The year 446 BCE has it all – battles, civil strife, virtus, dynamic leadership… Rome is certainly on a better path after the mysterious and seemingly disastrous 447 BCE.

Episode 121 – Strength in Unity

Enemies at the Gate

The atmosphere in Rome at the beginning of 446 BCE was tense. In 447 BCE, the magistrates had not been able to restrain the patricians from antagonizing the plebeians. By 446 BC, this conflict had not been resolved. To complicate matters further, the Aequians and the Volscians were trying to take advantage of the civil unrest. Their combined forces started ravaging the lands of the Latins. The lack of any retaliation then encouraged the Aequians and Volscians to grow bolder and move ever closer to Rome herself.

This situation could not be tolerated. Romans fighting each other, rather than taking out the enemy? Fortunately, one of the consuls, Titus Quinctius, has a lot of experience and he is not afraid to use it. Will Quinctius and his colleague, Agrippa Furius, be able to save Rome from herself? Will they rediscover strength in unity?

Social position was instantly recognisable from dress. What you wore was a reflection of your privileges or lack thereof.
For Rome to develop as a society, every person needed to be valued.
Image: Wikimedia Commons

Things to look out for

• Titus Quinctius’ masterful display of rhetoric
• The Romans return to the battlefield and face the Aequians and Volscians
• Agrippa Furius’ moment of virtus
• Dr Rad and Dr G temporarily forgetting where the city of Corbio was located (it was to the South East of Rome and became a bone of contention between Rome and the Aequains)
• Dr Rad inventing a new word to describe the plebeians and tribunes of the plebs – the Trebeians!

Our PlayersConsuls 446 BCE

• T. Quinctius L. f. L. n. Capitolinus Barbatus (Pat.) cos. IV (471, 468, 465)
• Agrippa Furius – f. – n. Fusus (Pat.)

Quaestors

• L? Valerius (Poplicola?) Potitus (Pat.)
• Mam. Aemilius (Mamercinus) (Pat.)

Legates, Lieutenants

• Sp. Postumius Albus (Regillensis) (Pat.)
• P. Sulpicius (Camerinus Cornutus?) (Pat.)

Sources

• Dr G reads Frontinus, Strategemata, 2.8.2
• Dr Rad reads Livy ab Urbe Condita 3.66-70.
• Broughton, T. R. S., Patterson, M. L. 1951. The Magistrates of the Roman Republic Volume 1: 509 B.C. – 100 B.C. (The American Philological Association)
• Cornell, T. J. 1995. The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000-264 BC) (Taylor & Francis)
• Forsythe, G. 2006. A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War(University of California Press) 

Sound Credits

Thanks to Orange Free Sounds, BBC Sounds, Fesliyan Studios, Pixabay, and Sound Bible for sound effects and the incomparable Bettina Joy de Guzman for our theme music. Addition music in the episode is ‘Beat’ provided by https://freebeats.io, produced by White Hot.

Roman Legionnaires by Hans Splinter from flickr.
Used under Creative Commons licence.

For our full show notes and edited transcripts, head on over to https://partialhistorians.com/

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