The death of T. Manlius (was Re: [HPforGrownups] Percy)

[Jen Faulkner]

No: HPFGUIDX 15058

On Fri, 23 Mar 2001, Sofie 'Melle' Werkers wrote in HPFGU:

> It was a myth/legend about a Roman general leading an attack on a barbarian 
> city [something like that]. As they were camped outside the city, he had 
> expressly forbidden his men to go out and taunt the barbarians. One of his 
> officers disobeyed him, and was executed. The officer was the general's son.

In case anyone else has been wracking their memories trying to identify
this story (it took me all day...), Sofie's referring to the story of T.
Manlius, son of T. Manlius Torquatus (the one who killed the Gaul).  
During the war with the Latins, the Roman army had been ordered not to
engage in any conflicts with the enemy until the consuls approved it.  
T. Manlius, having been challenged by Geminus Maecius, the Tusculan
cavalry commander, engaged in a fight with him and killed him,
disobeying the order.  He went straight to his father's,telling him what
he had done, and his father ordered him put to death so that consular
authority would not be damaged (translation follows!):

'...meque in eam necessitatem adduxisti, ut aut rei publicae mihi aut
mei [meorum] obliuiscendum sit, nos potius nostro delicto plectemur quam
res publica tanto suo damno nostra peccata luat; triste exemplum sed in
posterum salubre iuuentuti erimus. me quidem cum ingenita caritas
liberum tum specimen istud uirtutis deceptum uana imagine decoris in te
mouet; sed cum aut morte tua sancienda sint consulum imperia aut
impunitate in perpetuum abroganda, nec te quidem, si quid in te nostri
sanguinis est, recusare censeam, quin disciplinam militarem culpa tua
prolapsam poena restituas -- i, lictor, deliga ad palum'.

'And [since] you have brought me to this necessity, that I must forget
either the republic or my kin, I would rather be punished for my own
offense than that the country pay for my sins with such a huge loss to
itself; I shall be a grim example, but yet a wholesome one, for the
youth of later generations.  I, indeed, am moved both by the natural
affection for one's children and by the evidence of courage, though that
deceived by an empty image of glory, in you; but since the commanding
authority of the consuls must either be made inviolable by your death or
annulled for all time by your lack of punishment, not even you, I would
think, would deny, if there is any of my blood in you, that you must
reinstate by your punishment that military discipline which fell into
ruin by your fault.  Go, lictor, bind him to the stake [to have his
head cut off]'. 

(See Livy 8.7-8 for the story; the passage I've quoted is from
8.8.  The text I've used is the one at the Latin Library,
http://www.gmu.edu/departments/fld/CLASSICS/liv.8.html#7, with my
translation.)

I really feel bad for Torquatus here; Livy dramatizes his dilemma, and
his almost impossible choice, so vividly...  he makes what is arguably
the 'right' choice, but at such personal cost... 

And in a moment of on-topicness, I think Percy would, like Torquatus,
expect a family member he rendered judgement against to agree with him
and the rightness of his decision if it was based on an 'impartial'
application of the rules.  

(Oh, and 'T.' stands for 'Titus', for anyone not familiar with Roman
naming conventions.)

--jen :)

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