Roman General: Gaius Trebonius

Gaius Trebonius was a Roman politician and general. As a patrician, he showed conservative tendencies during his term as quaestor beginning in 60 B.C., but he later became a strong supporter of Julius Caesar and the populares.

As tribune, in 55 B.C. he sponsored the Lex Trebonia, by which Pompey and Crassus, that year's consuls, were assigned, respectively, the provinces of Spain and Syria and by which the assignment to Caesar of Gaul and Illyricum was extended. Although Cicero was persuaded to support the law favoring the dynasts, Cato regarded these extraordinary powers as foreshadowing the end of the republic.

During the second civil war beginning in 49 B.C. Trebonius commanded three legions under Caesar, whose protege he became and under whom he was appointed praetor in 48 B.C., and propraetor of Spain in 47 B.C.; although he was driven from Spain by the revolt of his troops, he became consul in 45 B.C. Despite promises of additional favors, Trebonius joined the conspiracy against his patron, delaying Mark Antony's entrance into the Senate while Caesar was murdered in 44 B.C.

In the following year Trebonius was made proconsul of Asia, a post which Caesar had promised him before his death. He was murdered, supposedly at Smyrna, by Publius Cornelius Dolabella, governor of Syria, after he had been in office only a short time in 43 B.C.

Roman General: Titus Quinctius Flamininus

Titus Quinctius Flamininus (229-174 B.C.) was a Roman general, who defeated Philip V of Macedon in the Second Macedonian War (200-196 B.C.). He was elected consul in 198, before he was 30 years old, and given command of the Roman garrison in Macedonia. An admirer of the Greeks, he demanded that Philip surrender his Greek possessions and confine himself to Macedon, but Philip refused. Flamininus, therefore, led the Roman legions against the Macedonians at Cynoscephalae in 197 and won a decisive victory.

During the Isthmian Games at Corinth in 196, Flamininus read a senatorial decree proclaiming autonomy for all Greek states and declaring them free from garrisons and tribute. In 195 his legions and the Achaeans defeated Nabis, King of Sparta, and won freedom for Argos. He withdrew Roman troops from Greece in 194, leaving an uneasy peace. Macedonia was left intact as a barrier against barbarians and intrusion by Antiochus III of Syria.

The Aetolian allies of Rome were unhappy with the settlement; they wanted to destroy Macedon. Nabis also remained a threat to peace in the Peloponnesus. In 193-192, Flamininus was sent to Greece as a legate to end a new war between Nabis and the Achaeans. The Aetolians appealed to Antiochus to deliver them from Roman interference. Flamininus remained an active legate in Greece during the first stages of the war between the Romans and Antiochus (192-189). Rome, once hailed as the liberator of the Greek states, was now accused of intervention.

In 183, Flamininus was sent as legate to Prusias, King of Bithynia, to protest his attack on Perganjum. He also demanded the life of Hannibal, who had taken refuge in Bithynia. Flamininus died in 174 B.C.

Roman General: Gaius Fabricius Luscinus

Gaius Fabricius Luscinus, Roman general and statesman, hero of the war against King Pyrrhus of Epirus. Traditional stories exaggerated his qualities and represented Fabricius Luscinus as the model of Roman self-denial and incorruptibility.

As consul in 282 B.C., Fabricius relieved the siege of Thurii and defeated forces of Samnites, Bruttians, and Lucanians. After Rome's defeat by Pyrrhus at Heraclea in 280, he twice headed embassies to Pyrrhus. Tradition reports that he steadfastly refused bribes offered both by Pyrrhus and by Pyrrhus' enemies. In 278, during his second consulship, Fabricius negotiated a treaty with Heraclea and earned notable victories over Pyrrhus' Sabellian allies and the Tarentines. His career was climaxed by his election as censor in 275.

Gaius Fabricius Luscinus died around mid 3rd century B.C.

Roman General: Decimus Clodius Albinus

Decimus Clodius Albinus, Roman soldier, born at Adrumetum in Africa. He entered the army at an early age, and served with distinction under Marcus Aurelius, especially during the rebellion of Avidius Cassius, AD 175. He was raised to the consulate in 176, and appointed to the governorship of Gaul and afterwards of Britain by the emperor Commodus. On the death of Commodus and that of his successor, Pertinax, 193, Septimius Severus declared Albinus Caesar, in order to secure his neutrality, while he himself marched on Rome. Having there defeated his rival Pescennius Niger, he resolved to get rid of Aibinus also. In a battle at Lugdunum (Lyons) in 197 A.D., Albinus was defeated and killed.

