Appius Claudius Pulcher (consul 212 BC)
Appius Claudius Pulcher (Latin: APP•CLAVDIVS•P•F•APP•N•PVLCHER) was a Roman general of the 3rd century BC, active in the Second Punic War.
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Life [edit]
Son of Publius Claudius Pulcher (consul 249 BC), in 217 BC he was aedile.[1] In the following year he was military tribune, and fought at Cannae. Together with Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major he was raised to the supreme command by the troops who had fled to Canusium. In 215 BC he was created praetor, and conducted the relics of the defeated army into Sicily, where his efforts to detach Hieronymus, the grandson of Hiero II, from his connexion with the Carthaginians, were unsuccessful.[2] He remained in Sicily the following year also, as propraetor and legatus to Marcus Claudius Marcellus,[3][4] having charge of the fleet and the camp at Leontini.[5] In 213 BC, when the Carthaginians landed there, he co-commanded an expedition to the island with M. Claudius Marcellus.[citation needed] In 212 BC he was elected consul, and in conjunction with his colleague Quintus Fulvius Flaccus undertook the siege of Capua. At the close of his year of office, in pursuance of a decree of the Senate, he went to Rome and created two new consuls. His own command was prolonged another year. In the battle with Hannibal before Capua he received a wound, from the effects of which he died shortly after the surrender of the city. He ineffectually opposed the infliction of the sanguinary vengeance which Fulvius took on the Capuans.[6][7] He was the father of Appius Claudius Pulcher (consul 185 BC), Publius Claudius Pulcher (consul 184 BC), Gaius Claudius Pulcher (consul 177 BC) and Lucius Claudius Pulcher Nemo. His daughter, Claudia, married Pacuvius Calavius, the chief magistrate of Capua in 217 BC.[8]
In popular culture [edit]
Appius Claudius Pulcher was played by Dimitri Diatchenko in the 2006 film The Secret Under the Rose.
Notes [edit]
- ^ Livy, xxii. 53.
- ^ Livy, xxiii. 24, 30, 31, xxiv. 6, 7.
- ^ Livy, xxiv. 10, 21, 27, 29, 30, 33, 36.
- ^ Polybius, viii. 3, 5, 9.
- ^ Livy, xxiv. 39.
- ^ Livy, xxv. 2, 22, 41, xxvi. 1, 5, 6, 8, 15, 16.
- ^ Polybius, ix. 3.
- ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, xxiii. 2.
References [edit]
This entry incorporates public domain text originally from:
- William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1870.
| Preceded by Quintus Fabius Maximus and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus |
Consul of the Roman Republic with Quintus Fulvius Flaccus 212 BC |
Succeeded by Publius Sulpicius Galba Maximus and Gnaeus Fulvius Centumalus Maximus |
