Battle of Lake Regillus

Castor and Pollux fighting at the Battle of Lake Regillus, 1880 illustration by John Reinhard Weguelin to the Lays of Ancient Rome by Thomas Macaulay

Date	c. 496 BC
Location	near Frascati (Rome)
Result	Decisive Roman victory End of Tarquinian attempts to retake the Roman throne

Belligerents

Roman Republic

Latin League

Commanders and leaders

Aulus Postumius Albus,
Titus Aebutius Elva (master of the horse)

Octavius Mamilius †,
Tarquinius Superbus

Roman–Latin wars

Ancus Marcius' Campaign Tarquinius Priscus' Campaigns 498–493 BC 389–385 BC War with Praeneste War with Tibur 340–338 BC

Latin War (498 - 493 BC)

Fidenae Crustumeria Praeneste Lake Regillus

An engraving of Lake Regillus, where the battle took place.

Prataporci site, where the battle took place, view from Monte Porzio Catone

Rome's Early Italian Campaigns

Lake Regillus Cremera Mons Algidus Corbione Fidenae Veii

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Macaulay's The Battle of the Lake Regillus

The Battle of Lake Regillus was a legendary Roman victory over the Latin League shortly after the establishment of the Roman Republic and as part of a wider Latin War. The Latins were led by an elderly Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last King of Rome, who had been expelled in 509 BC, and his son-in-law, Octavius Mamilius, the dictator of Tusculum. The battle marked the final attempt of the Tarquins to reclaim their throne. According to legend, Castor and Pollux fought on the side of the Romans.^[1]

Background

The threat of invasion by Rome's former allies in Latium led to the appointment of Aulus Postumius Albus as dictator.

The year in which the battle occurred is unclear, and has been since ancient times. Livy places the battle in 499 BC, but says some of his sources also suggest the battle occurred during Postumius' consulship in 496 BC.^[2]^[3] The other major source for this historical period, Dionysius of Halicarnassus ^[4] also places the battle in 496 BC.^[5] Modern authors have also suggested 493 BC^[1]^[6] or 489 BC.^[3]

Lake Regillus was located in the relic of a volcanic crater between Rome and Tusculum. The lake was drained in the fourth century BC.

According to Livy, the Volsci (a neighbouring tribe to the south of Latium) had raised troops to send to the aid of the Latins against Rome, however the haste of the Roman dictator in joining battle meant that the Volscian forces did not arrive in time.^[7]

Battle

The dictator Postumius led the Roman infantry, while Titus Aebutius Elva was Master of the Horse. Tarquin was accompanied by his eldest and last remaining son, Titus. It was said that the presence of the Tarquinii caused the Romans to fight more passionately than in any previous battle.

Early in the battle, the king was injured attacking Postumius. The magister equitum charged at Mamilius, and both were wounded, Aebutius in the arm, and the Latin dictator in the chest. The magister equitum had to withdraw from the field, and direct his troops from a distance. The king's soldiers, including many exiled Romans, began to overpower the republican forces, and the Romans suffered a setback when Marcus Valerius Volusus (consul in 505 BC) was killed by a spear while attacking Titus Tarquinius, but Postumius brought fresh troops from his own bodyguard, and halted the exiles' progress.

Meanwhile, Titus Herminius Aquilinus, who had won fame fighting alongside Horatius at the Sublician bridge, and served as consul in 506 BC, engaged Mamilius, and slew him; but while attempting to strip his fallen enemy and claim the spoils, Herminius was killed by a javelin. As the outcome of the battle seemed in doubt, Postumius ordered the equites to dismount and attack on foot, forcing the Latins to retreat and capturing the Latin camp. Tarquin and the Latin army abandoned the field, and the result was a decisive Roman victory. Postumius and his army returned to Rome, where the dictator celebrated a triumph.^[8]^[9]

A popular legend reported that the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, fought alongside the Romans, transfigured as two young horsemen. Postumius ordered a temple built in their honour in the Roman Forum, in the place where they had watered their horses.

In the nineteenth century, the battle was celebrated in Thomas Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome.

References

1 2 Grant, The History of Rome, p. 37
↑ Livy, Ab urbe condita, 2.19-21
1 2 Sinnigen, William G and Boak, Arthur E R, A History of Rome to AD 565, 6th ed,1977, p. 46
↑ Dion. Hal. 1.66 Retrieved from http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/1C*.html
↑ Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome, p. 216
↑ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor
↑ Livy, Ab urbe condita, 2.22
↑ Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 2.19-20
↑ Fasti Triumphales

Sources

Primary sources

Livy (1905). From the Founding of the City. trans. Canon Roberts. Wikisource. (print: Book 1 as The Rise of Rome, Oxford University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-19-282296-9)

Secondary sources

Grant, Michael (1993). The History of Rome. Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-11461-X.

Livy: Ab urbe condita Book II cap. 19; 20.
Ab Urbe Condita (Latin)
The Battle of Lake Regillus poem from Macaulay's "Lays of Ancient Rome".
Cornell, Tim, The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars, C.1000-263 BC, Routledge, 1995. ISBN 0-415-01596-0.

Ancient Roman wars

Wars of the Roman Republic	Roman–Etruscan Wars Roman-Aequian wars Roman–Latin wars Roman–Hernician wars Roman-Volscian wars Samnite Wars Pyrrhic War Punic Wars (First, Second, Third) Illyrian Wars (First, Second, Third) Macedonian Wars (First, Second, Third, Fourth) Roman–Seleucid War Aetolian War Galatian War Roman conquest of Hispania (First Celtiberian War, Lusitanian War, Numantine War, Sertorian War, Cantabrian Wars) Achaean War Jugurthine War Cimbrian War Servile Wars (First, Second, Third) Social War Sulla's civil wars (First, Second) Mithridatic Wars (First, Second, Third) Gallic Wars Caesar's invasions of Britain Caesar's Civil War End of the Republic (Post-Caesarian, Liberators', Sicilian, Fulvia's, Final)

Wars of the Roman Empire	Germanic Wars (Teutoburg, Marcomannic, Alemannic, Gothic, Visigothic) Wars in Britain Wars of Boudica Armenian War Civil War of 69 Jewish–Roman wars Domitian's Dacian War Trajan's Dacian Wars Parthian Wars Persian Wars Civil Wars of the Third Century Wars of the Fall of the Western Roman Empire

Military history

Coordinates: 41°52′55″N 12°41′50″E / 41.88194°N 12.69722°E / 41.88194; 12.69722

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/14/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.