Publius Claudius Pulcher (consul 249 BC)

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Publius Claudius Pulcher (died 249 BC or 246 BC) [1] was a Roman politician.

Contents

Family

Son of Appius Claudius Caecus, Publius was the first of the Claudii to be given the cognomen "Pulcher" ("handsome"). He was also the father of Appius Claudius Pulcher, consul in 212 BC.

After losing the Battle of Drepana, his sister Claudia was prosecuted for insulting the Plebs. Whilst travelling through the streets of Rome, the path that her carriage was taking had been blocked by a crowd. She was then heard to have wished her brother would lose another battle and drown some more of the poorer citizens. [2]

Career

Curule aedile in 253 BC, as consul in 249 he was given command of the Roman fleet during the First Punic War. [3] He lost the Battle of Drepana against the Carthaginians after ignoring a bad omen, in which 93 of his 123 ships, as well as over 20,000 sailors, were lost. [4] According to Valerius Maximus, Suetonius [5] and Cicero, [6] when the sacred chickens refused to eat, [7] Claudius threw them into the sea, reportedly saying: "Since they do not wish to eat, let them drink!" (Latin "Quia edere nolunt, bibent!", lit.'Because they don't want to eat, they drink!'). [8] He was recalled to Rome and ordered to appoint a dictator; his nomination of his subordinate Marcus Claudius Glicia was overruled. He was tried for incompetence and impiety, avoiding capital or corporal punishment due to double jeopardy and was instead fined 120,000 assēs, 1,000 for each ship Rome had lost in the battle against Carthage. [9] [10] He died soon afterwards, possibly by suicide. [1]

Related Research Articles

Year 249 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Pulcher and Pullus. The denomination 249 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clodia (wife of Metellus)</span> Roman aristocrat

Clodia, nicknamed Quadrantaria, Nola, Medea Palatina by Cicero, and occasionally referred to in scholarship as Clodia Metelli, was one of three known daughters of the ancient Roman patrician Appius Claudius Pulcher.

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The gens Claudia, sometimes written Clodia, was one of the most prominent patrician houses at ancient Rome. The gens traced its origin to the earliest days of the Roman Republic. The first of the Claudii to obtain the consulship was Appius Claudius Sabinus Regillensis, in 495 BC, and from that time its members frequently held the highest offices of the state, both under the Republic and in imperial times.

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The naval Battle of Drepana took place in 249 BC during the First Punic War near Drepana in western Sicily, between a Carthaginian fleet under Adherbal and a Roman fleet commanded by Publius Claudius Pulcher.

Appius Claudius Pulcher was a Roman general and politician of the 3rd century BC, active in the Second Punic War.

Appius Claudius Pulcher was a Roman politician of the 2nd century BC.

Appius Claudius Pulcher was a Roman noble, general and politician of the 1st century BC. He was the father of a number of renowned Romans, most notable: the infamous Clodius and Clodia.

Appius Claudius Pulcher was a Roman patrician, politician and general in the first century BC. He was consul of the Roman Republic in 54 BC. He was an expert in Roman law and antiquities, especially the esoteric lore of the augural college of which he was a controversial member. He was head of the senior line of the most powerful family of the patrician Claudii. The Claudii were one of the five leading families which had dominated Roman social and political life from the earliest years of the republic. He is best known as the recipient of 13 of the extant letters in Cicero's ad Familiares corpus, which date from 53 to 50 BC. They do not include any of Appius' replies to Cicero. He is also well known for being the older brother of the infamous Clodius and Clodia.

Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus was a senator and praetor of the Roman Republic. He was born with the name Appius Claudius Pulcher, into the patrician family of the Claudii Pulchri but adopted by a Livii Drusi as a small child. His daughter Livia Drusilla became the wife of the first Roman Emperor Augustus, and he was a direct ancestor of the Julio-Claudian emperors Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero.

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The siege of Lilybaeum lasted for nine years, from 250 to 241 BC, as the Roman army laid siege to the Carthaginian-held Sicilian city of Lilybaeum during the First Punic War. Rome and Carthage had been at war since 264 BC, fighting mostly on the island of Sicily or in the waters around it, and the Romans were slowly pushing the Carthaginians back. By 250 BC, the Carthaginians held only the cities of Lilybaeum and Drepana; these were well-fortified and situated on the west coast, where they could be supplied and reinforced by sea without the Romans being able to use their superior army to interfere.

Lucius Junius Pullus was a politician and general of the Roman Republic. He was consul in 249 BCE together with Publius Claudius Pulcher. He and his consular colleague fought in the ongoing First Punic War.

Marcus Claudius Glicia or Glycias was a subordinate of the consul Publius Claudius Pulcher who briefly served as dictator in 249 BC.

The naval Battle of Phintias took place in 249 BC during the First Punic War near modern Licata, southern Sicily between the fleets of Carthage under Carthalo and the Roman Republic under Lucius Junius Pullus. The Carthaginian fleet had intercepted the Roman Fleet off Phintias, and had forced it to seek shelter. Carthalo, who heeded the warning of his pilots about impending storms, retired to the east to avoid the coming weather. The Roman fleet did not take any precautions and subsequently was destroyed with the loss of all but two ships. The Carthaginians exploited their victory by raiding the coasts of Roman Italy until 243 BC. The Romans did not mount a major naval effort until 242 BC.

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Gaius Fundanius Fundulus was a Roman politician of gens Fundania in the third century BC.

References

  1. 1 2 Archive, History. "People | Publius Claudius Pulcher". History Archive. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  2. Goldsworthy, The Fall of Carthage, p. 122.
  3. "The Sacred Chickens | Irene Soldatos" . Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  4. "The First Punic War: Audacity and Hubris" . Retrieved 28 August 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. "Suetonius: Tiberius".
  6. Cicero, M. Tullius. De natura deorum. Perseus Digital Library. p. 2.7. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  7. Williams, Tara Layman (2011). The Complete Guide to Raising Chickens: Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply. Atlantic Publishing Company. ISBN   978-1-60138-374-7.
  8. thehistorianshut (14 September 2018). "The Disgraced Ancient Roman Admiral Who Did Not Heed The Sacred Chickens During The First Punic War". The Historian's Hut. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  9. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine : Law & Order in Ancient Rome - The Case of the Sacred Chicken Killer. YouTube .
  10. Dillon, Matthew; Garland, Lynda (28 October 2013). Ancient Rome: A Sourcebook. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-136-76143-0.
Political offices
Preceded by Consul of the Roman Republic
249 BC
with Lucius Junius Pullus
Succeeded by