Gaius Carrinas (praetor 82 BC)
Gaius Carrinas | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Died | 1 November 82 BC Outside Rome |
| Nationality | Roman |
| Children | Gaius Carrinas (consul) |
| Occupation | Military commander |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Marius and Carbo |
| Years of service | 83–82 BC |
| Rank | Praetor |
| Battles/wars | Sulla's civil war |
Gaius Carrinas (died November 82 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. He was one of the leading opponents of Sulla during the civil war of 83–82 BC, and suffered several defeats on the field against Sulla's lieutenants. He was executed following the Battle of the Colline Gate in November 82 BC.
Biography
[edit]The name 'Carrinas' is of Etruscan or Umbrian origin.[1] T. P. Wiseman suggests that Gaius Carrinas was a homo novus, the first of his family to enter the Roman Senate, and that he received Roman citizenship as result of the Social War (91–87 BC).[2] Other historians have pointed out that Carrinas's voting tribe (probably the 'Quirina', perhaps the 'Collina') was not common to Etruria, and so he may have already been a citizen by that time.[3]
In 83 BC, when civil war erupted between the Roman government and the outlawed general Sulla, Carrinas was one of three commanders whom the young Pompey (the future "triumvir") routed while on his way to join his army with Sulla's.[4] In the following year, Carrinas became a praetor and served as one of the consul Papirius Carbo's subordinate commanders, commanding one legion.[5] He suffered defeats at the Aesis river in Umbria by Metellus Pius and at Spoletium by Pompey and Crassus. Despite finding himself besieged at that town, Carrinas succeeded in escaping with his troops during a stormy night.
After the consul Carbo had fled Italy, Carrinas joined his troops with those of the other remaining government generals on the field, Censorinus and Damasippus, as well as the anti-Sullan Samnites. Their combined forces tried unsuccessfully to break through the enemy lines at Praeneste, where the other consul, Marius, was besieged. They then marched to Rome, which Sulla had previously taken, but suffered a final crushing defeat at the Battle of the Colline Gate. Carrinas was caught in flight and executed, and his head was among those which were paraded before the besieged Marian remnants at Praeneste.
Carrinas had a son, also called Gaius Carrinas, who, owing to his father's opposition to Sulla, was legally barred from public life, but later rose to prominence in service to Julius Caesar and the Second Triumvirate.[6]
Endnotes
[edit]- ^ One author suggests, more specifically, that he or his family came from Arretium or Volaterrae in Etruria. Syme, p. 90. Rawson, p. 149.
- ^ Wiseman, p. 222, no. 105.
- ^ Taylor, p. 201; Rawson, p. 149.
- ^ Münzer, col. 1612; Brennan, pp. 379–380.
- ^ Münzer, col. 1612. Brennan believes that Carrinas was probably a praetor, and not propraetor, in 82 BC. Brennan, p. 380.
- ^ Rawson, p. 136; Syme, pp. 65 (note 2), 234.
References
[edit]- Brennan, T. Corey (2000). The Praetorship in the Roman Republic Volume 2: 122 to 49 BC. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511460-4.
- Münzer, Friedrich (1899), "Carrinas 1", Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (RE, PW), volume 3, part 2, column 1612.
- Rawson, Elizabeth (1978). "Caesar, Etruria and the Disciplina Etrusca". Journal of Roman Studies. 68: 132–152. doi:10.2307/299632. JSTOR 299632. S2CID 163115866.
- Syme, Ronald (1939). The Roman Revolution. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Taylor, Lily Ross (2013) [1960]. Jerzy Linderski (ed.). The Voting Districts of the Roman Republic: The Thirty-five Urban and Rural Tribes. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-11869-4.
- Wiseman, T.P. (1971). New Men in the Roman Senate 139 B.C.–A.D. 14. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-814713-9.