Appius Claudius Caecus


Appius Claudius Crassus Caecus was an important statesman of the Roman Republic, active between 315 and 278. He was censor between 312 and 308, and then consul twice, once in 307 and once in 296, dictator c. 285, and interrex three times. He is the first Roman whose life can be traced with historical certainty.
Caecus' political highlight is his time as censor for five years, while the magistracy was supposed to last only 18 months, during which he built the first Roman road and the first aqueduct. He also made several obscure constitutional reforms, by changing the organisation of the Roman tribes and admitting descendants of freedmen in the electoral rolls. In addition, he was the first censor to draw the list of senators. These reforms massively increased the prestige of the censorship, which had hitherto been a minor magistracy.
However, his reforms triggered outrage as he broke a number of established conventions. Caecus seems to have been embroiled in several bitter political feuds, especially with the Fabii. As the first Roman historian was a Fabius, the Roman historical tradition contains a significant amount of smear against Caecus, accusing him of being a corrupted, immoral demagogue, and an inept general. This image is notably found in the works of Livy, Suetonius and Tacitus, who repeated these accusations on the other Claudii. Concurrently, a different picture of him has also survived, that of an enlightened philhellene, the first Roman author of poetic and prose works, also credited with a reform of the Latin alphabet. His speech advocating against the odds the continuation of the war against Pyrrhus was furthermore the first recorded speech in Roman history and inspired orators for centuries.
Due to the wide divergence in the sources, modern scholars have had very different interpretations of Caecus' deeds: he has indeed been variously described as a revolutionary, a reactionary, a would-be tyrant, or a great reformer, comparable to the Athenian Cleisthenes.

Family background

Caecus belonged to the patrician gens Claudia, one of the most important families of the Republic, which counted prominent men from its beginning to the Roman Empire. His exact relationship with the Claudii of the fifth century is uncertain as there is some doubt on their career, but Caecus was certainly a descendant of Appius Claudius Crassus Inregillensis Sabinus, consul in 495 and semi-legendary founder of the gens. This man's son was perhaps consul in 471 and the leading member of the Decemvirate in 451; his brother was consul in 460, and his son and grandson were respectively consular tribunes in 424 and 403. Livy describes them in a stereotypical fashion as haughty aristocrats with arch-conservative views.
The Claudii were however in decline in the fourth century, and only two of them are recorded before Caecus. Appius Claudius Crassus Inregillensis—Caecus' grandfather—was dictator in 362 and consul in 349; he died during his last office. Caecus' father, Gaius Claudius Crassus Inregillensis was dictator in 337, but had to resign immediately because the augurs had found a fault in his appointment.
His mother is not known, but he had a much younger brother, Appius Claudius Caudex, who became consul in 264, four years after Caecus' elder son. Since Caecus' sons became consuls over a period of 28 years and long after his own time, he probably married at least twice, even though none of his wives is known.

Early career

Caecus' early career before his censorship is only known from his eulogy, formerly displayed on the Forum. This summary of his career lists all the responsibilities he held, including some junior offices, while literary sources only record upper magistracies ; however it does not provide any date and the offices are not ordered chronologically. The eulogy tells that he was military tribune three times, one time quaestor, and curule aedile two times. These junior magistracies were standard in the career of every Roman politician, but the iterations are—at first sight—much more unusual. Endre Ferenczy thought Caecus held them all before his censorship because of his family's decline, which forced him to repeat them to build his popularity, therefore explaining his early censorship. However, his thesis has been criticised, notably by Stephen Oakley, who notes that there is not enough evidence to know whether iterations of the military tribuneship and aedileship were really exceptional for this period, during which most careers are unknown.
It is nonetheless certain that Caecus was military tribune before his censorship, because it was a requirement for being elected consul, which he became immediately after his censorship. As military tribune, he certainly served during the Second Samnite War, the main conflict in Italy at the time.

Censorship (312–308 BC)

Appius Claudius Caecus was a censor in 312 BC, although he had not previously been consul which later was effectively a prerequisite for the office. He sought support from the lower classes, allowing sons of freedmen to serve in the Senate, and extending voting privileges to men in the rural tribes who did not own land. During the Second Samnite War, he advocated the founding of Roman colonies throughout Latium and Campania to serve as fortifications against the Samnites and Etruscans.
Appius is best known for two undertakings he began as censor: the Appian Way, the first major Roman road, running between Rome and Beneventum to the south; and the first aqueduct in Rome, the Aqua Appia. He also supported Gnaeus Flavius, who published for the first time a list of legal procedures and the legal calendar, knowledge of which, until that time, had been reserved for the pontifices, a college of priests.

Later career (307–280 BC)

He later served as consul twice, in 307 BC and 296 BC, and in 292 BC and 285 BC he was appointed Dictator. According to Livy, he had gone blind because of a curse. In 279, he gave a famous speech against Cineas, an envoy of Pyrrhus of Epirus, declaring that Rome would never surrender. This is the earliest known political speech in Latin, and is the source of the saying "every man is the architect of his own fortune".

Literary output

Appius wrote a book called Sententiae, based upon a verse of Greek model. It was "the first Roman book of literary character". He was also concerned with literature and rhetoric, and instituted reforms in Latin orthography, allegedly ending the use of the letter Z.

Descendants

His four sons were Appius Claudius Russus, Publius Claudius Pulcher, Gaius Claudius Centho, and Tiberius Claudius Nero.
Appius Claudius Caecus is used in Cicero's Pro Caelio as a stern and disapproving ancestor to Clodia. Cicero assumes the voice of Caecus in a scathing prosopopoeia, where Caecus is incensed at Clodia for associating with Caelius, a member of the middle equestrian class instead of the upper patrician class. Caecus's achievements, such as the building of the Appian Way and the Aqua Appia, are mentioned as being defiled by Clodia's actions.

Family tree of Appius Caecus

Ancient sources