Roman Hero\'s

[arklore70]

Thought this might be interesting.

Who is your favorite Roman Military Hero? Emperor's, Generals and Dictators excluded.

v/r
Mike

[Theodosius the Great]

Emperor's, Generals and Dictators excluded.

But, what's left to pick from ? Tribunes, centurions, propraetors, proconsuls, prefects, and the rank and file ?

[Tarbicus]

That about leaves us with Pullo and Vorenus Or those two guys who died at Cremona after sneaking through enemy lines and disabling the artillery. There may well be a lot of "I don't know his name but that guy who..." in this thread. Good question though, and a nice way of listing the anonymous heroes of Rome maybe?

[Theodosius the Great]

There may well be a lot of "I don't know his name but that guy who..." in this thread.

Right. Like that nameless officer who led a number of Triarii to attack the Macedonian phalanx in its rear during the battle of Cynocephalae.

[Carlton Bach]

Marcellus. "Caesar non supra grammaticos"

Suetonius de grammaticis et rhetoribus XXII, and Cassius Dio LVII, 17: When Tiberius sprinkled his speech with fancy Greek loan words he pointed out "You can give Roman citizenship to people, Caesar, but not to words"

Nothing to gain, everything to lose, no motivation other than principle.

edit: oh, military. Oh, well, I guess he was at some point in his life...

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

My roman hero is centurio Scaeva. He defends a fort of Caesar from the attacks of Pompey forces. After the battle his scutum are presented to caesar with 120 holes of arrows.

[DAN OF BRITANNIA]

Count Belisarius without doubt.

[floofthegoof]

Awe, how can you exclude generals.

My favorites are Camillus, the guy(Dictator) who helped expel the first gallic invasion of Rome, in spite of being recently exiled. A long and distinguished career in public service. There's a great quote from him in Livy, let me find it....

During the siege of Felarii..

XXVII. It was the custom of the Faliscans to employ the same person as the master and also as the attendant of their children, and several boys used to be entrusted to one man's care; a custom which prevails in Greece at the present time. Naturally, the man who had the highest reputation for learning was appointed to instruct the children of the principal men. This man had started the practice, in the time of peace, of taking the boys outside the gates for games and exercise, and he kept up the practice after the war had begun, taking them sometimes a shorter, sometimes a longer distance from the city gate. Seizing a favourable opportunity, he kept up the games and the conversations longer than usual, and went on till he was in the midst of the Roman outposts. He then took them into the camp and up to Camillus in the headquarters tent. There he aggravated his villainous act by a still more villainous utterance. He had, he said, given Falerii into the hands of the Romans, since those boys, whose fathers were at the head of affairs in the city, were now placed in their power. On hearing this Camillus replied, `You, villain, have not come with your villainous offer to a nation or a commander like yourself. Between us and the Faliscans there is no fellowship based on a formal compact as between man and man, but the fellowship which is based on natural instincts exists between us, and will continue to do so. There are rights of war as there are rights of peace, and we have learnt to wage our wars with justice no less than with courage. We do not use our weapons against those of an age which is spared even in the capture of cities, but against those who are armed as we are, and who without any injury or provocation from us attacked the Roman camp at Veii. These men you, as far as you could, have vanquished by an unprecedented act of villainy; I shall vanquish them as I vanquished Veii, by Roman arts, by courage and strategy and force of arms.' He then ordered him to be stripped and his hands tied behind his back, and delivered him up to the boys to be taken back to Falerii, and gave them rods with which to scourge the traitor into the city. The people came in crowds to see the sight, the magistrates thereupon convened the senate to discuss the extraordinary incident, and in the end such a revulsion of feeling took place that the very people who in the madness of their rage and hatred would almost sooner have shared the fate of Veii than obtained the peace which Capena enjoyed, now found themselves in company with the whole city asking for peace. The Roman sense of honour, the commander's love of justice, were in all men's mouths in the forum and in the senate, and in accordance with the universal wish, ambassadors were despatched to Camillus in the camp, and with his sanction to the senate in Rome, to make the surrender of Falerii.

