Marcus Furius Camillus (446 BC-365 BC) was a Roman statesman and general who triumphed four times, served as dictator five times, and was nicknamed "the Second Founder of Rome" for saving Rome from Brennus' barbarian Senones in 387 BC.
Biography[]
Camillus in 399 BC
Marcus Furius Camillus was born in Rome in 446 BC, the son of Lucius Furius Medullinus and the brother of Lucius Furius Medullinus and Spurius Furius Medullinus. He served as a soldier in the wars with the Aequi and Volsci, and he became a military tribune before serving as censor in 403 BC. In 401 BC, he was appointed consular tribune during the war with Veii, and he looted Capena in 398 BC and, as dictator for the first time, conquered Veii in 396 BC. He had the entire adult male population slaughtered and enslaved the women and children, and he prevented the repopulation of Veii with half of the Romans. In 394 BC, he subdued Falerii, and, under his watch, Rome became the most powerful nation of the central peninsula.
Savior of Rome[]
Camillus in battle
However, Camillus was impeached after being wrongly accused of embezzling the Etruscan plunder, and he went to exile in Ardea. He prayed for vengeance against Rome, and the Senones invaded Rome shortly after, destroying a Roman army in the Battle of the Allia in 390 BC. In 387 BC, the Senones sacked Rome and destroyed the nearby towns, and Camillus, living as a private man, mustered a 12,000-strong army and launched a night attack on the drunken Senones in Rome, slaying most of them reconquering Rome. The Romans called Camillus a "second Romulus", the "second founder of Rome", for freeing the city of barbarian occupation. Rome's reconstruction took a year, and the Volsci and Aequi took this opportunity to invade Roman territory, while the Latins revolted and the Samnites attacked Roman allies. In 389 BC, Camillus was again appointed dictator, and he subjugated the Aequi and recaptured Satricum from the Etruscans. He celebrated a triumph in Rome for his victories that year.
In 381 BC, as consular tribune once again, Camillus had to face an alliance of the Volsci and several rebellious Latin cities, and Camillus relieved the city of Satricum from a rebel siege. He then bloodlessly annexed Tusculum, his family's home, and he decided to retire. Nevertheless, he was brought back from retirement to serve as dictator in 368 BC and again in 367 BC, when he repelled a Gallic attack on Rome at the Alban Hills, earning himself another triumph. He died during a deadly pestilence in 365 BC at the age of 81.