Catulus

• a cognomen in the gens Lutatia; v. Lutatius.

Κάτλος, a name of a family of the plebeian Lutatia or Luctatia gens, etymologically connected with the words Cato, Catus, and indicating shrewdness, sagacity, caution, or the like.

1. C. Lutatius (C. F. C. N. Catulus, consul B. C. 242 with A. Postumius Albinus. The first Punic war had now continued for upwards of twenty-two years. Both parties were exhausted by the long struggle, but neither of them shewed any inclination to abandon the contest. Ever since the battle of Panormus (250) the Romans had been in possession of all Sicily with the exception of Lilybaeum, Drepanum, and the fortified camp upon Mount Eryx; but these strongholds had hitherto defied every effort upon the part of the besiegers, who having abandoned in despair all active measures, were blockading them by land, while Hamilcar Barca was gradually forming an army with which he hoped that he might soon venture to meet his adversaries in the open field. The Carthaginians were undisputed masters of the sea, for the Romans, dispirited by the loss of four large fleets within a very short period (255-249), amounting in all to upwards of 600 ships, had, after the great victory of Adherbal over P. Claudius Pulcher (249), completely abandoned their navy. In this juncture the senate, feeling convinced that only one path to success lay open, determined to make a desperate effort. A fleet of 200 ships of war was built and manned with astonishing rapidity, chiefly through the patriotic liberality of individuals who came forward to support the state with voluntary loans, and both consuls were ordered to take the command. Albinus, being flamen of Mars, was prohibited by the chief pontiff from quitting the city, and his place was supplied by Q. Valerius Falto, then praetor. Catulus before setting out, filled with anxiety in regard to the result of an enterprise so important, had determined to consult the oracle of Fortune at Praeneste; but this was forbidden, on the ground that it was unbecoming in a Roman general to intermeddle with any deities save those of Rome. These measures were so prompt, that the new fleet appeared upon the Sicilian coast early in summer, while the navy of the enemy was still in winter-quarters at Carthage. The harbour of Drepanum was instantly occupied, and the siege vigorously pressed both by land and sea. But while the struggle was most fierce, Catulus received a serious wound which compelled him to suspend operations for a time. Meanwhile he trained his sailors with unceasing activity, and by constant practice rendered them expert in all ordinary nautical evolutions. News had now reached Africa of the events in Sicily. A powerful armament was launched in haste and put to sea, deeply laden with provisions and warlike stores for the relief of Drepanum, navigated, however, by raw, ill-trained, and awkward crews. The great object of Hanno, the admiral, was, as we are told by Polybius, to run over to Eryx without attracting the notice of the Romans, to lighten his vessels by landing their cargo, and to take on board a number of the brave and welldisciplined troops of Hamilcar. His movements, however, were known by Catulus, who resolved at every hazard to force an engagement, and being himself still unfit for active exertion, entrusted the execution of his plans in a great measure to Falto. The fleet accordingly passed over to the island of Aegusa, opposite to Lilybaeum, and from thence, at day-break on the morning of the 10th of March 241, they descried the hostile squadron bearing down under a press of canvass right before the wind, which was blowing a gale from the west and had raised a heavy sea. Notwithstanding these disadvantages, the Romans formed their line of battle with their prows to windward. The Carthaginians, perceiving that they were cut off, prepared for action by hauling down their sails, thus altogether sacrificing the advantage of the weather gage. The result of the contest seems never to have been for a moment doubtful. The deep-laden ships of Hanno could neither manoelig;uvre nor fight; seventy were captured, fifty were sunk ; the rest taking advantage of a lucky shift of the wind which veered round to the East, wore and escaped. This blow, which at an earlier period would scarcely have been felt, was decisive. The Carthaginians, upon receiving intelligence of the disaster, feeling that they had neither officers, men, nor money, left for prosecuting the war, despatched a messenger with all speed to Hamilcar, investing him with full authority to accept the best terms he could obtain. Catulus was eager to meet these overtures, that he might have the honour of concluding a glorious peace before the period of his command, which was fast drawing to a close, should expire. With these dispositions preliminaries were quickly arranged, and the following conditions were agreed upon : 1. That the Carthaginians should evacuate all Sicily, and should not make war upon Hiero, the Syracusans, or the allies of the Syracusans. 2. That they should restore all the Roman prisoners without ransom. 3. That they should pay to the Romans 2200 Euboic talents by instalments, extending over a space of twenty years. These stipulations, when submitted to the Roman people, did not meet with their approbation, and ten commissioners were despatched to examine into the state of affairs, who, when they arrived, insisted upon certain changes to the disadvantage of the Carthaginians, and Hamilcar thought fit to submit. These were, that the compensation money should be augmented by the sum of one thousand talents, and that the period allowed for payment should be diminished by ten years; moreover, that the Carthaginians should evacuate all the islands between Italy and Sicily.

