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Consul,
loser at Trasimeno. Plebian Tribune in 232 he passed an agricultural
law for the sharing of the lands conquered from the Senones in Picenum.
Prefect in 230 he administers Sicily with integrity. Consul in 223,
having defeated the Gauls in the north of Italy, he obtains a Triumph.
Censor in 220, he commences the construction of the Via Flaminia.
Consul for a second time in 217 he is surprised between the lake and
the mountain and is killed together with the larger part of his army
after fighting bravely (23 June 217).
Though
an important member of the popular party and a brave political
innovator, Consul Caius Flaminius Nepote has long been criticized for
his alleged lack of military skill. According to his critics, in fact,
his letting himself be trapped by Hannibal instead of carrying out
proper reconnoitering showed both imprudence and naivety. This
criticism should be at least in part revised. The truth is that while
waiting to unite his troops with those under the command of the other
consul, Servilius, which were rushing in to his aid from Rimini, he
long haunted the Carthaginian army keeping at a distance and without
showing any hurry to engage a fight. However, finding himself in a
condition of numerical inferiority and in a very unfavourable position,
he couldn’t help but come off worst in the face of military
tactics which, in the Roman conception of those days, were definitely
unfair and badly conflicting with the supreme values of good Faith.
It
should be remembered, however, that in the general medley of the battle
he was one of the few to keep control of his nerves, and until the
moment when the Northener Ducarius ran him through with his lance, he
bravely tried to reorganize his men. His corpse was never found. |
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