Marcus Furius Camillus (446 – 365 BC)

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Marcus Furius Camillus (446 – 365 BC) was a Roman soldier and statesman of patrician descent. According to Livy and Plutarch, Camillus triumphed four times, was five times dictator, and was honoured with the title of Second Founder of Rome.

Camillus had been a noteworthy soldier in the wars with the Aequi and Volsci. Subsequently, Camillus was a military tribune. In 403 BC, he was appointed censor with Marcus Postumius Albinus Regillensis and, by means of extensive taxation, took action to solve financial problems resulting from incessant military campaigns.

In 406 BC, Rome declared war against the rival Etrurian city of Veii. The city of Veii was powerful and was located on a well-fortified and elevated site. This required the Romans to commence a siege lasting several years. In 401 BC, as the war started to grow increasingly unpopular in Rome, Camillus was appointed consular tribune. He assumed command of the Roman army, and within a short time he stormed two allies of Veii, Falerii and Capena, which resisted behind their walls. In 398 BC, Camillus received consular tribune powers and then looted Capena.

When Rome suffered severe defeats in 396 BC, the tenth year of this war, the Romans resorted again to Camillus, who was named dictator for the first time. After defeating both Falerii and Capena at Nepete, Camillus commanded the final strike against Veii. He dug the soft ground below the walls and the Romans infiltrated through the city's sewage system effectively, defeating the enemy. Not interested in capitulation terms, but in Veii's complete destruction, the Romans slaughtered the entire adult male population and made slaves of all the women and children. The plunder was large. For the battle, Camillus had invoked the protection of Mater Matuta extensively, and he looted the statue of Juno for Rome. Back in Rome, Camillus paraded on a quadriga, a four-horse chariot, and the popular celebrations lasted four days.

Camillus opposed the plebeian plan to populate Veii with half of the Romans. It would have resolved the poverty issues, but the patricians opposed it. Deliberately, Camillus protracted the project until its abandonment. Camillus rendered himself controversial in not fulfilling his promise to dedicate a tenth of the plunder to Delphi for the god Apollo. The Roman soothsayers announced that the gods were displeased by this, so the Senate charged the citizens and the sought amounts of gold were retrieved.

To finish Falerii, which was the last surviving enemy of this war, Camillus was made consular tribune again in 394 BC. He seized the opportunity to divert the bitter conflict between Roman social classes into a unifying external conflict. He besieged Falerii and, after he rejected as immoral the proposal of a local school teacher who had surrendered most of the local children to the Romans, the people of Falerii were moved to gratitude, and made peace with Rome.

The entire Italian Peninsula was impressed by the Roman victories of Camillus. Aequi, Volsci, and Capena proposed peace treaties. Rome increased its territory by seventy percent and some of the land was distributed to needy citizens. Rome had become the most powerful nation of the central peninsula.

The Romans were restive because no plunder had been reaped out of Falerii. Furthermore, Camillus rejected both the land redistribution and the uncontrolled Roman population of Veii. Consequently, he was impeached by his political adversaries, by an accusation of embezzlement of the Etruscan plunder.

To Camillus, his friends explained that, although the condemnation seemed unavoidable, they would help to pay the fine. Camillus spurned this, opting for exile. He abandoned Rome with his wife and Lucius, his surviving son, and went to Ardea. In his absence, Camillus was condemned to pay 1,500 denarii.

The Gauls, who had already invaded most of Etruria, reached Clusium and its people turned to Rome for help. However, the Roman embassy provoked a skirmish and, then, the Gauls marched straight for Rome (July 390 BC). After the entire Roman army was defeated at the Allia brook (Battle of the Allia), the defenceless Rome was seized by the invaders. The entire Roman army retreated into the deserted Veii whereas most civilians ended at the Etruscan Caere. Nonetheless, a surrounded Roman garrison continued to resist on the Capitoline Hill. The Gauls dwelt within the city, getting their supplies by destroying all nearby towns for plunder.

When the Gauls headed for Ardea, the exiled Camillus, who was now living as a private man, organized the local forces for the defence of the city. He told the city's inhabitants that the Gauls always exterminated their defeated enemies. Camillus found that the Gauls were distracted, celebrating their latest spoils leading to much drunkenness at their camp. So he attacked them during the night and defeated the enemy easily with great bloodshed. Camillus was hailed then by all other Roman exiles throughout the region. After he refused a makeshift generalship, a Roman messenger sneaked into the Capitol and, therein, the Senators appointed Camillus dictator for a year with the task of confronting the Gauls. At the Roman base of Veii, Camillus gathered a 12,000-man army with more men joining from throughout the region.

The Gauls may have been ill-prepared for the siege, as an epidemic broke out among them as a result of not burying the dead. Brennus and the Romans negotiated an end to the siege when the Romans agreed to pay one thousand pounds of gold. According to tradition, to add insult to injury, it was discovered that Brennus was using heavier weights than standard for weighing the gold. When the Romans complained, Brennus is said to have thrown his sword and belt on the scales and shouted in Latin, "woe to the conquered".

According to some Roman historians, it was at this very moment that Camillus arrived with a Roman army and, after putting his sword on the scale, replied, "not with gold, but with iron, will the fatherland be regained", and attacked the Gauls. A battle ensued in the streets of Rome, but neither army could fight effectively in the narrow streets and alleyways. The Gallic and Roman armies left the city and fought the next day. Camillus's army lived up to his hopes and the Gallic army was routed. The Romans dubbed Camillus a "second Romulus," a second founder of Rome.

Camillus sacrificed for the successful return and he ordered the construction of the temple of Aius Locutius. When plebeian orators again proposed moving to Veii, Camillus ordered a debate in the Senate and argued for staying. The Senate unanimously approved of Camillus's view and ordered the reconstruction of Rome. As the Senate feared sedition by plebeians, it refused Camillus's requests to resign his position as dictator before his term was finished. This made Camillus the longest-reigning of all Roman dictators until Sulla and Julius Caesar.

A deadly pestilence struck Rome, and claimed many Roman notables, including Camillus, who died in 365 BC. His death was deeply mourned, as the "second founder of Rome."