Roman General: Quintus Tullius Cicero

Quintus Tullius Cicero (c. 102-43 B.C.) was the younger brother of Marcus Tullius Cicero. He was aedile in 67, praetor in 62, and for three years governor in Asia. He distinguished himself as one of Caesar's officers in Gaul. In the civil war between Pompey and Caesar he joined the former, but later deserted him and reinstated himself with Caesar. He was put to death in the proscriptions of 43 B.C.

Roman General: Belisarius

Belisarius was an Eastern Roman (Byzantine) general. Born Dalmatia (now in Yugoslavia), about 505 A.D.

Belisarius was one of the great soldiers in the service of the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I. After demonstrating his military skill in battle against the Persians on the eastern front and his loyalty by crushing the Nika revolt against the emperor, Belisarius was sent to attack the Vandals in Africa in 533 A.D. Overwhelmingly successful, he was then entrusted with the long-projected reconquest of Italy from the Ostrogoths. Landing in Sicily, Belisarius advanced to Rome, entering it in 536 A.D. By 540 A.D. he had gained control of Ravenna and all of peninsular Italy.

After his Italian triumph, Belisarius returned to the Persian wars in the east. In 544 A.D. he was recalled to Italy to meet the attacks of the Ostrogoth Totila.

Although he recaptured Rome, Belisarius was unable to restore his former Italian conquest. Unwilling or unable to reinforce Belisarius, Justinian relieved him in 548 A.D. Belisarius lived in retirement until 559 A.D., when he once again took command to repel a raid by the Kotrigur Huns on the empire's capital at Constantinople (now Istanbul). Historians believe there is no truth to later stories of Belisarius spending his final years in disgrace and poverty after having been blinded by Justinian.

Belisarius died in 565 A.D.

Roman General: Gaius Marius

Gaius Marius (157-86 BC), Roman general and statesman, born at Arpinum. He served under Scipio Africanus at Numantia (134), was tribune of the plebs in 119 and later married Julia, aunt of Julius Caesar. By this time he had established himself as a leading popularis at Rome.

As a distinguished Roman general he was seven times elected consul. He was elected consul for the first time in 107 and received command of the war against Jugurtha.

The brilliance of his quaestor Sulla, to whom Jugurtha surrendered in 106, marked the beginning of that rivalry between the two men which led to civil war.

Marius's next task was military reform. Meanwhile Italy was threatened by the Cimbri and Teutones, and Marius was elected consul a second time for 104. The menace was postponed, but he was consul a third and fourth time in 103 and 102. In the latter year he defeated the Teutones and their allies at Aquae Sextiae, and in 101, with his colleague, A. Lutatius Catulus, the Cimbri at Campi Raudii near Vercellae.

He was elected consul for the fifth time in 101. In order to secure the consulship a sixth time, he associated himself with two demagogues, Saturninus and Glaucia.

In his sixth consulship (100), he put down the insurrection of Saturninus, and by a popular vote was chosen to displace Sulla in command against Mithridates. Sulla marched upon Rome and took Marius prisoner, but he escaped to Africa, returned to Italy and joined Cinna in his revolt against Sulla. The two entered Rome, and Marius was elected consul for the seventh time in 86; but he died shortly afterwards.

In 88, anxious for command in the Mithridatic war, Marius obtained a vote of the people conferring on him the command already bestowed on Sulla by the Senate. Sulla joined his legions in Campania and marched on Rome; Marius fled and eventually reached Africa. In 87, however, he returned to Italy, and with the consul L. Cornelius Cinna made a new bid for power. Without an election Marius and Cinna nominated themselves consuls for the next year; but on the 18th day of his seventh consulship Marius died of pleurisy.

Roman General: Marcus Antonius

Mark Antony, or Marcus Antonius, to give him his proper name, was most famous for two reasons: One is his friendship with Julius Caesar and his revenge on the men who murdered Caesar; the other is his love affair with Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt.

Mark Antony was born in about 83 B.C. and brought up by his stepfather Lentulus. When he was about 30 Antony joined Julius Caesar's army in Gaul. He became very fond of Caesar and supported him in everything, being forced on one occasion to flee from Rome because people disapproved of the way he used his power to help Caesar. In the year 44 B.C. Antony and Caesar were elected as consuls. At a festival before great crowds of the Roman people, Antony tried to make Caesar King of Rome, and offered him a crown. This made many Romans angry, they didn't want to return to the pre-Republic days of being ruled by king. Because of this Caesar was murdered.

Antony then tried to win for himself the power Caesar had had. He made a speech at the funeral and read Caesar's will to the people. However, Caesar had an heir — his great-nephew Octavian, who later became the Emperor Augustus. Antony and Octavian quarreled, but later joined together to fight an army commanded by Brutus and Cassius, who had led the plot to murder Caesar. Antony and Octavian defeated them at Philippi, in Greece, in 42 B.C.

