Manius Acilius Glabrio (consul 191 BC)
Manius Acilius Glabrio was a Roman general and consul of the Roman Republic in 191 BC. He came from an illustrious plebeian family whose members held magistracies throughout the Republic and into the Imperial era.Career
Glabrio was a tribune of the plebs in 201, plebeian aedile in 197, and praetor peregrinus in 195. He was elected consul for the year 191 BC together with Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica.
As consul, Glabrio defeated the Seleucid ruler Antiochus the Great at the Battle of Thermopylae, and compelled him to leave Greece. He then turned his attention to the Aetolian League, who had persuaded Antiochus to declare war against Rome, and was only prevented from crushing them by the intercession of Titus Quinctius Flamininus.
In 189, Glabrio was a candidate for the censorship, but was opposed by the patrician faction. He was accused by the tribunes of having concealed a portion of the Syrian spoils in his own house; his legate gave evidence against him, and he withdrew his candidature.
Glabrio was the first Roman to introduce the practice of overlaying statues with gold, a practice he initiated after having defeated Antiochus the Great.Legacy
It is probable that Glabrio was the author of the Lex Acilia de intercalando, a law which left it to the discretion of the pontiffs to insert or omit the intercalary month of the year; see Roman calendar.
