Furius Camillus

Also known as: Camillus · Family: Roman · Role: dictator and military tribune · First appears: Camillus

Camillus first rose to honor by serving under Postumius Tubertus in the great battle against the Aequians and Volscians. He was later created dictator and chose Cornelius Scipio as his general of horse. At Veii, he captured the city by storm, vowed a tenth of the spoil to Apollo, and, after the victory, resolved to carry Juno’s image to Rome; he left his son Lucius in the camp to guard the prisoners and secure the booty. Accused by Lucius Apuleius of appropriating the Tuscan spoils, he went into exile and was condemned in his absence.

When Pontius Cominius reported his victory and urged that Camillus be restored to command, the senate declared him dictator again. At Rome, he defeated Brennus’s army and expelled the Gauls; at Falerii, he rejected the schoolmaster’s treachery, sending the boys to Rome, where they declared that “the Romans, preferring justice before victory, had taught them rather to embrace submission than liberty.” After sacrificing and purifying the city, he restored its temples and erected a new one to Rumour, whose heavenly voice had been heard by Marcus Caedicius.

Of those who opposed his glory, Manlius was the most distinguished. Camillus moved Manlius’s trial outside the gates, where he was convicted and thrown from the Capitol’s rock. In the election of consuls held by Camillus, Marcus Aemilius was chosen for the patricians and Lucius Sextius for the commonalty. In the following year, a pestilential sickness swept through Rome and carried away Camillus among many of the magistrates.