plebeians were in a state of shock to find one of their own serving as military tribune this year.
What made Publius Licinius Calvus so special? Did he buy his way into power? Was it family connections? Or was he just…nice?
Licinius Calvus seems to have owed his position to the fact that he was completely inoffensive to both classes – the patricians and the plebeians found him quite congenial.
With one of the major goals achieved, the tribunes of the plebs could finally relax – put on a Hawaiian shirt and take a holiday.
The war-tax, which had been needed to fund pay for the soldiers, was paid as the tribunes no longer fought against it.
Dr Rad: And that was the 400s in Ancient Rome… or was it?
Dr G: Remember, this has just been the highlights from the ancient sources, so if you want to delve into the complexities of the different evidence from this period, check out our narrative episodes. Jump in at Episode 144: Where in the World is Carventum? to join us for a deep dive into the 400s BCE.
Dr Rad: Thanks for turning in to this Partial Recap!
