Gaius Iunius Bubulcus Brutus
Encyclopedia
Gaius Iunius Bubulcus Brutus (fl. late 4th century BC) was a three-time consul
of the Roman Republic
, thrice appointed dictator
or magister equitum, and censor in 307 BC. In 311, he made a vow to the goddess Salus
that he went on to fulfill, becoming the first plebeian
to build a temple. The temple was one of the first dedicated to an abstract deity, and Iunius was one of the first generals to vow a temple and then oversee its establishment through the construction and dedication process.
The desultory manner in which Iunius Bubulcus survives in the historical record obscures the stature indicated by the number of high offices he held from 317 to 302 BC; it has been observed that he "cannot have been as colourless as he appears in Livy
."
. The two were joint consuls again in 311. From the mid-4th century to the early 3rd century BC, several plebeian-patrician "tickets
" repeated joint terms, suggesting a deliberate political strategy of cooperation. The Second Samnite War was a formative time in the creation of a ruling elite (the nobiles
) that comprised both patricians and plebeians who had risen to power. As consul, Iunius exerted force in central Italy to restore Roman control over the Vestini
.
In 313 BC, as consul with Lucius Papirius Cursor
in his fifth term, Iunius is credited with the capture of Nola
, Atina, and Calatia
by some sources. The following year, he was appointed either dictator or magister equitum, and was sent with troops to the Marrucini
, with some success.
In 311, Iunius held command in Samnium
. The Augustan
historian Livy
says that allied Etruscans attacked the colony
of Sutrium, an exposed outpost, and Iunius fought a battle that ended with nightfall rather than resolution. The outcome of the campaign seems ambiguous: "The sum total of his achievement apparently was to sack some otherwise unknown hamlets, Talium, Cataracta, and Ceraunilia." According to Livy, Iunius regained Cluviae
and captured Bovianum
, a town of the Pentri
, but this may be the propaganda of his gens
. Diodorus
gives a more laudatory report of Roman actions, while Zonaras
gives a less favorable ending. The varying assessments of Roman success may indicate a slim and costly victory. Whatever the scale of his victories, Iunius celebrated a triumph
which featured praeda pecorum, booty in the form of cattle.
During a Samnite ambush, Iunius had prayed to Jupiter
and Mars, but made a vow to the goddess Salus
, presumably for a narrow escape in battle. Salus was the divine embodiment of health, welfare, safety, and salvation both personal and public. This was also a time of plague, and in 313 Poetelius Libo Visolus had been appointed dictator clavi figendi causa, that is, the dictator appointed to drive a nail, a much-debated ritual intended in this instance to stop the outbreak. Reverence toward Salus's power to grant or withhold her favor as a response to plague may also have occasioned the temple, as Iunius put out public contracts for its construction five years after the battle that is supposed to have prompted the vow, when he was censor in 307. As dictator in 302 he oversaw its dedication. The temple housed paintings by Gaius Fabius, a relative of Fabius Maximus Rullianus; the cognomen Pictor, or "painter" (see Fabius Pictor) is likely to have been acquired by a branch of the Fabii at this time. Denarii
minted by Decimus Iunius Silanus in 91 BC picture Salus and may be intended to recall the founding of her temple by his ancestor.
In their second joint consulship, both Iunius Bubulcus and Aemilius Barbula refused to recognize the revision of the senate
roll made the previous year by the censors Appius Claudius Caecus
and Gaius Plautius Venox.
Iunius was magister equitum in 310 and possibly again in 309; his office in the latter year may have been dictator.
As censor in 307 with Marcus Valerius Maximus, he removed Lucius Annius from the senate on moral grounds. Annius had divorced his wife even though she had been a virgin when they married, and had done so without honoring his social obligations by consulting his friends.
Iunius was appointed dictator again in 302 BC. Livy's account of this year is somewhat confused. He makes both Iunius and Valerius Maximus dictatores, but military campaigns on at least four fronts may account for the multiplicity of appointments. Iunius's war against the Aequi
is one of a series from 304 to 300 BC. Iunius swiftly put down an insurrection that broke out when Alba was colonized, and the Aequi ceased to exist as a separate people at this time.