Catulus on his return home claimed and was allowed his well-won triumph, which he celebrated on the 4th of October, 241, not, however, without a vexatious opposition on the part of Falto, who pretended, contrary to those principles of military law by which the Romans were invariably guided, that he was entitled to all the glory because the commander-in-chief had been disabled by his wound from taking an active share in the final engagement. (Plb. 1.58_64; Liv. Epit. 19 ; Eutrop. 2.27; Oros. 4.10; V. Max. 2.8.2 ; Zonar. viii. p. 398, &c.; Fast. Capitol.)

2. C. Lutatius Catulus, perhaps the son of No. 1, consul B. C. 220, with L. Veturius Philo. (Zonar. viii. p. 405.)

3. Q. Lutatius Catulus, Q. F., consul B. C. 102 with C. Marius IV., having been previously defeated in three successive attempts, first by C. Atilius Serranus, who was consul in 106, secondly by Cn. Manlius (or Mallius, or Manilius), who was consul in B. C. 105, and thirdly by C. Flavius Fimbria, who was consul in B. C. 104. He either was not a candidate for the consulship of 103, or if unsuccessful, his disappointment is not alluded to by Cicero in the passage where the rest of his repulses are enumerated. (Pro Planc. 5.) At the time when Catulus entered upon office, the utmost consternation reigned at Rome. The Cimbri, who in their great migration westward had been joined by the Teutoni, the Ambrones, the Tigurini, and various other tribes, after sweeping the upper valley of the Danube and spreading over Southern Gaul and Northern Spain, after defeating four Roman consuls, Carbo (113), Silanus (109), Cassius (107), Manlius (105), together with the proconsul Caepio (105), and destroying five Roman armies, were now preparing to pour down on Italy. The invading host was divided into two vast columns. The Teutoni were marching through Provence with the intention of turning the Alps at Nice, and following the coast road along the shores of the Ligurian gulf, while the Cimbri were preparing to cross the passes from the Tyrol which lead down by Botzen and Trent to the plains of the Po. It was determined that Marius should oppose the Teutoni, and that Catulus with Sulla for his lieutenant should be ready to attack the Cimbri while their cumbrous array was entangled in the mountain defiles. How well the former executed his task by the great battle fought on the Rhone near Aix (Aquae Sextiae) is detailed elsewhere. [Marius.] Meanwhile the campaign of his colleague had been less glorious. Catulus, fearing to weaken his force by attempting to guard the passes, took up a position on the Adige (Athesis) where it begins to emerge from the rocky gorges which confine its waters near their source, and having thrown a bridge across the stream and erected forts on both sides, resolved there to await an attack. The Cimbri, pouring down from the higher ground along the left bank, attacked the Roman works with such fury, that the soldiers, dispirited probably by the timid defensive tactics of their general, were seized with a panic, abandoned their camp, and fled in confusion. Had it not been for the gallantry of the detachment who defended a redoubt which served as a téte du pont, the bridge would have at once been won, and the whole Roman army might have been destroyed. Catulus on this occasion, according to the construction which Plutarch thinks fit to put upon his conduct, like an able and excellent general, preferred the glory of his fellow-citizens to his own. For when he found himself unable to prevail upon his men to keep their ground, choosing that the dishonour should fall upon his own head, he ordered a retreat, and placing himself in front of the fugitives, fell back behind the Po, thus abandoning the whole of Transpadane Gaul to the ravages of the enemy. As soon as the news of this disaster, which happened in the spring of 101, reached Rome, Marius, who had recently returned to the city, instantly set forth to the assistance of his late colleague. The united armies of the consul and proconsul crossed the Po, and hastened in search of the Cimbri, whom they found to the westward of Milan, near Vercelli (Vercellae), searching, it would appear, for the Teutoni, of whose destruction they had not yet received intelligence. The account of the engagement, which was fought on the 30th of July, transmitted to us by Plutarch, savours not a little of the marvellous. The Roman forces amounted to about fifty thousand men, of whom twenty thousand under Catulus occupied the centre, while the remainder, commanded by Marius, were posted on the wings. When the battle was joined, a prodigious dust arose which hid the combatants from each other. Marius missed the enemy, and having passed beyond, wandered about seeking them in vain, while the chief brunt of the conflict fell upon Catulus, and to him therefore belonged the honour of the decisive victory which was gained. It must be remarked that this version of the story is confessedly derived from the commentaries of Sulla, and probably also from the historical work of Catulus himself, and since both of these authorities were not only inclined to make the most of their own exploits, but were also stimulated by violent hatred towards Marius, we cannot receive their testimony with any confidence. It is certain that great jealousy existed between the two armies; it is certain also that at Rome the whole merit of having saved his country was given to Marius, and, that the same feeling existed to a certain degree nearly two centuries afterwards is proved by the well-known line of Juvenal (8.253), Nobilis ornatur lauro collega secunda.

