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FLAMINIUS, GAIUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 477 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FLAMINIUS, See also:GAIUS , See also:Roman statesman and See also:general, of plebeian See also:family. During his tribuneship (232 B.c.), in spite of the determined opposition of the See also:senate and his own See also:father, he carried a measure for distributing among the plebeians the ager Gallicus Picenus, an extensive See also:tract of newly-acquired territory to the See also:south of See also:Ariminum (See also:Cicero, De senectute, 4, See also:Brutus, 14). As See also:praetor in 227, he gained the lasting gratitude of the See also:people of his See also:province (See also:Sicily) by his excellent See also:administration. In 223, when See also:consul with P. Furius Philus, he took the See also:field against the Gauls, who were said to have been roused to See also:war by his agrarian See also:law. Having crossed the Po to punish the Insubrians, he at first met with a severe check and was forced to capitulate. Reinforced by the See also:Cenomani, he gained a decisive victory on the See also:banks of the Addua. He had previously been recalled by the optimates, but ignored the See also:order. The victory seems to have been due mainly to the admirable discipline and fighting qualities of the soldiers, and he obtained the See also:honour of a See also:triumph only after the See also:decree of the senate against it had been overborne by popular clamour. During his censorship (220) he strictly limited the freedmen to the four See also:city tribes (see See also:COMITIA). His name is further associated with two See also:great See also:works. He erected the See also:Circus Flaminius on the Campus See also:Martius, for the See also:accommodation of the plebeians, and continued the military road from See also:Rome to Ariminum, which had hitherto olily reached as far as Spoletium (see See also:FLAMINIA, VIA).

He probably also instituted the " plebeian " See also:

games. In 218, as a See also:leader of the democratic opposition, Flaminius was one of the See also:chief promoters of the measure brought in by the See also:tribune See also:Quintus See also:Claudius, which prohibited senators and senators' sons from possessing See also:sea-going vessels, except for the transport of the produce of their own estates, and generally debarred them from all commercial See also:speculation (See also:Livy xxi. 63). His effective support of this measure vastly increased the popularity of Flaminius with his own order, and secured his second See also:election as consul in the following See also:year (217), shortly after the defeat of T. Sempronius See also:Longus at the See also:Trebia. He hastened at once to See also:Arretium, the termination of the western high road to the See also:north, to protect the passes of the See also:Apennines, but was defeated and killed at the See also:battle of the See also:Trasimene See also:lake (see PUNIC See also:WARS). The testimony of Livy (xxi., xxii.) and See also:Polybius (ii., iii.)—no friendly critics—shows that Flaminius was a See also:man of ability, See also:energy and probity. A popular and successful democratic leader, he cannot, however, be ranked among the great statesmen of the See also:republic. As a general he was headstrong and self-sufficient and seems to have owed his victories chiefly to See also:personal boldness favoured by See also:good See also:fortune. His son, GAIUS FLAMINIUS, was See also:quaestor under P. Scipio See also:Africanus the See also:elder in See also:Spain in 210, and took See also:part in the See also:capture of New See also:Carthage. Fourteen years later, when See also:curule See also:aedile, he distributed large quantities of See also:grain among the citizens at a very See also:low See also:price.

In 193, as praetor, he carried on a successful waragainst the insubordinate populations of his recently constituted province of Hispania Citerior. In 187 he was consul with M. Aetnilius See also:

Lepidus, and subjugated the warlike Ligurian tribes. In the same year the See also:branch of the Via Aemilia connecting See also:Bononia with Arretium was constructed by him. In 181 he founded the See also:colony of See also:Aquileia. The chief authority for his See also:life is the portion of Livy dealing with the See also:history of the See also:period.

End of Article: FLAMINIUS, GAIUS

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