- Agrippa Menenius Lanatus (consul 503 BC)
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Agrippa Menenius Lanatus, sometimes called Menenius Agrippa was a consul of the Roman Republic in 503 BC, with Publius Postumius Tubertus. He conquered the Sabines and was awarded a triumph.[1][2]
According to Livy, writing five hundred years after the fact, Menenius was chosen by the patricians to persuade soldiers serving in the Roman army to re-enter the city and rejoin the community in 494 BC. The soldiers had withdrawn from Rome in the first of so-called "secessions" (secessio plebis), specifically to protest the oppressive debt laws, but more broadly to protest the severe inequity of power in the early Republic.
Livy says that Menenius told the soldiers a fable about the parts of the human body and how each has its own purpose in the greater function of the body. The rest of the body thought the stomach was getting a free ride so the body decided to stop nourishing the stomach. Soon, the other parts became fatigued and unable to function so they realized that the stomach did serve a purpose and they were nothing without it. In the story, the stomach represents the patrician class and the other body parts represent the plebs. Eventually, Livy concludes, the patricians conceded to some of the plebs' demands, such as creating the tribunes of the people and establishing legal protection for all citizens against arbitrary intervention from an elected magistrate, and the soldiers returned to the city.
It is not improbable that St Paul, an educated Roman citizen, knew this story (not necessarily through Livy) and was prompted by it[citation needed] in his use of the same parable when he admonished the Christians of Corinth that, for all their "diversity of gifts", they were all members of one body (I Cor. 12: 13 ff). However, the imagery was not new, even for Livy. It appears in Xenophon's Memorabilia (2.iii.18) and in Cicero's De Officiis (III.v.22).
One puzzle about Menenius concerns his social status: Was he patrician or plebeian? Livy asserts that he was "an eloquent man and dear to the plebeians as being one of themselves by birth." On the other hand, he was sent to the plebs as a representative of the Senate, and furthermore he had held the office of consul. The consulship, according to the traditional historiography, was at this time reserved strictly for patricians. Ancient accounts of early Roman history are compromised by uneven use of sources, the author's bias toward either senatorial or popular interests, and sheer uncertainty. The existence of the "plebeian" and "patrician" social division in the earliest period of Rome's history has been questioned by modern scholars.[3]
Whatever the state of affairs during the first six decades of the Republic, the Twelve Tables of Roman law drawn up in 451 and 450 B.C. established a clear distinction between the two orders. Several of Menenius' descendants held the consulship after this time, from which it has been inferred that the Menenii were probably made patricians during the reign of one of the later Roman kings.[4]
Menenius had a son who would become consul in 439 BC.[5]
Menenius was also a character in William Shakespeare's Coriolanus.
See also
References
- ^ Livy, Ab Urbe condita II. 16, 32, 33.
- ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
- ^ Survey by A. Drummond, "Rome in the fifth century II," ch. 5, The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 7.2, The Rise of Rome.
- ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
- ^ Walbank, F. W., A. E. Astin, M. W. Frederiksen, and R. M. Ogilvie. The Cambridge Ancient History, Cambridge University Press 1990. ISBN 0-521-23446-8.
Preceded by
Publius Valerius Poplicola and Titus LucretiusConsul of the Roman Republic
with Publius Postumius Tubertus
503 BCSucceeded by
Verginius Tricostus and Spurius Cassius ViscellinusCategories:- 6th-century BC births
- 5th-century BC deaths
- Roman Republican consuls
- Menenii
- 6th-century BC Romans
- 5th-century BC Romans
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