Manius Acilius Glabrio (consul 191 BC)
Manius Acilius Glabrio was a Roman general and consul in 191 BC.
Career
Glabrio was a plebeian and the first of his family to ascend to the consulship,[1] making him a novus homo.[2] Prior to his consulship, he was tribune of the plebs in 201, plebeian aedile in 197, and praetor peregrinus in 196 BC.[3] During his praetorship, he suppressed a slave revolt in Etruria.[4] He was elected consul for 191 BC with Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica. That year, Glabrio was assigned to the Aetolian War against Antiochus and the Aetolian League and may have brought legislation – the lex Acilia – which placed insertion of intercalary months in the Roman calendar into the jurisdiction of the pontiffs.[5]
As consul, Glabrio defeated the Seleucid ruler Antiochus the Great at the Battle of Thermopylae, and compelled him to withdraw from Greece. He then turned his attention to the Aetolian League, who had persuaded Antiochus to declare war against Rome. He captured Heraclea by early summer that year and, after unsuccessful peace negotiations, besieged Naupactus.[6]
Glabrio is depicted – probably by Polybius – as having dealt moderately, showing leniency and self-restraint, with the Greeks during and after the war.[7] In September 191 BC, the ex-consul Titus Quinctius Flamininus and victor of the Second Macedonian war brought news of an Aetolian request for a truce so that embassies to could be sent to Rome for peace terms; Glabrio accepted it, giving up the siege, and sent envoys to Rome.[8] He was prorogued as proconsul into 190 BC. That year, he is recorded as having given gifts to Delphic oracle.[9] He returned to Rome, celebrated a triumph, and built a temple.[10]
In 189 BC, Glabrio was a candidate for the censorship, but was accused by the tribunes of having concealed a portion of the Syrian spoils in his own house; one of his legates gave evidence against him, and he withdrew his candidature.[11] Glabrio was the first Roman to introduce the practice of overlaying statues with gold, a practice he initiated after having defeated Antiochus.[12]
Family
He was the father of a homonymous son who was elected as consul suffectus in 154 BC.[1]
References
- Citations
- Zmeskal 2009, p. 13.
- Eckstein 1995, p. 278.
- Broughton 1952, p. 525.
- Broughton 1951, p. 335.
- Broughton 1951, p. 352.
- Eckstein 1995, p. 271; Broughton 1951, p. 352.
- Eckstein 1995, p. 279.
- Eckstein 1995, pp. 285–86. The peace negotiations were unsuccessful and the war with the Aetolians continued until 189 BC.
- Richardson, John (1992). "The administration of the empire". In Crook, John; et al. (eds.). The last age of the Roman Republic, 146–43 BC. Cambridge Ancient History. Vol. 9 (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 571. ISBN 0-521-85073-8. OCLC 121060.
- Broughton 1951, p. 357.
- Britannica 1911.
- Marcellinus, Ammianus. The Roman History. 14:6:8.
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- Sources
- Broughton, Thomas Robert Shannon (1951). The magistrates of the Roman republic. Vol. 1. New York: American Philological Association.
- Broughton, Thomas Robert Shannon (1952). The magistrates of the Roman republic. Vol. 2. New York: American Philological Association.
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Glabrio § 1". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 56.
- Eckstein, AM (1995). "Glabrio and the Aetolians: a note on deditio". Transactions of the American Philological Association. 125: 271–289. doi:10.2307/284356. ISSN 0360-5949. JSTOR 284356.
- Zmeskal, Klaus (2009). Adfinitas (in German). Vol. 1. Passau: Verlag Karl Stutz. ISBN 978-3-88849-304-1.