Catulus was one of those who took an active share in the death of Saturninus; he served with distinction in the Social war, and having eagerly espoused the cause of Sulla in the civil strife which followed, his name was included among the list of victims in the great proscription of 87. As escape was impossible, he shut himself up in a newly-plastered chamber, kindled a (charcoal) fire, and was quickly suffocated by the vapours.

Catulus was a highly educated and generally accomplished man, deeply versed in Greek literature, and especially famed for the extreme grace and purity with which he spoke and wrote his own language. (Cic. de Orat. 3.8, Brut. 35.) He was the author of several orations, of an historical work on his own Consulship and the Cimbric war, composed in the style of Xenophon, and of poems ; but the whole of these have perished with the exception of a couple of epigrams, not remarkable for any peculiar ease or felicity of expression, one of which is given by Cicero (de Nat. Deor. 1.28), and the other by A. Gellius (19.9).

Two edifices in Rome are spoken of by ancient writers as " Monumenta Catuli"--the temple of " Fortune hujusce diei," vowed at the battle of Vercelli, and the " Porticus Catuli" on the Palatine, built with the proceeds of the Cimbric spoils. A portion of the latter edifice was destroyed by Clodius when he razed the house of Cicero. (The passages of Cicero referring to Catulus are given in Orelli, Onom. Tull. ii. p. 366, &c.; Plut. Mar. Sull. ; Appian, App. BC 1.74; Vell. 2.21; Flor. 3.21; V. Max. 6.3, 9.12; Plin. Nat. 34.19. Catulus is introduced in the De Oratore, and is represented as accompanying his half-brother, C. Julius Caesar Strabo, to the Tusculanum of Crassus. The mother of Catulus was Popillia, whose second husband was L. Julius Caesar, father of the above-named Caesar.) [Comp. Caesar, Nos. 8, 10.]

