Quintus Sulpicius Camerinus Praetextatus was a

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 ...

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 ...

of the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kin ...

in 434 BC. Sulpicius belonged to the

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 ...

Sulpicia gens The gens Sulpicia was one of the most ancient patrician families at ancient Rome, and produced a succession of distinguished men, from the foundation of the Republic to the imperial period. The first member of the gens who obtained the consu ...

. Sulpicius is the first named member of the branch within the gens known as the Praetextati. Sulpicius was possibly the son of

Servius Sulpicius Camerinus Cornutus Servius Sulpicius Camerinus Cornutus ( 500–463 BC) was Roman consul, consul at Ancient Rome, Rome in the year 500 BC with Manius Tullius Longus. Livy reports that no important events occurred during this year, but Dionysius of Halicarnassus st ...

, consul in 461 and

decemvir The decemviri or decemvirs (Latin for "ten men") were some of the several 10-man commissions established by the Roman Republic. The most important were those of the two Decemvirates, formally the " decemvirate with consular power for writing ...

in 451 BC. Filiations indicate either Praetextatus or

Quintus Sulpicius Camerinus Cornutus Quintus Sulpicius Camerinus Cornutus ( 490–488 BC) was a Roman politician, and consul in 490 BC. Family He was a member of the ''gens Sulpicia'', specifically he was among the Sulpicii Camerini. His father Servius Sulpicius Camerinus Cornutus ...

, consular tribune 402 and 398 BC, as the father of

Servius Sulpicius Camerinus Servius is the name of: * Servius (praenomen), the personal name * Maurus Servius Honoratus, a late fourth-century and early fifth-century grammarian * Servius Tullius, the Roman king * Servius Sulpicius Rufus Servius Sulpicius Rufus (c. 105 BC � ...

, consul suffect in 393 BC and consular tribune in 391 BC. A later Praetextatus named Servius Sulpicius Praetextatus, consular tribune in 377, 376, 370 and 368 BC, is probably a descendant of Quintus Sulpicius.

Career

Sulpicius was elected consul or consular tribune in 434 BC.

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 ...

, basing his account on the writings of

Valerius Antias Valerius Antias ( century BC) was an ancient Roman annalist whom Livy mentions as a source. No complete works of his survive but from the sixty-five fragments said to be his in the works of other authors it has been deduced that he wrote a chroni ...

and

Aelius Tubero The gens Aelia, occasionally written Ailia, was a plebeian family in Rome, which flourished from the fifth century BC until at least the third century AD, a period of nearly eight hundred years. The archaic spelling ''Ailia'' is found on coins, b ...

, lists Sulpicius together with Marcus Manlius, as the consuls of 434 BC. This Livy writes next to a secondary and contradictory tradition based on the writings of

Licinius Macer Gaius Licinius Macer (died 66BC) was a Roman annalist and politician. Life A member of the ancient plebeian clan Licinia, he was tribune in 73BC. Sallust mentions him agitating for the people's rights. He became praetor in 68BC, but in 66BC Cic ...

, which places Gaius Julius and Proculus Verginius as being re-elected as consuls after having held the consulship the previous year.

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 ...

provides a third narrative which includes both Manlius and Sulpicius together with a third individual, Servius Cornelius Cossus, but as consular tribunes, not consuls. Modern consensus generally favor either of traditions including Manlius and Sulpicius, with the classicist Broughton commenting that the re-election of the consuls of 435 remains the least likely version. In either case, the actions of the consuls or consular tribunes of 434 BC is not well documented and they relinquished their ''

imperium In ancient Rome, ''imperium'' was a form of authority held by a citizen to control a military or governmental entity. It is distinct from ''auctoritas'' and ''potestas'', different and generally inferior types of power in the Roman Republic an ...

'' in favor of the appointment of a

dictator A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a small clique. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to rule the republic in times ...

. The dictator,

Mamercus Aemilius Mamercinus Mamercus Aemilius Mamercinus was a political figure in the Roman Republic, serving as consular tribune in 438 BC and dictator three times in 437, 434, and 426 BC. Prior to gaining the imperium Aemilius was, in 446 BC, elected Quaestor together wit ...

, fought the

Falerii Falerii (now Fabrica di Roma) was a city in southern Etruria, 50 km (31 mi) northeast of Rome, 34 km (21 mi) from Veii (a major Etruscan city-state near the River Tiber) and about 1.5 km (0.9 mi) west of the ancient Via Flaminia. It was the main c ...

and

Etruria Etruria () was a region of Central Italy, located in an area that covered part of what are now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and northern and western Umbria. Etruscan Etruria The ancient people of Etruria are identified as Etruscan civiliza ...

and enacted a law limiting the term of the

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

to one and a half year, down from the previous five years. Sulpicius was appointed as one of the

legates A ''legatus'' (; anglicised as legate) was a high-ranking Roman military officer in the Roman Army, equivalent to a modern high-ranking general officer. Initially used to delegate power, the term became formalised under Augustus as the office ...

under the dictator

Aulus Postumius Tubertus Aulus Postumius Tubertus was a Roman military leader in the wars with the Aequi and Volsci during the fifth century BC. He served as ''Magister Equitum'' under the dictator Mamercus Aemilius Mamercinus in 434 BC, and was dictator himself in 431.' ...

in 431 BC. They successfully fought the

Aequi 300px, Location of the Aequi (Equi) in central Italy, 5th century BC. The Aequi ( grc, Αἴκουοι and Αἴκοι) were an Italic tribe on a stretch of the Apennine Mountains to the east of Latium in central Italy who appear in the early his ...

and

Volsci The Volsci (, , ) were an Italic tribe, well known in the history of the first century of the Roman Republic. At the time they inhabited the partly hilly, partly marshy district of the south of Latium, bounded by the Aurunci and Samnites on the ...

and defeated them at

Mount Algidus The Algidus Mons, known in English as Mount Algidus, is the eastern rim of the dormant Alban Volcano in the Alban Hills, about southeast of Rome, Italy. The ridge is traversed by a narrow crevasse called ''la Cava d'Aglio''. It was the site of the ...

. The dictator, Tubertus, had previously been the ''

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 ...

'' in 434 BC under Aemilius.Broughton, vol i, pp.64

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sulpicius Camerinus Praetextatus, Quintus 5th-century BC Romans Roman consular tribunes Camerinus Praetextatus, Quintus