Duilius
1. M. Duilius, was tribune of the plebs in B. C. 471, in which year the tribunes were for the first time elected in the comitia of the tribes. In the year following, M. Duilius and his colleague, C. Sicinus, summoned Appius Claudius Sabinus, the consul of the year previous, before the assembly of the people, for the violent opposition he made to the agrarian law of Sp. Cassius. [Claudius, No. 2.] Twenty-two years later, B. C. 449, when the commonalty rose against the tyranny of the decemvirs, he acted as one of the champions of his order, and it was on his advice that the plebeians migrated from the Aventine to the Mons Sacer. When the decemvirs at length were obliged to resign, and the commonalty had returned to the Aventine, M. Duilius and C. Sicinus were invested with the tribuneship a second time, and Duilius immediately proposed and carried a rogation, that consuls should be elected, from whose sentence an appeal to the people should be left open. He then carried a plebiscitum, that whoever should leave the plebs without its tribunes, or create any magistrate without leaving an appeal to the people open against his verdicts, should be scourged and put to death. M. Duilius was a noble and high-minded champion of his order, and acted throughout that turbulent period with a high degree of moderation and wisdom. He kept the commonalty as well as his more vehement colleagues within proper bounds, for after sentence had been passed on the decemvirs, and when the tribunes appeared to wish to carry their revenge still further, Duilius declared that there had been enough punishment and hostility, and that, in the course of that year, he would not allow any fresh accusation to be brought forward, nor any person to be thrown into prison. This declaration at once allayed the fears of the patricians. When the tribunes for the next year were to be elected, the colleagues of Duilius agreed among themselves to continue in office for another year; but Duilius, who happened to preside at the election, refused to accept any votes for the reelection of his colleagues. They were obliged to submit to the law, and M. Duilius resigned his office and withdrew. (Liv. 2.58, 61, 3.52-54, 59, 64; Diod. 11.68; Dionys. A. R. 11.46; Cic. de Re Publ. 2.31.)
2. K. Duilius, was elected together with two other plebeians as decemvir for the year B. C. 450, and as in that year a war broke out with the Aequians and Sabines, K. Duilius and four of his colleagues were sent to Mount Algidus against the Aequians. After the abolition of the decemvirate, and when some of the decemvirs had been punished, Duilius escaped from sharing their fate by going into voluntary exile, whereupon his property, like that of the others who withdrew from Rome, was publicly sold by the quaestors. (Liv. 3.35. 41, 58; Dionys. A. R. 10.58, 11.23, 46.)
3. K. Duilius, was consul in B. C. 336, and two years later triumvir fcr the purpose of conducting a colony to Cales, a town of the Ausonians against which a war had been carried on during his consulship, and which had been reduced the year after. (Liv. 8.6; Diod. 17.28, where he is erroneously called Καίσων Οὐαλέριος; Cic. Fam. 9.21.)
4. M. Duilius, was tribune of the plebs in B. C. 357, in which year he and his colleague, L.Maenius, carried a rogation de unciario foenore, and another which prevented the irregular proceedings in the camps of the soldiers, such as the enactment of a law by the soldiers out of Rome, on the proposal of a consul. (Liv. 7.16, 19.)
5. C. Duilius, perhaps a brother of No. 4, was appointed, in B. C. 352, by the consuls one of the quinqueviri mensarii, for the liquidation of debts, and he and his colleague conducted their business with such skill and moderation, that they gained the gratitude of all parties. (Liv. 7.21.)
