The Partial Historians

Of Mars and Marshes

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It’s 387 BCE and Rome is working on getting back of her feet. What’s even happening in Rome? It can be hard to tell because of the nature of the extant sources and just how much seems to be missing. The Gallic Sack casts a long shadow over Rome, it was just a couple of years ago but the consequences of the situation linger. Livy notes that Rome is continuing its rebuilding program.

Land Allotment Anyone?

If there’s one thing you can count on in this era, it’s the cyclical focus on war and land allotment. And we have a tribune of the plebs on the record, which is a hint that there’ll be agitation for agrarian reform. We know this has a literary legacy for our late Republican writers like Livy, but that’s not to say that there wasn’t a need to reform in the middle republic. Enter stage right: the Pomptine Marshes!

A Temple to Mars

Back during the conflict with Gauls, the Romans had vowed to establish a temple to Mars. And we’re finally up to the dedication of the temple in 387 BCE. This is an exceptionally important event for the Romans as it is way of cementing their relationship with Mars. A temple requires some specific activities to establish and seems to have involved the duumvirs for the sacred things.

Side Quest: Carthage

Did you know that Carthage invaded Italy in 387 BCE? Neither did we, but here we are! The rivalry between the Carthaginians and the Sicilians is starting to hot up but unfortunately a quick plague makes everything very unpleasant.

Painting ‘Hunting in the Pontine Marshes’ by Horace Vernet, 1833. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Things to listen out for:
  • Volscians and Aequians just over the horizon
  • Who can fix it? Bob the Builder
  • Livy and the post-Gracchan world
  • An increased interest in ensuring divine favour
  • It’s time for an interregnum!
  • The Sibylline Books and their contents
  • New tribes for the Romans?
  • A Sardinian and Libyan revolt?
  • Four new voting tribes: Stellatina, Tormentina, Sabatina, and Arniensis
    • Our Players for 387 BCE
    Military Tribunes with Consular Power
    • Lucius Papirius – f. – n. Cursor (Pat) – will be military tribune in 385
    • Gnaeus Sergius – f. – n. Fidenas Coxo (Pat) – Will be military tribune in 385? 380
    • Lucius Aemilius Mam. f. M. n. Mamercinus (Pat) – previously military tribune in 391, 389?; later also 383, 382, 380.
    • Licinus Menentius T. f. T. n. Lanatus (Pat) – will be military tribune in 380, 378, 376
    • Lucius Valerius L. f. L. n. Poplicola (Pat) – previously military tribune 394, 389; will be also in 383, 380
    • [?] Lucius Quinctius (Pat)
    • ? Lucius Cornelius – f. – n. – – (Pat)
    • ? Aulus Mallius (Manlius) – f. – n. (Pat)
    • ? Fabius (Pat)
      • Tribune of the Plebs
      • Lucius Sicinius (Agitates for distribution of the Pomptine land – Livy 6.1.1)
        • Interreges
        • Marcus Manlius Capitolinus (Pat) – previously consul 392
        • Servius Sulpicius Camerinus (Pat) – Consul suffectus 393; military tribune 391
        • Lucius Valerius Potitus (Pat) – previously consul 393, 392; Military tribune 414, 406, 403, 402, 398
          • Duumvir Sacris Faciendis (the two men for doing the sacred things)
          • Titus Quinctius (Cincinnatus Capitolinus) (Pat) – Was military tribune in 388 – the previous year. Will be Military tribune in 385? 384 (Dedicated the temple of Mars vowed in the Gallic War – Livy 6.5.8)
          • ????
            • Our Sources
            • Dr Rad reads Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 6.6.3, 13-15
            • Dr G reads Diodorus Siculus 15.24.1; Fasti Capitolini
            • Armstrong, Jeremy. War and Society in Early Rome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316145241.
            • Bernard, Seth. “Rome from the Sack of Veii to the Gallic Sack.” In Building Mid-Republican Rome. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190878788.003.0003.
            • Bradley, G. 2020. Early Rome to 290 BC (Edinburgh University Press).
            • 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) 
            • Duff, T. E. 2010. ‘Plutarch’s Themistocles and Camillus’. In N. Humble, ed., Plutarch’s Lives: parallelism and purpose (Classical Press of Wales: Swansea, 2010), pp. 45-86.
            • Elvers, K. (., Courtney, E. (. V., Richmond, J. A. (. V., Eder, W. (., Giaro, T. (., Eck, W. (., & Franke, T. (. (2006). Furius. In Brill’s New Pauly Online. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e416550
            • Gowing, Alain M. 2009. “The Roman exempla tradition in imperial Greek historiography: The case of Camillus in Feldherr, A., ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Historians. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
            • Hyden, Marc, Marcus Furius Camillus: The Life of Rome’s Second Founder. Pen and Sword, 2023.
            • Lomas, Kathryn (2018). The rise of Rome. History of the Ancient World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. doi:10.4159/9780674919938. ISBN978-0-674-65965-0. S2CID239349186.
            • McIntyre, Gwynaeth. “Camillus as Numa: Religion in Livy’s Refoundation Narratives.” Journal of Ancient History 6, no. 1 (2018): 63–79. https://doi.org/10.1515/jah-2017-0011.
            • Oakley, S. P. (Ed.). (2016). A commentary on Livy : books VI-X. Vol. 1, Introduction and book VI. Oxford University Press.
            • Ogilvie, R. M. 1965. A Commentary on Livy: Books 1-5 (Clarendon Press). 
            • Raaflaub, K. A. 2006. Social struggles in archaic Rome: new perspectives on the conflict of the orders (2nd ed). (Wiley).
            • Stevenson, T.R. “Parens Patriae and Livy’s Camillus.” Ramus 29, no. 1 (2000): 27–46. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0048671X00001673.
              • ‘The Swamps of the Pontine Marshes’ by Achille Vertunni
              Sound Credits

              Our music is by Bettina Joy de Guzman.
              Additional sound effects:
              – Pixabay

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              Lightly edited for our wonderful Australian accents

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              The Partial HistoriansBy The Partial Historians, Dr Peta Greenfield and Dr Fiona Radford