4. Q. Lutatius Catulus, Q. F. Q. N., son of No. 3, narrowly escaped his father's fate, having been included in the same proscription. Throughout life he was distinguished as one of the prominent leaders of the aristocracy, but rose far superior to the great body of his class in purity and singleness of purpose, and received from the whole community marks of esteem and confidence seldom bestowed with unanimity in periods of excitement upon an active political leader. Being consul along with M. Aemiiius Lepidus in B. C. 78, the year in which Sulla died, he steadily resisted the efforts of his colleague to bring about a counter revolution by abrogating the acts of the dictator, and when, the following spring, Lepidus marched against the city at the head of the remnants of the Marian faction, he was defeated by Catulus in the battle of the Milvian bridge, and forced to take refuge in Sardinia, where he soon after perished in an attempt to organize an insurrection. [Lepidus.] Catulus, although trite to his party and his principles, denounced the corrupt practices which disgraced the senate while they possessed the exclusive right to act as judices on criminal trials; his opinion upon this subject was most unequivocally expressed when Pompeius brought forward his measure (B. C. 70) for restoring the privileges of the tribunes, and his presence as a judex upon the impeachment of Verres was probably one of the circumstances which deprived the culprit of all hope. He came forward as an opponent of the Gabinian and Manilian laws (B. C. 67 and 66), and Cicero records the tribute paid by the populace, on the latter occasion, to his character and talents; for when, in the course of an argument against the extravagant powers which the contemplated enactment proposed to bestow upon a single individual, Catulus asked the multitude to whom they would look should any misfortune befal their favourite, the crowd, almost with one voice, shouted back the reply, that they would look to himself. When censor along with Crassus in 65, he withstood the measures of his colleague, who desired to make Egypt tributary to Rome, and so firm was each in maintaining his position, that at length both resigned without effecting anything. During the progress of the Catilinarian plot (B. C. 63), he strenuously supported Cicero, and either he or Cato was the first to hail him as " parents patriae." If we are to believe Sallust, Catulus used every effort to prevail upon Cicero to insert the name of Caesar among the conspirators, stimulated, it is said, by a recent grudge; for, when candidate for the office of chief pontiff, he had been defeated by Caesar. That a bad feeling existed between them is clear, for the first act of Caesar when he became praetor, on the first of January, 62, was an attempt to deprive his former rival of the office of commissioner for the restoration of the Capitol, which had been destroyed by fire during the civil war (83), an appointment held by him ever since the death of Sulla. But the optimates who were escorting the new consuls, upon hearing of the attempt, rushed in a body to the forum and by their united efforts threw out the bill. Thus the name of Catulus became connected with the Capitol and remained inscribed on the temple until it was again consumed in the reign of Vitellius.

Catulus died during the consulship of Metellus Celer, B. C. 60, happy, says Cicero, both in the splendour of his life and in having been spared the spectacle of his country's ruin. He was not considered an orator, but at the same time possessed the power of expressing his opinions with learning, grace, and wisdom. (Orelli, Onom. Tull. ii. p. 367, &c.; Sall. Catil. 35, 49, Frag. Histor. i. iii.; Tac. Hist. 3.72; Sueton. Jul. 15, Galb. 2 ; V. Max. 6.9.5; Plut. Crass. 13, Cat. Min. 16; Senec. Epis/t. 97; D. C. 36.13, calls him princeps senatus, τὰ τε πρῶτα τῆς Βουλῆς ἦν, at the time of the Gabinian law. See also 37.37, 46, 45.2; Orelli, Inscrip. n. 31.) [W.R]

(1) Q. Lutatius. A Roman naval commander, famous for his victory over the fleet of the Carthaginians, consisting of 400 sail, off the Aegates Insulae: forty of the Carthaginian vessels were sunk, seventy taken, and the remainder dispersed. This celebrated victory put an end to the First Punic War.

(2) Quintus. A celebrated Roman, the colleague of Marius in the consulship, and one who jointly triumphed with him over the Cimbri. He was condemned to death by Marius, during the tyrannical sway of the latter, and suffocated himself in a newly plastered room by the steam caused by a large fire (Vell. Paterc. ii. 22).