6. C. Duilius, probably a grandson of No. 4, was consul with Cn. Cornelius Asina in B. C. 260. In that year the coast of Italy was repeatedly ravaged by the Carthaginians, against whom the Romans could do nothing, as they were yet without a navy. The Romans then built their first fleet of one hundred quinqueremes and twenty triremes, using for their model a Carthaginian vessel which had been thrown on the coast of Italy. The sum total of the Roman ships is stated differently, for, according to Orosius (4.7), it amounted to 130, and according to Florus (2.2) to 160. This fleet is said to have been built in the short space of sixty days. According to some authorities (Zonar. 8.10; Aurel. Vict. de Vir. Illustr. 38; Oros. l.c.), Duilius obtained the command of this fleet, whereas, according to Polybius (1.22), it was given to his colleague Cn. Cornelius. The same writer states, that at first Cn. Cornelius sailed with 17 ships to Messana, but allowed himself to be drawn towards Lipara, and there fell into the hands of the Carthaginians. (Comp. Polyaen. 6.16.5.) Soon after, when the Roman fleet approached Sicily, Hannibal, the admiral of the Carthaginians, sailed out against it with 50 ships, but he fell in with the enemy before he was aware of it, and, after having lost most of his ships, he escaped with the rest. The Romans then, on hearing of the misfortune of Cn. Cornelius, sent to Duilins, who commanded the land army, and entrusted to him the command of their fleet. According to Zonaras (8.11), Duilius, who commanded the fleet from the beginning, when he perceived the disadvantages under which the clumsy ships of the Romans were labouring, devised the well-known grappling-irons (Κόρακες), by means of which the enemy's ships were drawn towards his, so that the sea-fight was, as it were, changed into a land-fight. (Plb. 1.22, &c.; Frontin. Strateg. 2.3.24.) When Duilius was informed that the Carthaginians were ravaging the coast of Myle in Sicily, he sailed thither with his whole armament, and soon met the Carthaginians, whose fleet consisted of 130, or, according to Diodorus (23.2, Excerpt. Vatic.), of 200 sail. The battle which ensued off Myle and near the Liparean islands, ended in a glorious victory of the Romans, which they mainly owed to their grappling-irons. In the first attack the Carthaginians lost 30, and in the second 50 more ships, and Hannibal escaped with difficulty in a little boat. According to Eutropius and Orosius, the loss of the Carthaginians was not as great as Polybius states. After the victory was completed, Duilius landed in Sicily, relieved the town of Egesta, which was closely besieged by the enemy, and took Macella by assault. Another town on the coast seems likewise to have been taken by him. (Frontin. Strateg. 3.2.2.) Here-upon he visited the several allies of Rome in Sicily, and among them also king Hiero of Syracuse; but when he wanted to return home, the Carthaginians endeavoured to prevent his sailing out of the harbour of Syracuse, though without success. (Frontin. Strateg. 1.5.6.)
On his return to Rome, Duilius celebrated a splendid triumph, for it was the first naval victory that the Romans had ever gained, and the memory of it was perpetuated by a column which was erected in the forum, and adorned with the beaks of the conquered ships (Plin. Nat. 34.5; Sil. Ital. Pun. 6.663, &c.; Quint. Inst. 1.7.12), while Duilius himself shewed his gratitude to the gods by erecting a temple to Janus in the forum Olitorium. (Tac. Ann. 2.49; comp. a somewhat different account in Servius, on Virg. Georg. 3.29, who says, that Duilius erected two columnae rostratae, one in the forum and the other at the entrance of the circus.) The column in the forum existed in the time of Pliny and Quintilian, but whether it was the original one has been questioned. It is generally believed that the original inscription which adorned the basis of the column is still extant. It was dug out of the ground in the 16th century, in a mutilated condition, and it has since often been printed with attempts at restoration. There are, however, in that inscription some orthographical peculiarities, which suggest, that the present inscription is a later restoration of the original one. This suspicion was expressed by the first editor, P. Ciacconius, and has been repeated by Niebuhr (Hist. of Rome, iii. p. 579), who, in a later publication (Lectures on Rom. Hist. i. p. 18, ed. Schmitz) remarks, "The present table which contains the inscription is not the original one, for it is a piece of Greek marble, which was unknown at Rome in the time of Duilius. The original column was struck by lightning in the time of Tiberius, and was faithfully restored by Germanicus." Duilius was further rewarded for this victory, by being permitted, whenever he returned home from a banquet at night, to be accompanied by a torch and a flute-player. One more interesting fact is mentioned in connexion with his consulship, viz. in that year the senate of Rome forbade the interment of dead bodies within the city. (Serv. ad Aen. 11.206.) According to the Capitoline Fasti, Duilius was censor in B. C. 258, and in 231 dictator for the purpose of holding the comitia. Further Information
Comp. Liv. Epit. 17; Cic. de Senect. 13, Orat. 45, pro Planc. 25. [L.S]