Marcus Manlius

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Marcus Manlius Capitolinus, a patrician of the Roman Republic, was consul in 390 BC.

According to tradition, when in 390 BC the besieging Gauls of Brennus were attempting to scale the Capitoline Hill, he was roused by the cackling of the sacred geese, rushed to the spot and threw down the foremost assailants (Livy v. 47; Plutarch, Camillus, 27). Marcus Manlius led a small garrison for several months resisted the Gauls, while all of Rome was abandoned.

Several years after, seeing a centurion led to prison for debt, he freed him with his own money, and even sold his estate to relieve other poor debtors, while he accused the Senate of embezzling public money. He was charged with aspiring to kingly power, and condemned by the comitia, but not until the assembly had adjourned to a place without the walls, where they could no longer see the Capitol which he had saved.

His house on the Capitol (the origin of his cognomen) was razed, and the Manlii resolved that henceforth no patrician Manlius should bear the name of Marcus. According to Mommsen, the story of the saving of the Capitol was a later invention to explain his cognomen.

After this sack of Rome left the Plebeians in pitiful condition, they were forced to borrow large sums of money from the Patricians. They once again became the poor debtor class of Rome. The hero of Rome, patrician Marcus Manlius fought for them. Believing personal goals and aims were the reason, the senate condemned him to death, and he was thrown from the Tarpeian Rock. He is considered the second of martyrs at Rome in the cause of social reform.