Roman consul
A consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. Each consul was given veto power over his colleague and the officials would alternate each month...
of the Roman Republic
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
, thrice appointed dictator
Roman dictator
In the Roman Republic, the dictator , was an extraordinary magistrate with the absolute authority to perform tasks beyond the authority of the ordinary magistrate . The office of dictator was a legal innovation originally named Magister Populi , i.e...
or magister equitum, and censor in 307 BC. In 311, he made a vow to the goddess Salus
Salus
Salus was a minor Roman goddess. She was the personification of well-being of both the individual and the state. She is sometimes erroneously associated with the Greek goddess Hygieia....
that he went on to fulfill, becoming the first plebeian
Plebs
The plebs was the general body of free land-owning Roman citizens in Ancient Rome. They were distinct from the higher order of the patricians. A member of the plebs was known as a plebeian...
to build a temple. The temple was one of the first dedicated to an abstract deity, and Iunius was one of the first generals to vow a temple and then oversee its establishment through the construction and dedication process.
The desultory manner in which Iunius Bubulcus survives in the historical record obscures the stature indicated by the number of high offices he held from 317 to 302 BC; it has been observed that he "cannot have been as colourless as he appears in Livy
Livy
Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...
."
Political and military career
Iunius was consul in 317 BC with the patrician Quintus Aemilius BarbulaQuintus Aemilius Barbula
Quintus Aemilius Barbula , or Q. Aemilius Q. f. L. n. Barbula, was consul in 317 B.C., in which year a treaty was made with the Apulian Teates, Nerulum taken by Barbula, and Apulia entirely subdued. Quintus Aemilius Barbula (fl. 317-311 BC), or Q. Aemilius Q. f. L. n. Barbula, was consul in 317...
. The two were joint consuls again in 311. From the mid-4th century to the early 3rd century BC, several plebeian-patrician "tickets
Ticket (election)
A ticket refers to a single election choice which fills more than one political office or seat. For example, in the U.S., the candidates for President and Vice President run on the same "ticket", because they are elected together on a single ballot question rather than separately.A ticket can also...
" repeated joint terms, suggesting a deliberate political strategy of cooperation. The Second Samnite War was a formative time in the creation of a ruling elite (the nobiles
Nobiles
During the Roman Republic, nobilis was a descriptive term of social rank, usually indicating that a member of the family had achieved the consulship. Those who belonged to the hereditary patrician families were noble, but plebeians whose ancestors were consuls were also considered nobiles...
) that comprised both patricians and plebeians who had risen to power. As consul, Iunius exerted force in central Italy to restore Roman control over the Vestini
Vestini
Vestini is the Roman exonym for an ancient Italic tribe that occupied the area of the modern Abruzzo included between the Gran Sasso and the northern bank of the Aterno river...
.
In 313 BC, as consul with Lucius Papirius Cursor
Lucius Papirius Cursor
Lucius Papirius Cursor was a Roman general who was five times consul and twice dictator.In 325 BC he was appointed dictator to carry on the second Samnite War. His quarrel with Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus, his magister equitum, is well known...
in his fifth term, Iunius is credited with the capture of Nola
Nola
Nola is a city and comune of Campania, southern Italy, in the province of Naples, situated in the plain between Mount Vesuvius and the Apennines...
, Atina, and Calatia
Calatia
Calatia was an ancient town of Campania, southern Italy, c. 10 km southeast of Capua, on the Via Appia, near the point where the Via Popillia branches off from it. It is represented by the church of Giacomo alle Galazze...
by some sources. The following year, he was appointed either dictator or magister equitum, and was sent with troops to the Marrucini
Marrucini
The Marrucini were an ancient tribe which occupied a small strip of territory around the ancient Teate , on the east coast of Abruzzo, Italy, limited by the Aterno and Foro Rivers...
, with some success.
In 311, Iunius held command in Samnium
Samnium
Samnium is a Latin exonym for a region of south or south and central Italy in Roman times. The name survives in Italian today, but today's territory comprising it is only a small portion of what it once was. The populations of Samnium were called Samnites by the Romans...
. The Augustan
Augustan literature (ancient Rome)
Augustan literature is the period of Latin literature written during the reign of Augustus , the first Roman emperor. In literary histories of the first part of the 20th century and earlier, Augustan literature was regarded along with that of the Late Republic as constituting the Golden Age of...
historian Livy
Livy
Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...
says that allied Etruscans attacked the colony
Colonia (Roman)
A Roman colonia was originally a Roman outpost established in conquered territory to secure it. Eventually, however, the term came to denote the highest status of Roman city.-History:...
of Sutrium, an exposed outpost, and Iunius fought a battle that ended with nightfall rather than resolution. The outcome of the campaign seems ambiguous: "The sum total of his achievement apparently was to sack some otherwise unknown hamlets, Talium, Cataracta, and Ceraunilia." According to Livy, Iunius regained Cluviae
Casoli
Casoli is a comune and town in the Province of Chieti in the Abruzzo region of Italy: it is situated on a foothill of the Majella mountain, at the base of which runs the Aventino River, tributary of the Sangro...
and captured Bovianum
Bojano
Bojano or Boiano is a town and comune in the province of Campobasso, Molise, south central Italy.-History:Originally named Bovianum, it was settled by the 7th century BC. As the capital of the Pentri, a tribe of the Samnites, it played a major role in the Samnite Wars, as well as in the Social War,...
