Ofilius Calavius Ovi f. was a

Campania Campania (, also , , , ) is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islands and the i ...

n nobleman during the Second Samnite War. Following the disaster of the

Caudine Forks The Battle of Caudine Forks, 321 BC, was a decisive event of the Second Samnite War. Its designation as a battle is a mere historical formality: there was no fighting and there were no casualties. The Romans were trapped in an enclosed valley by ...

, where both

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 ...

s were obliged to surrender their army and pass under the yoke, opinions in Campania were divided as to whether the defeat would forever halt the progress of

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

arms down the Italian peninsula. The

Samnites The Samnites () were an ancient Italic people who lived in Samnium, which is located in modern inland Abruzzo, Molise, and Campania in south-central Italy. An Oscan-speaking people, who may have originated as an offshoot of the Sabines, they for ...

were of the opinion that their victory would ensure a permanent peace with the Romans; and indeed, peace did hold from the time of the surrender in 321 until 316 BC. Calavius, one of the most distinguished men of Capua, the greatest city of Campania, witnessed the grim procession of the defeated Romans, who were escorted to the borders of the country and allowed to return home with their lives. Calavius' attitude was less sanguine; he realized that the humiliation of their defeat foreshadowed the eventual return of Roman arms, and grim days ahead for the people of Campania. Calavius' suspicions proved to be correct; hostilities resumed in 316 BC, and despite some early setbacks, and the intervention of the

Etruscans The Etruscan civilization () was developed by a people of Etruria in ancient Italy with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, rou ...

in 311, the Romans persevered, and the Samnites sued for peace in 304, bringing the war to an end. The city of Capua retained its independence, but became a Roman ally.

Family

The Calavii were a leading family in Campania for generations. Calavius (whom some manuscripts call by the Latin ''

praenomen The ''praenomen'' (; plural: ''praenomina'') was a personal name chosen by the parents of a Roman child. It was first bestowed on the ''dies lustricus'' (day of lustration), the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the bi ...

Aulus Aulus (abbreviated A.) is one of the small group of common forenames found in the culture of ancient Rome. The name was traditionally connected with Latin ''aula'', ''olla'', "palace", but this is most likely a false etymology. ''Aulus'' in fact p ...

, instead of the

Oscan Oscan is an extinct Indo-European language of southern Italy. The language is in the Osco-Umbrian or Sabellic branch of the Italic languages. Oscan is therefore a close relative of Umbrian. Oscan was spoken by a number of tribes, including th ...

praenomen ''Ofilius''), was the son of Ovius Calavius, and apparently father of the brothers

Ovius and Novius Calavius Ovius and Novius Calavius (both died in 314 BC), brothers, were the sons of Ofilius Calavius, a Campanian nobleman during the Second Samnite War (326–304 BC). They conspired to mount an insurrection against the Romans, but when their conspiracy w ...

, who in 314 BC headed a conspiracy to mount an insurgency against the Romans. A century later, during the

Second Punic War The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of three wars fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For 17 years the two states struggled for supremacy, primarily in Ital ...

, Pacuvius Calavius held the chief magistracy at Capua, and by a clever stratagem, prevented the Capuan senate from surrendering the city to

Hannibal Hannibal (; xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋, ''Ḥannibaʿl''; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Puni ...

. Although the city eventually capitulated to the

Carthaginian The term Carthaginian ( la, Carthaginiensis ) usually refers to a citizen of Ancient Carthage. It can also refer to: * Carthaginian (ship), a three-masted schooner built in 1921 * Insurgent privateers; nineteenth-century South American privateers, ...

general, Calavius became his honored guest. When his son disclosed a plan to assassinate Hannibal, Calavius was able to dissuade him from this rash deed. Some of the Calavii were subsequently held responsible for a series of fires set at Rome in 211 BC, supposedly set in revenge for the treatment of Campania by the Romans.

Titus Livius 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, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...

, ''

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 ...

'', xxvi. 27.

Footnotes

{{reflist 4th-century BC Romans History of Campania Samnite Wars Samnite people Calavii Ofilii

Family

See also

Footnotes