Marcus Furius Camillus
Marcus Furius Camillus was called the second founder of Rome for recovering it after the Gauls sacked it. Born into a patrician family in the late fifth century BC, he is a semi-legendary figure whose achievements the tradition has probably enlarged; the sources are Livy and Plutarch. He was appointed dictator around 396 BC to finish the ten-year siege of Veii, the wealthy Etruscan city twenty kilometres north of Rome and its principal rival. He took it — the tradition says by a tunnel driven under the citadel — and doubled Roman territory. He was then prosecuted, either over the distribution of the plunder or for using white horses in his triumph, which was thought presumptuous, and went into exile at Ardea. In 390 BC a Gallic army under Brennus destroyed a Roman force at the Allia and took the city, sacking everything except the Capitol, where a garrison held out and was warned of a night assault by the geese sacred to Juno. The Romans agreed to pay a ransom in gold. When they objected that the Gauls' weights were false, Brennus threw his sword onto the scales and said woe to the vanquished. The tradition has Camillus arrive at that moment with an army, declare that Rome is ransomed with iron and not gold, and drive the Gauls out — which most historians treat as invented to soften a humiliation. He was afterwards dictator several times, fought the Volsci, Aequi and Etruscans, and reconciled patricians and plebeians. He died of plague around 365 BC.
- Lived: 446 BCE – 365 BCE
- Nationality: Roman
- Roles: military_leader, statesman, dictator
