Aulus Atilius Calatinus

Aulus Atilius Calatinus (d. by 216 BC) was a politician and general in Ancient Rome. He was the first Roman dictator to lead an army outside Italy (then understood as the Italian mainland), when he led his army into Sicily. He was consul in 258 BC and again in 254 BC, a praetor and triumphator in 257 BC, and finally a censor in 247 BC. Calatinus must have died by 216 BC, because Marcus Fabius Buteo (censor in 241 BC) was named the oldest living ex-censor; Calatinus would have been senior to him in terms of the date of censorship and their respective ages.

Career

Elected consul in 258 BC with Gaius Sulpicius Paterculus, he was given Sicily as his province.^[1] During his first consulship, he had several successes, taking many Sicilian towns, but fell into an ambush from which he and his army were saved by a tribune, Marcus Calpurnius Flamma. He conquered more towns after his narrow escape from the Carthaginians, and was granted a triumph on his return. He was elected or appointed praetor in 257 BC in the year of his triumph.

He was reelected consul in 254 BC with Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Asina, and the two co-consuls rebuilt the Roman fleet with 220 ships, after the earlier fleet had been lost in a storm off cape Pachynum. Both consuls sailed to Sicily, where they captured Panormus the same year. However, only Asina was granted the triumph (possibly because Calatinus had already triumphed three years before).^[2]

In 249 BC, following the disastrous naval losses of Publius Claudius Pulcher and Lucius Junius Pullus, Pulcher was fined 120,000 asses and his colleague committed suicide. Both consuls were now unfit for command or deceased; the dictator Marcus Claudius Glicia, appointed by Pulcher, was removed on the grounds that he was Pulcher's freedman, and thus not even a Senator, let alone a senator of some status. Calatinus was therefore elected dictator and led an army into Sicily, becoming the first dictator to lead a Roman army outside Italy. He had no great military successes, or at least none noted by Roman historians or in Smith.

He was elected censor in 247 BC. Several years later, in 241 BC, he was chosen as mediator between the proconsul C. Lutatius Catulus and the praetor Q. Valerius, to decide which of the two had the right to claim a triumph, and he decided in favour of the proconsul.^[3]

According to Smith, Calatinus dedicated temples to Spes (the personification of hope and safety of the young) in the Forum Holitorium and Fides (the personification of good faith whose symbol is a pair of covered hands symbolizing an agreement) on the Capitol.^[4]

Background

Calatinus was the son of Aulus Atilius Calatinus, who had been accused of betraying the city of Sora in the Samnite Wars. Standing in disgrace of his imminent condemnation, the elder Calatinus was saved by a few timely words from the great Fabius Maximus Rullianus (the first Maximus and at that time (306 BC) the thrice consul and acting praetor), his father-in-law. Fabius asserted that he would have never continued his relationship (as Patron) had he believed Atilius was guilty of such a crime. The Plebeian Atilii were therefore clients of the aristocratic Fabii, and also related to them by marriage. Thus, our present Atilius was the grandson, on his mother's side, of Fabius Rullianus.

The Atilius Catatinii were cousins of the other famous Atilii, the Atilii Regulii. Calatinus is clearly a congomen referring to Calatia, six miles southwest of Capua. This region had been conquered during the consulship of the first named Atilius, Marcus Atilius Regulus Calenus, in 335 BC. Since his colleague, the Patrician Valerius, actually conquered Cales, it is likely that Atilius actually came from there. Pottery from the region indicates the name K. and N. Atilius are from the region near Capua. Interestingly, the forenames Caeso and Numerius, Atilii names, were unusual among the patricians, but favored by the Fabii. The Atilii were the leading family of Campania at the time of their gaining citizenship and the surname Regulus might refer to their regal position in that society. Fabii ownership of large land holding in Falernia probably resulted from the treaty of 340 in which Capuan lands north of the Volturnus were ceded to Rome. (Munzer)

References

Sources

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Calatinus, A. Atilius". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. p. 560.