Publius Minucius Augurinus ( 492 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, a ...

of the patrician gens Minucia 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 492 BC

Family Origins

Although the

Minucia gens The gens Minucia was an ancient Roman family, which flourished from the earliest days of the Republic until imperial times. The gens was apparently of patrician origin, but was better known by its plebeian branches. The first of the Minucii ...

has been traditionally known as a

plebeian In ancient Rome, the plebeians (also called plebs) were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words " commoners". Both classes were hereditary. Etymology The precise origins of ...

family, the family's origins are indeed of the patrician class and it is that branch of the family from which Minucius Augurinus is descended. He was the brother of

Marcus Minucius Augurinus Marcus Minucius Augurinus ( 509 – 488 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 497 BC and 491 BC, both times serving together with Aulus Semp ...

, who served as consul in 497 BC and succeeded him as consul in 491 BC. The word ''Augurinus'' was derived from the Latin word for

omen An omen (also called ''portent'') is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change. It was commonly believed in ancient times, and still believed by some today, that omens bring divine messages fr ...

(augurio or

augur An augur was a priest and official in the classical Roman world. His main role was the practice of augury, the interpretation of the will of the gods by studying the flight of birds. Determinations were based upon whether they were flying i ...

Biography

During his consulship in 492 BC, Minucius' colleague was

Titus Geganius Macerinus Titus Geganius Macerinus ( 492 BC) was a Ancient Rome, Roman politician who served as Roman Consul, Consul in 492 BC with Publius Minucius Augurinus.Livy, ''Ab Urbe Condita Libri, Ab urbe condita'', 2.34 The consuls were required to deal with a ...

. The consuls were required to deal with a

famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, Demographic trap, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. Th ...

which had taken hold of Rome and they focused their efforts on obtaining grain shipments from around

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. The famine arose because the

farmers had not sown their fields during the

secession of the plebs ''Secessio plebis'' (''withdrawal of the commoners'', or ''secession of the plebs'') was an informal exercise of power by Rome's plebeian citizens, similar in concept to the general strike. During the ''secessio plebis'', the plebs would abandon ...

which ended the previous year. Envoys were sent by ship to buy grain from the coastal towns of

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 ...

, the Volsci and others to the south as far as Cumae. Because many of Rome's neighbours bore the Romans animosity from past military conflicts, envoys were even sent as far as

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. Grain was purchased in Cumae, however the tyrant Aristodemus (who had been made the heir of the exiled Roman kings) seized the Roman ships on account of the property of the Tarquinii which had been seized by 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 ...

when the king's family had been exiled. Roman attempts to buy grain were also thwarted in the territory of the Volsci, including the

Pomptine Marshes 250px, Lake Fogliano, a coastal lagoon in the Pontine Plain The Pontine Marshes (, also ; it, Agro Pontino , formerly also ''Paludi Pontine''; la, Pomptinus Ager by Titus Livius, ''Pomptina Palus'' (singular) and ''Pomptinae Paludes'' (plur ...

. Because of recent wars with Rome, the corn merchants were threatened with violence if grain was sold to the Romans. However, grain was successfully obtained from Etruria and transported to Rome down the

Tiber The Tiber ( ; it, Tevere ; la, Tiberis) is the third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the Riv ...

river. An even greater amount of grain was imported the following year from Sicily, and the question of how it should be distributed amongst the Roman citizens 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 was ...

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 ...

, ''

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 ...

'', 2.34 Also in 492 BC, hostilities with the Volsci threatened Rome. However a pestilence spread amongst the Volsci and war was averted. The Romans took steps to protect their position. Additional Roman colonists were sent to the town of

Velitrae Velletri (; la, Velitrae; xvo, Velester) is an Italian ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome, approximately 40 km to the southeast of the city centre, located in the Alban Hills, in the region of Lazio, central Italy. Neighbouring comm ...

, and a 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''. Characteri ...

was established at Norba.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Minucius Augurinus, Publius 5th-century BC Roman consuls Augurinus, Publius