{{short description|Roman hero who saved the Capitol from a Gaulish attack}} [[File:JUST IN TIME TO HURL DOWN THE FOREMOST OF THE ATTACKING PARTY.gif|thumb|Marcus Manlius shown attacking Gauls]]
'''Marcus Manlius Capitolinus''' (died 384 BC) was [[Roman consul|consul]] of the [[Roman Republic]] in 392 BC.<ref>[[Thomas Robert Shannon Broughton|T.R.S. Broughton]], ''The Magistrates Of The Roman Republic, vol. I: 509 B.C.–100 B.C.'' Case Western Reserve University Press, Cleveland, (1951, reprint 1968), p. 92.</ref> He was a brother of [[Aulus Manlius Capitolinus]], [[consular tribune]] five times between 389 and 370 BC.<ref>[[Livy]] vi. 20.</ref> The [[Manlia (gens)|Manlii]] were one of the leading [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patrician]] [[gens|gentes]] that dominated the politics of the early Republic.
== Biography == During the [[Battle of the Allia|Gallic siege of Rome]] in 390 BC, the account of which has been greatly [[Roman mythology|mythologized]], Marcus Manlius held out on the [[Arx (Roman)|citadel]] with a small garrison, while the rest of Rome was abandoned. When [[Gauls]] under the command of [[Brennus (4th century)|Brennus]] attempted to scale the [[Capitoline Hill|Capitoline]], Manlius was roused by the cackling of the sacred geese of [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]], rushed to the spot, and threw down the foremost assailants.<ref>Livy v. 47; [[Plutarch]], ''The Life of Camillus'', 27.</ref>
[[File:Domenico Beccafumi 007.jpg|thumb|left| fresco of ''Manlius tossed from the Tarpeian Rock'' by [[Domenico Beccafumi|Beccafumi]] in [[Palazzo Pubblico]] of Siena]]
After the sack of Rome left the [[plebs|plebeians]] in pitiful condition, they were forced to borrow large sums of money from the patricians, and once again became the poor debtor class of Rome. Manlius, the hero of Rome, fought for them. [[Livy]] says that he was the first patrician to act as a populist. Seeing a [[centurion]] led to prison for debt, he freed him with his own money, and even sold his estate to relieve other poor debtors, while he accused the [[Roman Senate|senate]] of embezzling public money. He was charged with aspiring to [[Rex (king)|kingly power]], and condemned by the ''[[Roman assemblies|comitia]]'', but not until the assembly had adjourned to a place outside the walls, where they could no longer see the Capitol which he had saved. The Senate condemned him to death in 385 BC, and he was thrown from the [[Tarpeian Rock]].<ref>Livy vi. 14-20.</ref> Some scholars suggest that Livy's portrait of Manlius is modeled on the first-century rebel [[Catiline]], and blends different moments in Rome's recent past.<ref>Christopher Krebs, "[https://www.academia.edu/3251451 M. Manlius Capitolinus: the Metaphorical Plupast and Metahistorical Reflections]", in J. Grethlein and Christopher Krebs, ''Time and Narrative in Ancient Historiography: The 'Plupast' from Herodotus to Appian'', Cambridge (2012), pp. 139–155.</ref> [[File:William Etty (1787-1849) - Manlius Hurled from the Rock - 1967P45 - Birmingham Museums Trust.jpg|thumb|'' [[Manlius Hurled From The Rock]]'' by [[William Etty]], 1818]] Manlius' house on the Capitoline Hill was razed, and the Senate decreed that no patrician should live there henceforth. The Manlii themselves resolved that no patrician Manlius should bear the name of Marcus. According to [[Theodor Mommsen|Mommsen]], the story of the saving of the Capitol was a later invention to justify his ''[[cognomen]]'', which may be better explained by his domicile. Some scholars consider him the second martyr in the cause of social reform at Rome.<ref>For a summary of these events, see Finley Hooper, [https://books.google.com/books?id=QCYDPVx7LQkC ''Roman Realities''] (Wayne State University Press, 1979), p. 53ff.</ref>
[[Pliny the Elder]] describes Manlius among his "instances of extreme courage":
<blockquote>The military honours of Manlius Capitolinus would have been no less splendid than [those of Titus Caecilius Denter],{{efn-lr|An uncertain individual, as the Caecilii did not regularly use the praenomen ''Titus''. According to translator John Bostock, [[Hardouin de Péréfixe de Beaumont|Hardouin]] argues that Pliny probably means [[Lucius Caecilius Metellus Denter]], who was slain in battle against the [[Gauls]] at the [[Battle of Lake Vadimo (283 BC)|Lake Vadimo]] in 283 BC. Another possibility is [[Lucius Caecilius Metellus (consul 251 BC)|his son]], who gained a famous victory at the [[Battle of Panormus]] during the [[First Punic War]], and later, while [[Pontifex Maximus]], rushed into [[Temple of Vesta|a burning temple]] to rescue a sacred artifact, losing his sight in the process.<ref>Broughton, ''The Magistrates of the Roman Republic'', vol. I, pp. 213, 216, 218, 231.</ref> The only ''Titus'' Caecilius whom Pliny could have meant was a [[centurion]] ''[[primus pilus]]'' at the [[Battle of Ilerda]] during the [[Caesar's civil war|Civil War]] in 49 BC, of whom [[Caesar]] only mentions that he was among those who fell in the battle.<ref>[[Caesar]], ''The Civil War'', i. 45, 46.</ref>}} if they had not been all effaced at the close of his life. Before his seventeenth year, he had gained two spoils, and was the first of equestrian rank who received a mural crown; he also gained six civic crowns, thirty seven donations, and had twenty-three scars on the fore-part of his body. He saved the life of P. Servilius, the master of the horse, receiving wounds on the same occasion in the shoulders and the thigh. Besides all this, unaided, he saved the Capitol, when it was attacked by the Gauls, and through that, the state itself; a thing that would have been the most glorious act of all, if he had not so saved it, in order that he might, as its king, become its master. But in all matters of this nature, although valour may effect much, fortune does still more.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D7%3Achapter%3D29|last=Pliny the Elder (trans. John Bostock and H T Riley)|title=The Natural History vii. 29: instances of extreme courage|date=1855|location=London}}</ref></blockquote>
==Notes== {{notelist-lr}}
==References== {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box|title=[[List of Roman Republican consuls|Consul]] of the [[Roman Republic]]|before=[[Lucius Lucretius Tricipitinus Flavus]] (Suffect) <br/> [[Servius Sulpicius Camerinus]] (Suffect)||after=[[Tribuni militum consulari potestate|Consular tribunes]]|years=''with [[Lucius Valerius Potitus Poplicola]] II''<br /> 392 BC}} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manlius Capitolinus, Marcus}} [[Category:384 BC deaths]] [[Category:4th-century BC Roman consuls]] [[Category:Manlii|Capitolinus, Marcus]] [[Category:Year of birth unknown]] [[Category:Ancient Roman patricians]]