Marcus Atilius Regulus ( fl. 227216 BC), a son of

Marcus Atilius Regulus Marcus Atilius Regulus () was a Roman statesman and general who was a consul of the Roman Republic in 267 BC and 256 BC. Much of his career was spent fighting the Carthaginians during the first Punic War. In 256 BC, he and Luciu ...

, the

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 throu ...

captured during the First Punic War, and a grandson of

Marcus Atilius Regulus (consul 294 BC) Marcus Atilius Regulus was a Roman consul in 294 BC. During his year, according to Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, tit ...

, was a

Roman consul A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC), and ancient Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum'' (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politic ...

for the year 227 BC, together with Publius Valerius Flaccus, and was a consul ''suffectus'' in 217 BC, replacing Gaius Flaminius, who was killed in battle at Lake Trasimene. Regulus agreed to accompany the consuls of 216 BC, Gaius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paullus, along with the other surviving former consul of 217 BC,

Gnaeus Servilius Geminus Gnaeus Servilius Geminus (died August 2, 216 BC) was a Roman consul, serving as both general and admiral of Roman forces, during the Second Punic War. The son of Publius Servilius Geminus, Gnaeus Geminus was elected as consul in early 217 BC. By ...

, when an army of 80,000 Romans and allies was amassed together to smash the Carthaginian army under Hannibal. The historian

Polybius Polybius (; grc-gre, Πολύβιος, ; ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , which covered the period of 264–146 BC and the Punic Wars in detail. Polybius is important for his analysis of the mixed ...

records that both he and Servilius died fighting bravely at the Battle of Cannae. However, there was a Marcus Atilius Regulus who was Praetor Urbanus (and later also Peregrinus), but it is thought that this person is actually a textual mis-reading of the name Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. It is unlikely that the aged, former consul would become a

Praetor Praetor ( , ), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected '' magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to discharge vario ...

again three years after Cannae. His younger 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 killed fighting the Gauls at the Battle of Telamon in 225 BC, while his father,

, who was executed by

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...

, was a consul twice during the First Punic War.

References

Book 3.116
/ref> Magistrates of the Roman Republic, Volume I.

External links

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 ...

''History of Rome''
Rev. Canon Roberts (translator), Ernest Rhys (Ed.); (1905) London: J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd. {{DEFAULTSORT:Atilius Regulus, Marcus 3rd-century BC Roman consuls Roman censors Regulus, Marcus 3rd-century BC births Year of birth uncertain Year of death unknown