What Roman military hero do you admire most?

[john roberts]

All most people know about Caius Cassius Longinus is his later infamy as ringleader of the assassins of Caesar and his death at Phillipi. As a junior officer he managed to save a remnant of Crassus's army from the disaster at Carrhae, then to hold Syria against the Parthians until a new proconsul and army could be sent out from Rome. This as a man in his early 20s. The Senate's stubborn refusal to acknowledge his qualities and services to the state formed the basis of his hatred of Caesar, the man to whom everything seemed to fall so easily. He was one of Rome's finest soldiers, accomplishing astounding feats in the civil war between Caesar and Pompey as a Pompeian and later against Octavian and Antony, yet as always recognition escaped him, all of it going to lesser men such as Brutus, a money-grubber who happened to have an ancient name. If there was any justice he would be remembered as one of the greatest Romans, though the assassination of Caesar was the gesture of an embittered, peevish failure.

[PhilusEstilius]

I would have to say Vespasian for he was not only a great Military man he was a survivor, and of course he founded the second great Roman Dynasty.

[Paul Elliott]

I know it doesn't really answer the OP's post, but I don't admire any ancient general or emperor. From my perspective as a 21st century 'liberal democratic' citizen, they were tyrannical mass murderers, war criminals of the highest order.

Doesn't stop my love of Roman history! But I can never admire these guys ....

[Rubico]

You have your work cut out for you, DiAnne. I agree with many mentioned here, especially Vespasian.

But I have two suggestions you might consider:
1. Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus the humble man who was called to be dictator of Rome during a crisis, then "beat his sword into a plow share" when his role was finished.
2. Emperor Claudius (I) who was considered worthless as a young man, and was eventually proclaimed emperor of Rome.

Good luck! Can't wait to see the outcome. (Great helmet btw!)

[Q Rutilius]

Q Sertorius. The white deer would be a most interesting element.

Horatius. How can this fail? A story that still holds its magic.

[DL Cooper Studios]

Thank you all for your kind comments and suggestions. I am going to tally the list. There is a huge amount of information for me to go through. It was a good idea to post here; I have soooooo many ideas now!!


Sardaukar – Crastinus sounds like an interesting subject. I would love to do a centurion. There have been a few centurions suggested. Thanks you, I will read your wiki link!

Jeffery Wyss- Thanks for your input. I am a “Republic” fan, but I would love to learn more. I will look them up.

Hadrianus Afer- I am not very familiar with Julian. I read quite a bit. Can you tell me the name of Vidal’s novel? Thanks!

John Maddox Roberts- Perhaps, Caius Cassius Longinus, could be a tragic sculpture. Similar to Drusus, Gaius and Tiberius Gracchus, and Germanicus; each of them were brave/noble but were brought down in different ways by the political brutality of times that they lived in. Thanks!

PhilusEstilius- I like Vespasian too! I like that he was a soldier’s-soldier and that he tore down Nero’s pleasure palace to make public spaces. Thanks!

Mithras-I understand your point, but I don’t agree with it. I try not judge an ancient civilization by standards of the 21st century. After all, 21st century standards aren’t so great either: war for profit, political strife and assassinations, class warfare, starving disenfranchised laborers. But there were men and women that aspired to be better, just as we have today.

Rick-Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus-That is a great story, maybe depict him leaving in uniform leaving the plow behind, Thanks! Emperor Claudius; he would be harder; I’m not sure how to tell his story in a sculpture.

Q Rutilius-Q Sertorius; the white deer is a very compelling element. Thanks!

I will try to come up with a tally. Yay! :-D

[Vindex]

Actually, Cinncinatus would be a very good one...

As for Q Petilius Cerealis, Tacitus' Histories from Book Three onwards. If you use the Penguin translation even from his first introduction he's a bit different for a Legionmary Commander. Also in Book 4 and 5 (the latter containing the infamous lady from Ubia incident.)

My 'Aricola' has gone walkabout at the moment but I am sure he's mentioned in that during his Govenorship.

He's in the Annals too but only one reference, his defeat by Boudicca when commnader of the IXth.

[ValentinianVictrix]

Why no mention of the Emperor Valentinian I, known to historians as the 'Last Great Warrior Emperor'?

This was a man who was victorious in every military action he took part in, he led from the front (almost leading to his death on one occasion), he restored the Rhine frontier fort system and may have been responsible for the the 'mile fort' system. He even built fortresses across the Rhine.

[Theodosius the Great]

To my mind, power-seeking opportunists like Caesar, Augustus, or Vespasian don't conjure up the nobility that the status of a hero bestows.

I suppose I have a much narrower view of what constitutes the status of a 'military hero'. Some men can be heroic without becoming a hero. To be a hero he would have to have a combination of the following:

1. accomplished a lasting victory against superior odds (Roman history is littered with military failures and mediocrities)
   
   
2. performed a feat beyond the call of duty
   
   
3. being killed or executed (usually unjustly) shortly after or during said victory (heroes usually don't live long to enjoy the fruits of their victory after all)
   

Some examples come to mind:

Lucius Cornelius Sulla (already mentioned)

Pompey the Great (shockingly unmentioned)

Quintus Sertorius (already mentioned)

Gaius Suetonius Paulinus - saved Roman Britain from an early return to barbarism. But his reputation suffers from his poor performance during the civil war of 69 AD.

Theodosius the Elder ("Count Theodosius" as the English call him)- another savior of Britain from external barbarians, repelled the Alemanni on the Rhine, and pacified North Africa. Rewarded promptly with a death sentence.