After this, Antony went to the East, where he fell in love with Cleopatra and followed her to Egypt. In an attempt to forge a binding truce Octavian had Brutus marry Octavia, Octavian's sister.

However, the marriage was not a success, for Antony soon went back to Cleopatra. He lived with her in great luxury and splendor, not at all like a Roman. Octavian then sent an army against Antony. At the naval Battle of Actium, fought in 31 B.C., Antony's fleet was defeated. Antony escaped to Egypt with Cleopatra, where they later both committed suicide than hand themselves over to Octavian.

Roman General: Lucius Caecilius Metellus Denter

Lucius Caecilius Metellus Denter (born circa 320 BC) was a Roman Republican Consul in the year 284 BC.

He was either the son or the nephew of Quintus Caecilius, and the first in which the cognomen Metellus appears linked to the gentilic nomen Caecilius. He was the father of Lucius Caecilius Metellus.

He led an army against the Senones led by Britomaris in the Battle of Arretium.

There is some conflict as to the date of Metellus Denter's death, with some sources claiming he died as Consul in 284 BC in the Battle of Arretium, whereas others have him dying the year after, as Praetor, in the next battle against the Senones.

The controversy lay in that it was not customary for a Proconsul to be elected Praetor in the year after his Consulship, especially if he had been defeated in battle.

Roman General: Marcus Lollius Paulinus

Marcus Lollius Paulinus, was a Roman general, the first governor of Galatia (25 BC) and served as consul in 21 BC.

In 16 BC as governor of Gaul he was defeated by German tribes who had crossed the Rhine (the Sicambri and Tencteri and Usipetes). This defeat is compared by Tacitus to the disaster of Publius Quinctilius Varus, but it was disgraceful rather than dangerous.

Lollius was subsequently attached in the capacity of tutor and adviser to Gaius Caesar on his mission to the East (2 BC). Gaius was a son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder. His maternal grandparents were Augustus and his second wife Scribonia.

According to Marcus Velleius Paterculus and Pliny, he was a hypocrite and cared for nothing but amassing wealth. Lollius was accused of extortion and treachery to the state, and denounced by Gaius to the Roman Emperor. To avoid punishment he is said to have taken poison.

Roman General: Titus Didius

Titus Didius was a Roman general and politician.

He first held office in 103 BC as a Tribune of the Plebs.

Two years later he was elected a Praetor. During this time he fought in Macedon, defeating the Scordisci and earning his first triumph upon his return in 100 BC. In 98 BC Didius was elected Consul alongside Q. Caecilius Metellus Nepos. Along with restoring the Villa Publica, he enacted a law which disallowed combining two unrelated proposals in one bill.

After his term as consul, he was rewarded with the governorship of the province of Hispania Citerior, where he served from 97 BC to 93 BC.

Nearly his entire proconsul term over Spain was spent at war with the Celtiberi. In the four years Didius governed Spain he achieved multiple victories and is said to have slain 20,000 Arevaci, quelled the rebellious city of Termes and successfully executed a nine month siege of Colenda, ending in the selling the city’s women and children as slaves.

After concluding his service in Spain, Didius served as a legate in the Social War, under Lucius Julius Caesar in 90 BC, then Lucius Porcius Cato and Sulla in 89 BC.

Shortly following a successful capture of Herculaneum, he died in battle June 11, 89 BC.

Roman General: Gaius Antonius

Gaius Antonius, younger son of Marcus Antonius the orator, and uncle of Mark Antony. He was a colleague of Cicero during the latter's praetorship (66 BC) and consulship (65). Appointed governor of Macedonia in 62, he returned to Rome in 59, when he was charged with implication in the Catiline conspiracy and extortion in his province. Defended by Cicero, he was condemned and went into exile. Recalled probably by Caesar, he was censor in 42 BC.

Side note: Mark Antony also had a brother named Gaius, Antonius who was the governor of Macedonia in 44 BC. In 43 he was taken prisoner by Marcus Junius Brutus, who put him to death in the following year.

Roman General: Quintus Lutatius Catulus

Quintus Lutatius Catulus (c. 152-87 BC), Roman general, and consul with Marius, 102 BC.

The following year the united armies of Catulus and Marius defeated the Cimbri, but Catulus's part in the victory was ignored.

This led to resentment, and Catulus joined Sullar in the civil war. He was among those proscribed by Marius in 87 BC, and committed suicide.

