Titus Quintius Flamininus

Also known as: Flamininus / Titus · Family: Roman · Role: consul and general · First appears: Flamininus

Flamininus received his first military charge in the war against Hannibal, serving as tribune under Marcellus. Though not yet thirty, he was elected consul with Sextus Aelius and assigned the war against Philip; the tribunes Fulvius and Manius strongly opposed him. Titus had a brother, Lucius Flamininus, “very unlike him in all points of character,” while Philopoemen was selected as his parallel in personal appearance and later became a rival through emulation and envy; Diophanes was likewise a rival in affairs concerning the Achaeans.

At Cynos Cephalae, Flamininus defeated Philip’s army, killing eight thousand and taking five thousand prisoners. He ended the war by reinstating Philip in Macedon under severe conditions, taking Demetrius Poliorcetes as hostage and requiring the surrender of Greece, most of the fleet, and a thousand talents. At Corinth, during the Isthmian games, he proclaimed that the Greek peoples had been restored to their lands, laws, and liberties, with Attalus following in support. He later made peace with Nabis, leaving Sparta under slavery, and Charops secretly aided his designs in Epirus.

Flamininus also dealt with Dinocrates, Prusias, and Hannibal, whose presence at the court of Prusias stirred his resentment. After Flamininus ordered action against him, Hannibal found the king’s guards blocking his escape and killed himself. In Rome, Titus named Scipio first member of the senate and became embroiled in a quarrel with Marcus Cato; some accounts also joined him in commission with Lucius Scipio. His name was honored beside Hercules, and a verse dedicated a gymnasium to Titus and Hercules, while Apollo was invoked in honor of the liberty of Greece.