Tiberius Aemilius Mamercus was a

Roman senator The Roman Senate ( la, Senātus Rōmānus) was a governing and advisory assembly in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, being established in the first days of the city of Rome (traditionally founded in ...

active in the fifth century BC. He was consul in 470 and 467 BC.

Family

Mamercus was a member of the ''

Aemilii The gens Aemilia, originally written Aimilia, was one of the greatest patrician families at ancient Rome. The gens was of great antiquity, and claimed descent from Numa Pompilius, the second King of Rome. Its members held the highest offices o ...

Mamerci'', a branch of the ''gens Aemilia''. He was the son of Lucius Aemilius Mamercus, consul in 484, 478, and 473 BC, and the grandson of a Mamercus Aemilius.

Biography

In 470 BC, Mamercus was elected consul with Lucius Valerius Potitus Publicola as his colleague. The political situation in Rome was strained; 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 o ...

continued to demand that land be distributed equally to the people.

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

states that Mamercus argued in favour of land distributions to the plebs. Tribunes Marcus Duillius and Gnaeus Siccius prosecuted Appius Claudius Sabinus, who was bitterly opposed to their legislation that distributed land to the people, however he died before the proceedings ended. 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 hist ...

and the Sabines, taking advantage of the internal conflict in Rome, raided Roman territory. Potitus was sent to fight the Aequi, while Mamercus fought a campaign against the Sabines. The Sabines confined themselves to their camp and would not engage the Roman army. Mamercus laid waste the Sabine countryside and also their villages, prompting the Sabines to come forth to stop him. The resulting battle was not definitive with both sides retreating. The war between the Romans and the Sabines continued in the following years. Mamercus was elected consul a second time in 467 BC, with Quintus Fabius Vibulanus as his colleague. Mamercus again supported the agrarian law of the plebeian tribunes in favour of a distribution of land to the people and was confronted by the conservative senators. With his colleague Vibulanus, he successfully bought an end to the conflict by passing a law that the lands of the

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 ...

at the new

Roman colony A Roman (plural ) was originally a Roman outpost established in conquered territory to secure it. Eventually, however, the term came to denote the highest status of a Roman city. It is also the origin of the modern term ''colony''. Character ...

Antium Antium was an ancient coastal town in Latium, south of Rome. An oppidum was founded by people of Latial culture (11th century BC or the beginning of the 1st millennium BC), then it was the main stronghold of the Volsci people until it was conqu ...

be distributed. Three commissioners were named for the purpose of dividing the lands. Mamercus launched another military expedition against the Sabines while his colleague fought the Aequi. Mamercus could not provoke a definitive battle, despite extensive pillaging of Sabine territory.Dionysius of Halicarnassus IX, 59

Notes

Bibliography

Primary sources

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, ''Roman Antiquities'', Book IX

Livy, ''The History of Rome'', Books II-III

Secondary sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aemilius Mamercus, Tiberius 5th-century BC Roman consuls Mamercus, Tiberius