Who Was Marcus Furius Camillus?

Marcus Furius Camillus is one of the most celebrated heroes of the ancient Roman Republic. At the height of his political and military career, many Romans equated him to Romulus, the city’s founder.

In this post, I look at the career of this individual, his character, and how his actions changed the history of Rome, as narrated by the ancient Roman historian Livy.

The first time Livy mentions Marcus Furius Camillus is when he is elected as one of eight consular tribunes. This most likely happened around the year 400 BCE. Livy does not share anything about his origin or childhood.

Around the time Camillus came into office as a consular tribune, Rome was at war with its archrival Veii. It is that war that defined Camillus’s character. After being elected consular tribune three times and also serving as an interrex after the government was suspended shortly, he was appointed dictator. He was given this position to lead Rome into a decisive battle with Veii. According to Livy, the city that lost that war risked being destroyed for good. A lot was at stake.

Livy writes:

“The Romans and Veientians were in arms with such rancor and animosity that it was evident that ruin awaited the vanquished party.”

Camillus was successful in his campaign, and Veii was defeated and sacked. The city being very wealthy, Rome acquired significant assets as plunder. These assets later became a major trouble to Camillus’ career. Before his stand on how the assets were to be distributed was a major issue, he made another mistake that repulsed Romans for a short while. He went overboard with his celebration of winning the war with Veii.

Livy writes:

“The senate ordered that the public thanksgivings should be continued for four days, a longer period than for any previous war. The arrival of the Dictator, too, whom all classes poured out to meet, was welcomed by a greater concourse than that of any general before. His triumph went far beyond the usual mode of celebrating the day; himself the most conspicuous object of all, he was drawn into the City by a team of white horses, which men thought unbecoming even for a mortal man, let alone a Roman citizen. They saw with superstitious alarm the Dictator putting himself on a level in his equipage with Jupiter and Sol, and this one circumstance made his triumph more brilliant than popular.”

It was after the end of his dictatorship that he got embroiled in the politics of how the Veii loot would be shared. He proposed that at least 10% was supposed to be assigned to the gods. He also opposed a law to have some Romans move to Veii and settle there. Despite these stands, which made many Romans dislike him, he was elected consular tribune again. Those who supported him thought he was the right person to fight corruption in the city.

Livy writes:

“In the election of consular tribunes the patricians succeeded by the utmost exertions in securing the return of Marcus Furius Camillus. They pretended that in view of the wars, they were providing themselves with a general; their real object was to get a man who would oppose the corrupt policy of the plebeian tribunes.”

In this term, he led Rome to winning a war against the Faliscans, another tribe of Etruscans. After another term in office as a consular tribune and serving as an interrex, Camillus was impeached and sent into exile.

Livy writes:

“Marcus Furius Camillus was removed from the City. He was impeached by the plebeian tribune Lucius Apuleius for his action with reference to the spoils of Veii and, at the time, had just been bereaved of his son. He invited the members of his tribe and his clients, who formed a considerable part of the plebs, to his house and sounded their feelings towards him. They told him that they would pay whatever fine was imposed, but it was impossible for them to acquit him. Thereupon he went into exile after offering up a prayer to the immortal gods that if he were suffering wrongfully as an innocent man, they would make his ungrateful citizens very soon feel the need of him. He was condemned in his absence to pay a fine of 15,000 ‘ases.’”

After a short while of him being away in Ardea, Rome was attacked by the Gauls, a story I told in my previous post. Many citizens escaped, many others were massacred, and the city was sacked. A smaller section of the city remained confined within the citadel. Except for the citadel, the entire city was razed down. With the Gaul planning to attack Ardea, Camillus persuaded the people of his new home to let him lead them into war with the invaders.

Livy writes:

“Friends and foes were alike persuaded that nowhere else was there at that time so great a master of war. After the council broke up, they refreshed themselves and waited eagerly for the signal to be given. When it was given in the silence of the night, they were at the gates, ready for Camillus. After marching no great distance from the city, they came upon the camp of the Gauls, unprotected, as he had said, and carelessly open on every side. They raised a tremendous shout and rushed in; there was no battle, it was everywhere sheer massacre; the Gauls, defenseless and dissolved in sleep, were butchered as they lay.”

After his success in defending Ardea, Romans in Veii and those still under siege back at home decided to appoint him dictator.

