Lucius Arruntius Camillus Scribonianus
Lucius Arruntius Camillus Scribonianus was a
Family
Born Marcus Furius Camillus Scribonianus, the natural son of
Camillus was adopted by Lucius Arruntius, who had been consul in AD 6, and whose name he assumed in accordance with Roman custom, although some sources continued to refer to him as Furius Camillus Scribonianus, while others refer to him as Camillus Arruntius.[3] Camillus' and his wife had two children: a son, who, like his father, is variously called Marcus Furius Camillus Scribonianus and Lucius Arruntius Camillus Scribonianus in different sources, and a daughter, Arruntia Camilla, known from inscriptions.[6][7]
Career
In AD 32, the year after the downfall of
During the remainder of Tiberius' reign, Camillus' family faced increasing peril. His adoptive father, Lucius Arruntius, whom Augustus on his deathbed had described as a man fit to hold the empire, was twice accused. On the first occasion he was acquitted, and his accusers punished;[13] on the second, when he was said to have conspired with Albucilla, he took his own life, even though his friends urged that the emperor, who was gravely ill, should die before Arruntius could be tried, for Arruntius knew the character of Caligula, and felt no comfort in the prospect of his accession.[14]
When, four years later, Caligula fell at the hands of an assassin, Camillus, then
Revolt
In the following year, AD 42, Lucius Annius Vinicianus, who had also been considered for the throne, sought Camillus' support. Camillus agreed to rise against Claudius, and a number of legions went over to him. He promised to restore the senate to its former authority, which gave him the support of a number of the equites and many senators.[15] Claudius considered abdicating in favour of Camillus, but was dissuaded when he sought the advice of leading men.[15][17]
Although Camillus' army was sizeable, it contained a large number of provincials and untested soldiers, and soon fell into disarray.[15] Suetonius describes a superstitious dread that had come over the legions that had taken Camillus' side, when they could not obtain the customary garlands and perfumes to adorn their standards, and then found that they could not remove them from the ground, a particularly ill omen.[18] Within five days the rebellion was over, although it is not clear whether the two sides ever engaged in battle. With his army refusing to obey his orders, Camillus fled to the island of Issa, where he perished by his own hand.[15][18][19]
Aftermath
Within a few years after the failed revolt, Camillus' son was appointed an augur, and subsequently praefectus urbi.[7] However, in AD 52, he and his mother were exiled, on a charge of having asked astrologers to predict the time of the emperor's death. The younger Camillus died not long afterward, some said by an illness, others by poison.[20]
References
- ^ Cooley, Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy, p. 460
- ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 592 ("Marcus Furius Camillus", No. 6).
- ^ a b c PIR, vol. I, p. 145.
- ^ Suetonius, "The Life of Claudius", 26.
- ^ Tacitus, Annales, ii. 52.
- ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 592 ("Furius Camillus", No. 7).
- ^ a b PIR, vol. I, pp. 146, 147.
- ^ Tacitus, Annales, vi. 1.
- ^ Cassius Dio, lviii. 17.
- ^ Tacitus, Annales, vi. 2–14.
- ^ Cassius Dio, lviii. 17–20.
- ^ Fasti Ostienses, CIL XIV, 244.
- ^ Tacitus, Annales, vi. 5, 7.
- ^ Tacitus, Annales, vi. 47, 48.
- ^ a b c d e f Cassius Dio, lx. 15.
- ^ Suetonius, "The Life of Claudius", 10.
- ^ Suetonius, "The Life of Claudius", 35, 36.
- ^ a b Suetonius, "The Life of Claudius", 13.
- ^ Tacitus, Historiae, i. 89.
- ^ Tacitus, Annales, xii. 52, Historiae, ii. 75.
Bibliography
- Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Annales, Historiae.
- Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum (Lives of the Caesars, or The Twelve Caesars).
- Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus (Cassius Dio), Roman History.
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849).
- Paul von Rohden, Elimar Klebs, & Hermann Dessau, Prosopographia Imperii Romani (The Prosopography of the Roman Empire, abbreviated PIR), Berlin (1898).
- Barbara Levick, Claudius, Yale University Press (1990).
- Alison E. Cooley, The Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy, Cambridge University Press (2012).