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The Dictatorship of Minucius

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

T. A. Dorey
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Extract

The constitutional position of M. Minucius as a result of the plebiscitum of Metilius in 217 B.C. has never been satisfactorily defined; this is due to the vagueness of the ancient authorities. Polybius does indeed make the explicit statement that there were two dictators appointed to carry on the same campaign, a thing unprecedented in Roman history. On the strength of this passage, it has often been assumed that the formal title of ‘dictator’, with all that it implied, was conferred on Minucius by the proposal of Metilius. But the other authorities are not so explicit, and their language seems to contradict Polybius. Livy, for example, refers to the rogatio of Metilius as a proposal ‘de aequando magistri equitum et dictatoris iure’ (XXII, 25, 10), or ‘de aequato imperio’ (26, 7). Nowhere does Livy refer to Minucius as Dictator; in fact, he seems deliberately to avoid doing so. In this respect Plutarch, too, seems to follow Livy. In his Life of Fabius he states that Metilius proposed that Minucius should share the command with Fabius and have equal authority in conducting the campaign; he concludes by saying that the People conferred on Minucius a power equal to that of the Dictator. To judge from the language of both Livy and Plutarch it would appear that whatever position Minucius may have held as a result of the rogatio it was not that of Dictator.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 45 , Issue 1-2 , November 1955 , pp. 92 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © T. A. Dorey 1955. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Polybius, III, 103: αὐτοκράτορα γὰρ κἀκεῖνον κατέστησαν…καὶ δὴ δύο δικτάτορες ἐγεγόνεσαν ἐπὶ τὰς αὐτὰς πράξεις.

2 Plutarch, , Fabius, 9, 3Google Scholar: τὸν Μινούκιον ἐψηφίσαντο τῆς στρατηγίας ὁμότιμον ὄντα διέπειν τὸν πόλεμον ἀπὸ τῆς αὐτῆς ἐξουσίας τῷ δικτάτορι.

3 Plutarch, , Fabius 10, 1Google Scholar: τὸν δὲ Μινούκιον ἐπὶ τὰς αὐτὰς τῷ δικτάτορι πράξεις ἀποδείξαντες.

4 Appian, , Hannibal, 111, 12Google Scholar: ἴσον ἴσχυειν αὐτῷ τὸν ἵππαρχον.

5 Nepos, , Hannibal, 5, 3Google Scholar: ‘pari ac dictatorem imperio.’ Valerius Maximus, 5, 2, 4: ‘dictatori ei magister equitum Minucius aequatus.’ ibid. 3, 2, 8 : ‘dictatori ei magistrum equitum Minucium iure imperii senatus aequavit.’ Dio fr. 57, 15–6: τὴν πρὸς τὸν δικτάτορα ἰσομοιρίαν προσλαβών. Zonaras, 8, 26: τῷ δ᾿ ἱππάρχῳ τὴν αὐτὴν ἐξουσίαν προσένειμαν ὥστε ἄμφω ἀπὸ τῆς ἴσης ἄρχειν. auctor de viris illustribus, 43: ‘Minucium magistrum equitum imperio sibi aequari passus est.’

6 Plutarch, , Marcellus, 5, 4Google Scholar: Μινουκίου δὲ δικτάτορος ἵππαρχον ἀποδείξαντος Γάϊον Φλαμίνιον, ἐπεὶ τρίσμος ἠκούσθη μυὸς, ἀποψηφισάμενοι τούτους αὖθις ἑτέρους κατέστησαν.

7 Valerius Maximus, 1, 1, 5: ‘occentusque soricis auditus Fabio Maximo dictaturam … deponendi causam praebuit.’

8 For a full discussion on this point, cf. Dr. V. Ehrenberg, ‘Imperium Maius in the Roman Republic,’ A. J. Philol., 1953, 29

9 Or possibly the Cerialia, if the suggestion of Professor Lily Ross Taylor (Broughton, T. R. S., Magistrates of the Roman Republic I, 318 n.Google Scholar) is adopted.