Lucius Julius S. f. Vop. n. Iulus was a member of the ancient

patrician Patrician may refer to: * Patrician (ancient Rome), the original aristocratic families of ancient Rome, and a synonym for "aristocratic" in modern English usage * Patrician (post-Roman Europe), the governing elites of cities in parts of medieval ...

gens Julia The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the c ...

. As

consular tribune A consular tribune was putatively a type of magistrate in the early Roman Republic. According to Roman tradition, colleges of consular tribunes held office throughout the fifth and fourth centuries BC during the so-called "Conflict of the Or ...

in 403 BC, he carried on the war with

Veii Veii (also Veius; it, Veio) was an important ancient Etruscan city situated on the southern limits of Etruria and north-northwest of Rome, Italy. It now lies in Isola Farnese, in the comune of Rome. Many other sites associated with and in the ...

.''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. II, p. 657.

Family

Lucius Julius Iulus was the son of Spurius, and grandson of Vopiscus, who had been

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throug ...

, 473 BC. His uncle,

Lucius Lucius ( el, Λούκιος ''Loukios''; ett, Luvcie) is a male given name derived from ''Lucius'' (abbreviated ''L.''), one of the small group of common Latin forenames (''praenomina'') found in the culture of ancient Rome. Lucius derives from L ...

, was consul in 430, after serving as

magister equitum The , in English Master of the Horse or Master of the Cavalry, was a Roman magistrate appointed as lieutenant to a dictator. His nominal function was to serve as commander of the Roman cavalry in time of war, but just as a dictator could be nomi ...

the previous year, and his brother,

Gaius Gaius, sometimes spelled ''Gajus'', Kaius, Cajus, Caius, was a common Latin praenomen; see Gaius (praenomen). People *Gaius (jurist) (), Roman jurist *Gaius Acilius *Gaius Antonius *Gaius Antonius Hybrida *Gaius Asinius Gallus *Gaius Asinius Pol ...

, was consular tribune in 408 and 405. It is unclear how he was related to the Lucius Julius Iulus who was consular tribune in 388 and 379, or the Gaius Julius Iulus who was dictator in 352.

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.Livy, v. 1. 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

mantlet A mantlet was a portable wall or shelter used for stopping projectiles in medieval warfare. It could be mounted on a wheeled carriage, and protected one or several soldiers. In the First World War a mantlet type of device was used by the French ...

s, with the intention of maintaining the siege through the winter months. The

tribunes of the plebs Tribune of the plebs, tribune of the people or plebeian tribune ( la, tribunus plebis) was the first office of the Roman state that was open to the plebeians, and was, throughout the history of the Republic, the most important check on the power of ...

objected to this hitherto unprecedented manner of conducting warfare, as an unjust and unnecessary burden on the people, and accused the patricians of using the siege as an excuse to keep large numbers of commoners out from Rome, so that they could not serve as a check on the patricians' power. But Claudius, the consular tribune, argued vociferously that the plebeian tribunes' claims of hardship for the soldiers were false, that recalling them would waste all of the work and expense of the siege without achieving anything or recouping Rome's losses, subject Rome to future attack from Veii, that the tribunes were simply telling the people what they wanted to hear, to their own advantage rather than the people's, and that their exhortations were a betrayal of the soldiers who instead deserved their support. 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.Livy, v. 6.

Footnotes

References

Bibliography

* Titus Livius (

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Ancient Rome, Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditiona ...

), ''

Ab Urbe Condita ''Ab urbe condita'' ( 'from the founding of the City'), or ''anno urbis conditae'' (; 'in the year since the city's founding'), abbreviated as AUC or AVC, expresses a date in years since 753 BC, the traditional founding of Rome. It is an exp ...

'' (History of Rome). *

Diodorus Siculus Diodorus Siculus, or Diodorus of Sicily ( grc-gre, Διόδωρος ; 1st century BC), was an ancient Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which su ...

, ''

Bibliotheca Historica ''Bibliotheca historica'' ( grc, Βιβλιοθήκη Ἱστορική, ) is a work of universal history by Diodorus Siculus. It consisted of forty books, which were divided into three sections. The first six books are geographical in theme, ...

'' (Library of History).
"L. Julius Iulus" (no. 8)
in the ''

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1849, originally published 1844 under a slightly different title) is an encyclopedia/biographical dictionary. Edited by William Smith, the dictionary spans three volumes and 3,700 p ...

'', William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849). * T. Robert S. Broughton, ''The Magistrates of the Roman Republic'', American Philological Association (1952). {{DEFAULTSORT:Julius Iulus, Lucius 5th-century BC Romans

Roman patricians

Family

Career

See also

Footnotes

References

Bibliography