And who could forget Cincinattus, the dictator who wanted simply to go back to his farm when his task was finished?

[tlclark]

Well, at least I won't be the first to break the no-general/emperor rule,

but my favorites have to be Marcus Agrippa. Saved Augustus' rear on multiple occassions, won Actium and awarded several triumphs, refused all of them, (though Augustus didn't!) Might have been the second emperor if he had lived.

The next would have to be Heraclius, beat back the invasion of Khosraw II and returned the true shard of the Cross. And I also have a soft spot for Michael Paleologas who kicked out the latins.

BUT.. if we insist on sticking to the rules and not picking emeperors and generals then I can always produce St. Demetrios, St. Makarios, and the 40 martyrs of Sebaste, though they are not really "roman" heroes in the sense I think this thread means.

Travis

[Nathan Ross]

There are plenty of examples of heroism by unnamed or otherwise unknown Roman soldiers - one of my favourites is in Caesar's commentaries of the Gallic War: the account of the destruction of the fourteenth legion at Aduatuca in 54BC. Tricked into marching from their camp into enemy territory, the legion was surrounded on the road:

Yet, though assailed by so many disadvantages, [and] having received many wounds, they withstood the enemy, and, a great portion of the day being spent, though they fought from day-break till the eighth hour, they did nothing which was unworthy of them. At length, each thigh of T. Balventius, who the year before had been chief centurion, a brave man and one of great authority, is pierced with a javelin; Q. Lucanius, of the same rank, fighting most valiantly, is slain while he assists his son when surrounded by the enemy; L. Cotta, the lieutenant (legate), when encouraging all the cohorts and companies, is wounded full in the mouth by a sling.


L. Cotta, while fighting, is slain, together with the greater part of the soldiers; the rest betake themselves to the camp, from which they had marched forth, and one of them, L. Petrosidius, the standard bearer, when he was overpowered by the great number of the enemy, threw the eagle within the intrenchments and is himself slain while fighting with the greatest courage before the camp. They with difficulty sustain the attack till night; despairing of safety, they all to a man destroy themselves in the night. A few escaping from the battle, made their way to Labienus at winter-quarters, after wandering at random through the woods, and inform him of these events
Caesar- Gallic War 5

All the more impressive to consider that this was a relatively fresh legion, possibly as yet untested in battle. Pretty awesome stuff anyway.

[hoplite14gr]

Horatius at the bridge.
Made even Lars Porshena to rebuke his troops for cursing them

Kind regards

[Jona Lendering]

The anonymous signifer mentioned by Florus in his too brief account of the battle of the Teutoburg Forest ([url:3rhzj69l]http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/florus2.html#30[/url]).

[FAVENTIANVS]

What about Caesar's aquilifer in the invasion of Britannia when he jumped out of ship running to the enemy waiting at the beach, forcing the whole army to follow him?

Has his name been recorded?

[Kate Gilliver]

Caesar's aquilifer isn't named - he's a bit hit & miss about whether he names heroic soldiers & officers - I probably need to do some work to see if there's any patterns in when he does & doesn't mention names of heroes & cowards.

My hero's the only non-aristo to be awarded the grass crown for saving an entire army, Gnaeus Petreius, whose action is recorded by Pliny the Elder (N.H. 22.6):

(In addition to the persons already mentioned, the honour of this [grass] crown has been awarded to M. Calpurnius Flamma, then a military tribune in Sicily but up to the present time it has been given to a single centurion only, Cneius Petreius Atinas, during the war with the Cimbri. This soldier, while acting as primipilus under Catulus, on finding all retreat for his legion cut off by the enemy, harangued the troops, and after slaying his tribune who hesitated to cut a way through the encampment of the enemy, brought away the legion in safety. I find it stated also by some authors, that, in addition to this honour, this same Petreius, clad in the prætexta, offered sacrifice at the altar, to the sound of the pipe, in presence of the then consuls, Marius and Catulus.
(translation is the one on Perseus).

[Marius_Ursus]

My favorite Roman military hero is a stack of legionary pepperoni and auxilliary cheese with a hearty pile of catapult onions...all served on Praetorian bread.