Episode 177 – Etruscan Evil Plans

What is Rome to do when they gaze out from the top of the Capitol and all they can see are the neighbours they don’t like or the neighbours that don’t like them? When the people of Nepete and Sutrium come down from the north to ask Rome for help, Rome jumps at the opportunity to be useful. After all, who doesn’t enjoy upsetting the Etruscans?

The Camillus Show continues in c. 386 and 385 BCE! But the Romans seem to be facing tensions not just from their enemies, but even from those who they used to count on as allies…

Journey to the North

There’s nothing for it by for the Romans to send aid north. And who should be tasked with leadership for this support but Camillus. He’s not happy to go alone, however, and he’s joined by fellow military tribune with consular power, Valerius Poplicola. What will they find as they head into Etruscan territory? Tune in to find out the details!

Trouble in Allied Paradise?

Are the Latins and the Hernicians still friends with Rome? There’s building evidence that maybe the friendship is over and the best-friend necklaces have been thrown away. Rome needs some clarity and tries to have a conversation about the situation, but it doesn’t seem like the Latins or the Hernicians want to play ball.

The Return of Marcus Manlius

We enter the year c. 385 BCE and it’s time to welcome Marcus Manlius back to the stage! He is already famous by Roman standards for his involvement with the sacred geese on the Capitol during the Gaul’s siege of Rome, but his story is only just getting started. Is he feeling jealous of some of his peers? We’ll find out.

Things to listen out for

• Nepete (modern Nepi of Acqua di Nepi fame, near Viterbo)
• The return to Sutrium (modern Sutri, also near Viterbo)
• Epigraphic evidence enters the mix
• Traitors!
• The potential of bundles of tree branches
• And the power of ladders

Our Players 386 BCE

MILITARY TRIBUNES WITH CONSULAR POWER

• Marcus Furius L. f. Sp. n. Camillus (Pat)
• Servius Cornelius P. f. M. n. Malguginensis (Pat)
• Quintus Servilius Q. f. P. n. Fidenas (Pat)
• Lucius Quinctius (- f. – n.) Cincinnatus (Pat)
• Lucius Horatius – f. – n. Pulvillus (Pat)
• Publius Valerius L. f. L. n. Potitus Poplicola (Pat)

Our Players 385 BCE

MILITARY TRIBUNES WITH CONSULAR POWER

• Aulus Manlius (T. f. A. n. Capitolinus?) (Pat)
• Publius Cornelius – f. – n. – – – – – (Pat)
• Titus Quinctius (T. f. L. n. Cincinnatus) Capitolinus (Pat)
• Lucius Quinctius (L. f. L. n. Cincinnatus?) Capitolinus (Pat)
• Lucius Papirius – f. – n. Cursor (Pat)
• (Gnaeus Sergius – f. – n. Fidenas Coxo) (Pat)

DICTATOR

• Aulus Cornelius – f. – n. Cossus (Pat)

MASTER OF THE HORSE

• Titus Quinctius (T. f. L. n. Cincinnatus) Capitolinus (Pat) 

OTHERS OF NOTE

• Marcus Manlius Capitolinus

Our Sources

• Dr Rad reads Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 6.6-10
• Dr G reads Diodorus Siculus 15.25.1, 15.27.4; Plutarch, Life of Camillus, 35; Frontinus, Strategems, 2.8.4 Vitruvius, On Architecture 1.7; CIL 6.1308.
• 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)
• Cancik, Hubert, Helmuth Schneider, Christine F. Salazar, and August Friedrich von Pauly. Brill’s New Pauly : Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. Leiden ; Brill, 2002.
• 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) 
• Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum – https://cil.bbaw.de/en/
• 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.
• 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 (2^nd ed). (Wiley).
• Stevenson, T.R. “Parens Patriae and Livy’s Camillus.” Ramus 29, no. 1 (2000): 27–46. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0048671X00001673.
• Peter VanDerPuy, “The Price of Expansion: Agriculture, Debt-Dependency, and Warfare during the Rise of the Republic, c. 450-287.” In Romans at War, 1st ed., edited by Jeremy Armstrong and Michael P. Fronda, 35–51. United Kingdom: Routledge, 2020. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351063500-3.

Sound Credits

Our music is by Bettina Joy de Guzman.

Automated Transcript

Lightly edited for our wonderful Australian accents.