, a town of the Pentri
Pentri
The Pentri were a tribe of the Samnites, and apparently one of the most important of the subdivisions of that nation. Their capital city was Bovianum Undecumanorum The Pentri (Greek: ) were a tribe of the Samnites, and apparently one of the most important of the subdivisions of that nation. Their...
, but this may be the propaganda of his gens
Gens
In ancient Rome, a gens , plural gentes, referred to a family, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same nomen and claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a stirps . The gens was an important social structure at Rome and throughout Italy during the...
. Diodorus
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...
gives a more laudatory report of Roman actions, while Zonaras
Joannes Zonaras
Ioannes Zonaras was a Byzantine chronicler and theologian, who lived at Constantinople.Under Emperor Alexios I Komnenos he held the offices of head justice and private secretary to the emperor, but after Alexios' death, he retired to the monastery of St Glykeria, where he spent the rest of his...
gives a less favorable ending. The varying assessments of Roman success may indicate a slim and costly victory. Whatever the scale of his victories, Iunius celebrated a triumph
Roman triumph
The Roman triumph was a civil ceremony and religious rite of ancient Rome, held to publicly celebrate and sanctify the military achievement of an army commander who had won great military successes, or originally and traditionally, one who had successfully completed a foreign war. In Republican...
which featured praeda pecorum, booty in the form of cattle.
During a Samnite ambush, Iunius had prayed to Jupiter
Jupiter (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Jupiter or Jove is the king of the gods, and the god of the sky and thunder. He is the equivalent of Zeus in the Greek pantheon....
and Mars, but made a vow to the goddess Salus
Salus
Salus was a minor Roman goddess. She was the personification of well-being of both the individual and the state. She is sometimes erroneously associated with the Greek goddess Hygieia....
, presumably for a narrow escape in battle. Salus was the divine embodiment of health, welfare, safety, and salvation both personal and public. This was also a time of plague, and in 313 Poetelius Libo Visolus had been appointed dictator clavi figendi causa, that is, the dictator appointed to drive a nail, a much-debated ritual intended in this instance to stop the outbreak. Reverence toward Salus's power to grant or withhold her favor as a response to plague may also have occasioned the temple, as Iunius put out public contracts for its construction five years after the battle that is supposed to have prompted the vow, when he was censor in 307. As dictator in 302 he oversaw its dedication. The temple housed paintings by Gaius Fabius, a relative of Fabius Maximus Rullianus; the cognomen Pictor, or "painter" (see Fabius Pictor) is likely to have been acquired by a branch of the Fabii at this time. Denarii
Denarius
In the Roman currency system, the denarius was a small silver coin first minted in 211 BC. It was the most common coin produced for circulation but was slowly debased until its replacement by the antoninianus...
minted by Decimus Iunius Silanus in 91 BC picture Salus and may be intended to recall the founding of her temple by his ancestor.
In their second joint consulship, both Iunius Bubulcus and Aemilius Barbula refused to recognize the revision of the senate
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
roll made the previous year by the censors Appius Claudius Caecus
Appius Claudius Caecus
Appius Claudius Caecus was a Roman politician from a wealthy patrician family. He was dictator himself and the son of Gaius Claudius Crassus, dictator in 337 BC.-Life:...
and Gaius Plautius Venox.
Iunius was magister equitum in 310 and possibly again in 309; his office in the latter year may have been dictator.
As censor in 307 with Marcus Valerius Maximus, he removed Lucius Annius from the senate on moral grounds. Annius had divorced his wife even though she had been a virgin when they married, and had done so without honoring his social obligations by consulting his friends.
Iunius was appointed dictator again in 302 BC. Livy's account of this year is somewhat confused. He makes both Iunius and Valerius Maximus dictatores, but military campaigns on at least four fronts may account for the multiplicity of appointments. Iunius's war against the Aequi
Aequi
thumb|300px|Location of the Aequi in central Italy.The Aequi were an ancient people of northeast Latium and the central Appennines of Italy who appear in the early history of ancient Rome. After a long struggle for independence from Rome they were defeated and substantial Roman colonies were...
is one of a series from 304 to 300 BC. Iunius swiftly put down an insurrection that broke out when Alba was colonized, and the Aequi ceased to exist as a separate people at this time.