The Tenacious Tempanius

Welcome to 423 BCE and your introduction to the one and only Sextus Tempanius! You may not know his name just yet, but we're pretty sure you'll be as impressed with him as we are. Suffice it to say, 423 BCE is one of the more interesting and dramatic years of the decade. After a confusing tangent about the Samnites and Capua brought to us courtesy of Livy, we return to Rome and war with the Volscians. The Roman forces are led by the patrician, Gaius Sempronius Atratinus. However, Sempronius might be placing too much faith in the gods when it comes to war… With fortune seemingly turning against the Romans, a plebeian hero steps into the spotlight. Sextus Tempanius brings the cavalry to the rescue of their forces. Join us to find out how the Tenacious Tempanius made the Romans swoon. Episode 137 - The Tenacious Tempanius A re-enactor dressed as a Roman cavalryman. The gear is not necessarily historically accurate for this period, but it gives the vibe!Image courtesy of Jacqueline Ross via Flickr. My Kingdom for a Decurio! Sextus Tempanius is described in some of our sources as a decurio. In this context, a decurio is a commander of a decuria of cavalry. A decuria is the Latin term for a division of ten. So a decurio is a low level commander in charge of the ten riders that make up his decuria. Although we can't be precise about the exact scope of the Roman cavalry in this period of the early Republic, there is later thought to have been 30 lots of ten riders to a cavalry legion (300 riders). So for three hundred horsemen there were thirty internal leaders. The other important division was the grouping of 3 decuriones (3x10) horsemen together into a formation known as a turma. Depending on the battle situation, the Romans had the capacity to divide a legion down to collectives of 30 or 10 horsemen with their own command structure. Things to Listen Out For * Several theories about how Capua received its’ name * Confusion over places starting with V * The laziest Etruscan resistance EVER * Standards left lying around * Roman cheerleading practice * Friends turning on each other like real douchebags * Weird parallels to the Second Punic War   * Patrician trials – about time! Want to refresh your knowledge of 424 BCE? Check out our previous episode. Our Players 423 BCE Consuls * C. Sempronius – f. – n. Atratinus (Pat) * Q. Fabius Q. f. M. n. Vibulanus (Pat) Mil. Tr. c. p. 416, 414 Tribune of the Plebs * C. Iunius Decurio * Sextus Tempanius Our Sources * Dr G reads Dionysius of Halicarnass Roman Antiquities 12.6.5; Val. Max. 3.2.8. * Dr Rad reads Livy ab Urbe Condita 4.37-41. * Broughton, T. R. S., Patterson, M. L. 1951. The Magistrates of the Roman Republic Volume 1: 509 B.C. – 100 B.C. (The American Philological Association) * Brill New Pauly entries for "Decurio" and "Verrugo"