Ancient history

Appius Claudius Caeco:the great forgotten statesman of the Roman Republic

Regarding his background Celery Claudio Caeco stands as a descendant of a lineage that entered the patrician estate at the beginning of the Roman Republic when his ancestor Attus Clausus emigrated to Rome from the Sabine city of Regillis, also achieving that one of the Roman tribes was called Claudia in his honor Although originally his cognomen he was Crassus by family inheritance, at the end of his life and for later he would be better known as Caeco, that is, blind. Despite the bad press that analytical historiography gave him, Apio Claudio Caeco is without a doubt one of the most multifaceted personalities of republican Rome, a fact often quite forgotten to the detriment of other later and better known figures such as Scipio Africanus, Emilio Paulo or Julius Caesar. Let's analyze next the Latin inscription.

The political career of Apio Claudio Caeco

The first charge we are aware of was his censorship around 312 BC, occupying that position before becoming consul and at an age at which many had not even held the aedility. This mandate was characterized by constructive work:creation of the Via Appia that linked Rome with the allied city of Capua or the Aqua Appia that supplied water to the Latin city, spending huge sums of money without the permission of a senatorial decree (Diodorus Siculus XX, 36). The name of these constructions evidences the strong personality of character because the most logical thing would have been to call these constructions using their nomen familiar and not his prenomen as usual among the Hellenistic sovereigns interested in founding or renaming cities Casandreia, Antigoneia, Lysimachia….

Another indication of his strong character was his continuous confrontation with the Senate by refusing to resign as censor eighteen months after taking office or the attempt to reform the Senate. tribal system admitting freedmen in any tribe, a change that was later undone by the censor Fabio Rulliano who enrolled only freedmen in urban tribes. Of his two consulates, the exact date 307 and 296 BC is known, knowing that in the first of them he remained in Rome without carrying out a military campaign, surely to ensure his work during his recently completed censorship or to strengthen diplomatic ties with other powers (let us not forget how Rome signed treaties with Rhodes in 306 –Polybius 30.5.6-8; Tito Livio 45.25.9– or Carthage –Tito Livio IX.43.26 and Filino FGrH 174 F 1, despite the negative energy of their existence by Polybius 3.26-). In his second consular magistracy he did participate in military campaigns, probably belonging to that date his victory against the Samnites, Sabines and Etruscans, which although it deserved a mention in the praise at the beginning of this article was not presented with a military triumph in view of its absence both in the eulogy itself and in the Triumphal Feasts, a list of military triumphs celebrated from the founding of the city by the mythical Romulus to the year 19 BC.

Of the rest of the positions that appeared in his eulogy (aedile, praetor, interrex, quaestor and military tribune) there is no record of the specific date, although in view of them there is evidence of extensive success over time in elections for public office. Although there is no consensus among the sources about when he gained the nickname of Caeco due to his blindness, the story of Diodorus Siculus (Diodorus Siculus XX.36) seems more likely than that of Titus Livy (IX. 29). ). While the Sicilian historian defended how it was a trick to avoid the attacks of his enemies, the Patavino on the other hand affirmed that his blindness was a divine punishment for his acts of repression as a censor against the cult celebrated in the Ara Máxima for Hercules. In any case, it is confirmed that in his old age he suffered from blindness since he was taken by his sons in 280 BC before a Roman Senate that was favorable to peace with Pyrrhus, Appius Claudius had to give a speech before the conscript fathers where he came to affirm that although he had complained of his blindness before , now wished he were deaf, as he never expected to see or hear the Senate consider such advice (Plutarch Pyrrh. 19.1–3; Appian Sam. F 10.2; Ineditum Vaticanum FGrH 839 F 1.2). Thanks to his oratorical skills, no doubt embellished by later generations to extol the virtus Roman, he was able to prevent Rome from accepting the Molossian general's terms, his words being known to Cicero more than two hundred years later (Cicero, De Senect. 6).

Other achievements

Once your cursus honorum has been analyzed Based on Arretium's praise, it should be noted how he stood out in other aspects not included in it when cultivating the arts being a pioneer with numerous milestones of Roman civilization.

In the first place, he was interested in the legal aspects:let us not forget that this interest came from family influence because his ancestor was the president of the commission in charge of drafting the Law of the XII tables . According to tradition he commissioned his personal scribe, the freedman Gnaeus Flavius ​​son of Anio, to make public for b The legal formulas of defense before the praetor benefited all citizens, at that time there was only one of them and there was no distinction between urban praetor and pilgrim, a fact that won the opposition of the pontifical college that until then held that privilege. These procedural actions facilitated the common people's access to a fair defense and constituted what would later be known as ius flavianum . In addition, after the publication of said pretorian actions, he published a work of indeterminate legal content called De Usurpationibus (Pomponius Dig.1.2.2.36) and unsuccessfully opposed the approval of the lex Ogulnia that he wanted to enable the cooptation of plebeians to the office of pontiff or increase the number of augurs with 5 new plebeian members.

He can also be considered the oldest Roman writer , an honor wrongly attributed to the Greek freedman Livius Andronicus and the theatrical production of him started in 240 BC, thanks to the publication of a poetic work called Sententiae, a compilation of sayings with supposed Pythagorean influence and from which the maxim 'Each man is an artisan of his own fortune' has survived.

Thirdly we must not forget the fact that according to the sources he favored the use of r instead of s when it appears between two vowels (Pomponius Dig.1.2 .2.36) or the suppression of the letter z due to its aberrant sound (Marciano Capella De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii , III. 1.3.261).

Conclusions

All these facts allow us to conclude that although not always recognized, and sometimes vilified by Roman historians, Appius Claudius Caeco was one of the most important statesmen of the Roman Republic surviving his legacy in multiple areas Of the four sons and five daughters he had (Cicero, De Senect. 11) it should be noted how each of his sons created their own family branches:namely Ruso, Pulcro, Cento and Nero; being the last of them an integral part of the Roman imperial family of the Julia-Claudia dynasty established by Octavio Augusto.

Bibliography

  • Censorship and «res publica»:constitutional contribution and political role- Eduardo Reigadas Lavandero
  • Appius Claudius Caecus:La République accomplie-Michel Humm
  • ‘Cicero’s Pro Caelio 33–34 and Appius Claudius’ Oratio de Pyrrho’, Classical Philology, Vol. 100, No. 4 (October 2005)-Josiah Osgood

This article is part of the I Desperta Ferro Historical Micro-Essay Contest. The documentation, veracity and originality of the article are the sole responsibility of its author.