What is it about?
The Romans, who believed they waged only just war, resorted to terrorism and then deceit to prevent king Lars Porsenna of Clusium from restoring Tarquin II, according to Livy and many other sources. Mucius tried to assassinate the Etruscan king, and when that failed, he told him 100 other Romans would come to assassinate him day after day. Rather than live in permanent fear, the king abandoned the war. In truth, Mucius was lying about the other assassins. Yet Romans rank him among their heroes, despite his methods. This paper explains why Romans regard assassination as beneath them, despite their embrace of an early practitioner.
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Why is it important?
This paper addresses ancient assassination and the use of terrorism long before the modern era. It also examines the peculiar hero worship of a dubious candidate, who should not be a hero according to normal Roman standards.
Perspectives
Mucius Scaevola was one of Rome's great early heroes, many of whom have an important flaw. Horatius the triplet was a sororicide; Brutus pretended to be a fool. Another hero of great interest to me was Regulus, who was an arrogant blowhard whose overly harsh terms offered to Carthage in the First Punic War caused the destruction of his army, his own capture and execution, and prolonged the First Punic War by 14 years an an additional 150,000 Roman deaths. Yet Regulus was converted into the Republic's greatest martyr before Cato the Younger (see especially Cicero and Seneca on Regulus). The study of Roman heroes, who often personify a good Roman quality tells us much about what Romans considered greatness. Mucius Scaevola was another such exemplar, and a distinguished family claimed descent from him, that had prominent consuls and jurists an a Pontifex Maximus down to the lifetime of Cicero. That Romans adored him may surprise many in the modern world who hear rhetoric that terrorists are evil and cowardly, without considering the principles they champion.
Dr. Gaius Stern (Ph.D.)
University of California Berkeley
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Mucius Scaevola: An Ancient Roman Terrorist, July 2023, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004548466_006.
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