Gaius Marcius Rutilus Censorinus Explained

Gaius Marcius Rutilus Censorinus was a Roman politician from the plebeian gens Marcia in the fourth and third centuries BC.

Family

His father Gaius Marcius Rutilus was consul four times in the years 357 - 342 BC.

Career

Marcius served as tribune of the people in 311 BC. In 310, he was consul together with Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus. In that year, he fought against the Samnites and conquered Alifae in Campania, but was seriously wounded in a subsequent battle.[1] In 300, he was named as one of the first plebeian pontiffs and as augur. He served as censor in 294 and 265 BC. He is said to have brought forward a law precluding anyone from holding the censorship more than twice in the future.[2]

It is because of this law that he is attributed the cognomen Censorinus.

He was perhaps the first princeps senatus, appointed in 275 BC.[3]

Notes and References

  1. Titus Livius IX, 38, 1.
  2. Titus Livius X, 9, 2.
  3. Hans George Gundel: The New Pauly's Real Encyclopedia of Classical Antiquity, Vol. 3, Ch.7 p. 862 1969, Stuttgart