Roman General: Drusus Caesar

Drusus Caesar (15 BC - AD 23), son of the Emperor Tiberius and Vipsania Agrippina. In AD 14 he quelled a mutiny of troops in Pannonia: was governor of Illyricum in 17; and in 21 received tribunicia potestas, which marked him out as heir to the throne.

Sejanus seduced his wife Livia (daughter of Nero Claudius Drusus) and secured her co-operation in poisoning Drusus.

Roman General: Gaius Lutatius Catulus

Gaius Lutatius Catulus (3rd century BC), Roman general in the first Punic War; consul, 242 BC.

In 241 he commanded a fleet of 200 ships which defeated the Carthaginians off the Aegates Islands.

Roman General: Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus

Decimus Junius Brutus (84-43 BC), Roman general, served first in Gaul under Caesar, who afterwards made him commander of his fleet. Not to be confused with Marcus Brutus.

Later he was made master of the horse and governor of Gaul, and Caesar, who held him in much esteem, made him his heir in the event of Octavian's death. But in spite of this, he was one of the conspirators in the plot against his benefactor.

Afterwards he fought with brief success against Antony, but was betrayed and put to death by the latter soon after the siege of Mutina in 43 BC.

Roman General: Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus

Born Publius Cornelius Scipio, about 234 B.C., better known as Scipio Africanus the Elder

After being present at the Roman defeats of the Ticinus (218), the Trebia (218), and Cannae (216), Scipio was given the proconsular command in Spain in 210 B.C.

He captured New Carthage (now Cartagena) the next year and completed his conquest of Spain by 206 B.C. His success countered Carthaginian victories in Italy under Hannibal and won Scipio a consulship in 205 B.C. He then attacked Carthage itself and forced Hannibal's recall from Italy.

In 207 he continued the war in Africa, and, for his defeat of the Carthaginian and Numidian armies in 203 and for his victory over Hannibal at Zama (202), he received the title Africanus.

At the Battle of Zama in 202 B.C. he routed Hannibal's army, ending the war and securing Roman supremacy in the western Mediterranean. For this victory he was honored with the new name "Africanus."

In 190 he defeated Antiochus III of Syria at Magnesia, but he became the object of an attack in the Senate, which his popularity with the people helped him to defeat. His daughter, Cornelia, became the mother of the Gracchi. Scipio was the greatest general of his time, a brilliant orator, and a noted Greek scholar.

He died in about 183 B.C.

Roman General: Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo

Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, born in 130 BC, he was contemporary of Sulla and father of Pompey the Great.

In the Social War he was a successful commander against the allies in the north, and was elected consul for 89 BC. He was relieved of his command in 88, but his troops murdered his successor (with his connivance) and remained under his command.

As consul he had given Latin rights to the allies beyond the River Po; he had also given Roman citizenship to Spaniards serving under him. In this way he built up a powerful clientela for himself, and in the civil war between Marius and Sulla he was able to remain independent until he died (probably in 87 BC). He is an important figure in Roman history, since he established the power base which enabled his son to enter public life at the top, by-passing the normal step by step career.

Roman General: Lucius Licinius Lucullus

Lucius Licinius Lucullus, Roman general. Born in Rome in about 118 B.C.

Lucullus served with Sulla in the Social War. From 88 B.C. to 84 B.C. he was quaestor and proquaestor under Sulla in the eastern provinces.

He held the consulship in 74 B.C. and received command of the Roman armies in the third war against Mithridates VI.

During the campaigns of 74-72 he relieved Cotta, who had been besieged in Chalcedon, destroyed the enemy's fleet off Lemnos, entered Bithynia, and forced Mithridates to take refuge at the court of his son-in-law, Tigranes, King of Armenia.

His financial reforms in the province of Asia, although popular with the provincials, brought him into conflict with the Roman financiers, who supervised tax collection there. Lucullus won brilliant victories in Asia Minor, but he was unable to bring the war to an end because of mutiny among his troops.

In 66 B.C., Lucullus was replaced in Asia by Pompey. On his return to Rome Lucullus retired from public life and became notorious as a bon viveur. He had a famous villa on the promontory of Misenum, which afterwards became the property of Tiberius. He wrote a history of the Marsian War in Greek, and is said to have been the first to introduce cherries, from Cerasus in Pontus, to Italy. In his later years he was known for his luxurious dinners and his patronage of philosophy and literature. He died in about 57 B.C.

Roman General: Avidius Cassius

Avidius Cassius, (d. AD 175), Roman general under Marcus Aurelius. He distinguished himself in the Parthian War (162-65), and was made governor of the eastern provinces.

In 175 Aurelius was ill, and Cassius proclaimed himself emperor on the strength of a rumour of his death. He was murdered by his own officers before steps could be taken against him.