Lucius Julius Iulus (consular tribune 403 BC)
Lucius Julius S. f. Vop. n. Iulus was a member of the ancient
Family
Lucius Julius Iulus was the son of Spurius, and grandson of
Career
Lucius was one of six military tribunes with consular power elected for BC 403. His colleagues were Manius Aemilius Mamercinus, Lucius Valerius Potitus, Appius Claudius Crassus, Marcus Quinctilius Varus, and Marcus Furius Fusus.[5][6][i] They continued the siege of Veii which had begun two years earlier (when Lucius' brother, Gaius Julius Iulus, was one of the consular tribunes), and began building earthworks around the city, topped by wooden mantlets, with the intention of maintaining the siege through the winter months.[7]
The
Meanwhile, the Veientes made a sortie out of the city by night, and set fire to the Roman mantlets, which were approaching the city walls. Soon the wooden fortifications were entirely destroyed. But when news of this reached Rome, those who had been wavering between the plebeian tribunes and Appius Claudius were seized with a patriotic fervor, and quickly volunteered to go and serve the army in order to rebuild the siege works and maintain the garrison that Julius and his colleagues oversaw. Thus, the siege continued through the winter, until a new set of consular tribunes was elected.[9]
See also
- Julia (gens)
Footnotes
- ^ Livy erroneously adds the censors, Marcus Furius Camillus and Marcus Postumius Albinus, to the list of consular tribunes, observing that the election of eight military tribunes with consular powers was unprecedented, and in place of Marcus Furius Fusus, he gives a second Marcus Postumius.[5]
References
Bibliography
- Titus Livius (Ab Urbe Condita(History of Rome).
- Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica (Library of History).
- "L. Julius Iulus" (no. 8) in the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849).
- T. Robert S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, American Philological Association (1952).