Marcus Minucius Augurinus ( 509 – 488 BC) was a
Roman Republican politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...
of 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 ...
gens
Minucia
''Minucia'' is a genus of moths in the family Erebidae
The Erebidae are a family of moths in the superfamily Noctuoidea. The family is among the largest families of moths by species count and contains a wide variety of well-known macromot ...
during the beginning of the 5th century BC. He served as
Consul of Rome
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 ...
in 497 BC and 491 BC, both times serving together with
Aulus Sempronius Atratinus.
Family origins
Although the
Minucia gens has been traditionally known as a
plebeian family, the family's origins are indeed of the patrician class and it is from that branch of the family from which Minucius Augurinus is descended.
He was the brother of
Publius Minucius Augurinus
Publius Minucius Augurinus ( 492 BC) was a Roman Republican politician of the patrician gens Minucia during the beginning of the 5th century BC. He served as Consul of Rome in 492 BC
Family Origins
Although the Minucia gens has been traditio ...
, who later served as consul in 492 BC.
Biography
Minucius Augurinus was the first of his gens to become a Roman consul, serving in the years 497 BC and 491 BC respectively. On both occasions, his colleague was
Aulus Sempronius Atratinus. During his first tenure as consul, he was charged with the consecration of the newly constructed
Temple of Saturn
The Temple of Saturn (Latin: ''Templum Saturni'' or '' Aedes Saturni''; it, Tempio di Saturno) was an ancient Roman temple to the god Saturn, in what is now Rome, Italy. Its ruins stand at the foot of the Capitoline Hill at the western end of ...
in the
Roman Forum. It was during this consulship that the festivities surrounding
Saturnalia first began. Prior to becoming consul Minucius held the
quaestorship
A ( , , ; "investigator") was a public official in Ancient Rome. There were various types of quaestors, with the title used to describe greatly different offices at different times.
In the Roman Republic, quaestors were elected officials who ...
in 509 BC.
He was again elected consul for 491 BC. There had been a famine in Rome in the previous year, and in 491 BC a significant quantity of corn was imported from Sicily, and the question of how it should be distributed amongst the Roman citizens, together with tensions arising from the
recent secession of the plebs, led to the exile and defection of
Gaius Marcius Coriolanus
Gnaeus (or Gaius) Marcius Coriolanus was a Roman general who is said to have lived in the 5th century BC. He received his toponymic cognomen "Coriolanus" following his courageous actions during a Roman siege of the Volscian city of Corioli. He w ...
after he unsuccessfully advocated the reversal of the reforms which arose from the secession, including the creation of the
Tribune 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 ...
.
He was one of the five ex-consuls sent as envoys to treat with Coriolanus in 488 BC during his march towards Rome.
[Dionysius, vii, 55.4]
See also
*
Minucia gens
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Minucius Augurinus, Marcus
5th-century BC Roman consuls
Augurinus, Marcus