The last two might be more fun to choose since they're less well known and we have no clue as to what they looked like.

~Theo

[M. Caecilius]

I'm still cheering for Sertorius, and his hart, so it may be counterproductive to add more people to the list, but here we go.

One way to find heroes by the casket-load would be to look at the Roman republican coinage. Brilliant ancestors got commemorated quite often - Sergius Silus, who fought despite having lost an arm; Numonius Vaala, who apparently became famous for storming an enemy camp, but whose actual tale got lost apart from a rare coin issue, Postumius Albinus, who threw the standards into the enemy to encourage his troops to charge at Lake Regillus, one member of the gens Aemilia, who killed an enemy and won the civic crown for saving a citizen when aged a mere fifteen years, Mn Aquillius, who ended the Second Servile War, was accused later on of maladministration, and got off when his defense-lawyers exposed his war wounds... etc.

You might also find inspiration in the tales of the mythical past, if historical existence is not a necessary factor. Romulus himself, the Horatius of the famous triplets, the later Horatius at the Bridge, (those two were already mentioned) etc.

When Scipio promised the Mural Crown to the first person to climb over the walls of Carthago Nova, two people presented themselves: the centurion Q. Trebellius and the marine C. Laelius, each supported by their units, which threatened to have their own personal war over the matter. Scipio awarded the Crown to both.

If you want to go with the "being killed... shortly after or during victory", as has been suggested above:

Publius Decius Mus: The father and the son by the same name died after "devoting" themselves to the gods. Essentially, in a devotio a general would offer himself and all his kills in the enemy ranks as a sacrifice to the gods in return for victory, the father at the Battle of Vesuvius (340 B.C.), the son at Sentium (295 B.C.).

Then there were the soldiers who picked up the shields of the enemy unit during a civil war and cut down an enemy engine which was creating havoc in their lines, before being killed themselves.

[scotti73]

Tiberius Claudius Maximus, legionary, cavalryman and legend. Top bloke!!!!
Scarrows Cato and Macro, okay i know they're not real.

[Medusa Gladiatrix]

Medusa-Are you suggesting the Drusus in the time of Marius? I like him. A very sad story. He was a reformer that was assassinated. Or are you suggesting Nero Drusus?

Sorry for the delay in replying - I mean Nero Drusus, the one who died while in Germania and who has an kenotaph/epitaph in Mainz.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Theo, come on now.

Pompey or Sulla over Caesar?

They were both murderous, oportunistic psychopaths. :wink:

So what made them more worthy than caesar?
He at least was trying to better the lot of the common people, however
that may be viewed.

[Nathan Ross]

As a late entry, I propose Quintus Marcius Turbo, career soldier, Hadrianic hardman and Imperial trouble-shooter.

Starting out as a centurion under Domitian (plausibly from the ranks), Turbo served in both Dacian wars, became primus pilus in Hadrian's own Legio I Minervia, rose to tribunates in the equites singulares and praetorian guard before commanding the Misene fleet during river operations in Trajan's invasion of Parthia. He commanded a task-force sent to Egypt to crush the Jewish revolt in 117, and the following year put down another rebellion in Mauretania. Shortly afterwards he dissuaded the Dacians from rebelling by snarling and showing them his muscles (or something, sources are quiet on the exact course of events!), before serving as Hadrian's Praetorian Praefect for the next twenty or so years, probably dying in office in his 70s (he's quoted as saying something to the effect that Praefects should die with their boots on).

Maybe not an admirable man, but certainly a capable and experienced soldier, and the very model of an Imperial career officer. You might picture him as a grizzled old primipilaris, festooned with military decorations, quietly prepared for the next emergency... :wink:

[Crispvs]

"He at least was trying to better the lot of the common people"

I am not sure I could agree with you there. He certainly made use of the common people to get what he wanted when he could not rely on the men of his own class to give it to him, and he certainly made sure his soldiers loved him, but let's not forget that he also plunged Rome into several years of civil war. He reason for doing so, according to his own writings, was that his personal honour had been offended.

Whatever the reality of the sustainability of the republic, Caesar was a ruthless opportunist. When requested, Pompey disbanded his army when he returned from the East, even though he was in a position to do what Sulla had done a few years before. Caesar, on the other hand, when in the same position a few years later, decided to start a series of civil wars, confident that the veteran army he brought back from Gaul would bring him early successes and put his opponents on the back foot, even if those soldiers would soon need to be retired. Civil wars are very rarely good for the common people. As a case in point, at the culmination of one phase of these civil wars, the victorious Young Caesar and Anthony turned the populations of no less than sixteen Italian cities out of their own towns in order to settle their retiring veterans. I dould that the people of these cities had any reason to think of Caesar and his family as people who helped the common man. A decade and a half earlier Caesar had also re-enfranchised a number of notorious street gangs in Rome. This gave him political muscle of the kind the Nazi Party liked to use in the late 1920s and early 30s, but I very much doubt that it endeared him to the rank and file of the population. Let's not forget also that when he had the popular assembly vote him powers and provinces, Caesar made sure he had men who had formerly been soldiers in Pompey and Crassus' armies standing around with cudgels to intimidate people into voting the way Caesar wanted them to. This is quite similar to the way Robert Mugabe won the 1980 election in Zimbabwe and has maintained control ever since.

Caesar certainly had many admirers but I don't think the admirers in his own day outnumbered his admirers in later generations which did not have such direct experience of him.

That said, and following on from Theo's list of heroic qualifications, he had won the Civic Crown, which does prove that he was capable of acts of personal heroism on the battlefield.

Crispvs