Livy writes:

“The law was passed in the comitia curiata annulling his banishment and nominating him Dictator, and it is, I think, more likely that he did not start from Ardea until he learned that this law had been passed because he could not change his domicile without the sanction of the people, nor could he take the auspices in the name of the army until he had been duly nominated Dictator.”

He marched to Rome and found the tired and hungry Gauls unprepared. He engaged them in a battle and routed them. This victory made him a hero that Romans celebrated for many years, even after his death.

Livy writes:

“After thus recovering his country from the enemy, the Dictator returned in triumph to the City, and amongst the homely jests which soldiers are wont to bandy, he was called in no idle words of praise, ‘A Romulus,’ ‘The Father of his country,’ ‘The Second Founder of the City.’”

He did not resign immediately after the defeat of the Gauls. He led the city in rebuilding its infrastructure. He also helped pass new laws in many areas, including religion.

Livy writes:

“As was most scrupulous in discharging religious obligations, the very first measures he introduced into the senate were those relating to the immortal gods. He got the senate to pass a resolution containing the following provisions: All the temples, so far as they had been in possession of the enemy, were to be restored and purified, and their boundaries marked out afresh; the ceremonies of purification were to be ascertained from the sacred books by the duumvirs.”

He also got the chance to pass a law that banned moving part of the population to Veii.

After this, he was appointed dictator at least three more times. He was also elected consular tribune a few more times. The other wars he led Romans into fighting included against the Volscians, Etruscans, and the Latins of Tusculum. Indeed, he served the state until very old age. In one battle, Livy describes him needing help to climb his horse.

Livy does share many things that can help us create an image of the kind of person Cumillus was. For example, it is clear from his writing that Camillus was very religious and often seemed to go to great lengths to push his beliefs on the state. He was also not a very generous individual. Even his soldiers never expected much from him in terms of material gain. However, they loved him; he was very good at inspiring and motivating them in battle.

Even though he was a ferocious general, he was also very humane. During the attack on Veii, he commanded his soldiers not to harm the unarmed.

Livy writes:

“At length, after great carnage, the fighting slackened, and the Dictator ordered the heralds to proclaim that the unarmed were to be spared. He put a stop to the bloodshed, those who were unarmed began to surrender, and the soldiers dispersed with the Dictator’s permission in quest of booty.”

Also, during the war with the Faliscans, a tutor in the enemy city took the kids of the nobles and delivered them to Camillus, hoping to get a reward. The general declined this offer and had him tied and taken back to his city to be punished.

Livy quotes Camillus stating the following:

“You, villain, have not come with your villainous offer to a nation or a commander like yourself. Between us and the Faliscans, there is no fellowship based on a formal compact as between man and man, but the fellowship which is based on natural instincts exists between us, and will continue to do so. There are rights of war as there are rights of peace, and we have learned to wage our wars with justice no less than with courage. We do not use our weapons against those of an age which is spared even in the capture of cities but against those who are armed as we are.”

This act made the Faliscans surrender to him and sign a peace treaty with Rome.

He did extoll himself sometimes. For example, his riding to the city on a carriage pulled by white horses after the defeat of Veii is one such moment. Indeed, not every person in Rome thought Marcus Furius Camillus was great. For example, Marcus Manlius Capitolinus, a patrician and a contemporary politician, described him as arrogant.

Livy writes:

“He bitterly resented this man’s unique position amongst the magistrates and in the affections of the army, and declared that he was now such a superior person that he treated those who had been appointed under the same auspices as himself, not as his colleagues, but as his servants.”

Marcus Furius Camillus died in 365 BCE from a disease that spread in the city and killed many other Romans. He was in his 80s.

Livy writes:

“A pestilence broke aediles, and three tribunes of the plebs fell victims, and in the population generally, there was a corresponding proportion of deaths. The most illustrious victim was Marcus Furius Camillus, whose death, though occurring in ripe old age, was bitterly lamented. He was, it may be truly said, an exceptional man in every change of fortune; before he went into exile foremost in peace and war, rendered still more illustrious when actually in exile by the regret which the State felt for his loss and the eagerness with which after its capture it implored his assistance, and quite as much so by the success with which, after being restored to his country, he restored his country’s fortunes together with his own. For twenty-five years after this, he lived fully up to his reputation and was counted worthy to be named next to Romulus as the second founder of the City.”

His two sons, Lucius Furius Camillus and Spurius Furius Camillus, held political offices after him.