From Delphi, With Love

In 398, the Romans received some worrying signs from the gods, and now we return with a special message for them: From Delphi, With Love.

Episode 157 – From Delphi, With Love

In 397 BCE, the Romans were waging war on all fronts. On top of their ongoing siege at Veii, they were contesting their hold on Anxur with the Volscians, and their colony at Labici against the Aequians. Never ones to shy away from drama, the Romans were also dealing with internal division between the patricians and the plebeians. PHEW! Sounds exhausting.

Rude Raiders

The Tarquinii, from another part of Etruria, also noticed that the Romans had a lot on their plate. Now was their moment to attack and score some booty! The Romans were highly offended that anyone could even THINK of attacking them when they were already so busy. It was time for an etiquette lesson…

The Romans wiped the floor with these rude raiders, but the rest of their campaigns were in a stalemate. They weren’t losing, but they weren’t winning either. Clearly they needed some divine help, direct from Delphi.

The Temple of Apollo at Delphi, Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

The ambassadors that had been seen to the Delphic Oracle after the sudden rise in the levels of the Alban Lake in 398 returned at this moment. They confirmed what the kidnapped soothsayer from Veii had told them in 398. Lower the levels of the lake and you will have your victory at Veii. Suddenly their captive seemed much more valuable.

Getting Square

Aside from their lack of military victories and the higher levels of water in the Alban Lake, the Romans discovered another sign that all was not right. When the magistrates for 397 had been proclaimed, something had gone wrong. Magistrates were proclaimed during the annual Latin festival for Jupiter Latiaris. If a mistake was made during the sacrifice or proclamation, there was only one thing to do. Get rid of this lot of magistrates and start all over.

An interregnum ensued whilst the Romans sorted out their magistrate woes. Very unusually, the Romans set their sights on someone who was not even campaigning, Publius Licinius Calvus. Calvus had been the first confirmed plebeian to become military tribune with consular power and was known to be very moderate. But how would the Romans pull off his election? Tune in to find out more!

Things to Look Out For:

• Aeneas’ dad, Latinus  
• The Etruscans giving Veii the cold shoulder, AGAIN!
• Tips on the proper way to sacrifice a bull
• Volcanic activity
• Roman-style Christmas hampers
• Highlights of happenings in the wider Mediterranean world

Our Players for 397 BCE

Military Tribune with Consular Power

• L. Iulius L. f. Vopisci n. Iullus (Pat) Mil. Tr. c.p. 401
• L. Furius L. f. Sp. n. Medullinus (Pat) Cos. 413, 409, Mil. Tr. c.p. 407, 405, 398, 395, 394, 391
• L. Sergius M. f. L. n. Fidenas (Pat)
• A. Postumius – f. – n. Albinus Regillensis (Pat)
• P. Cornelius P. f. M. n. Maluginensis (Pat) Cos. 393? Mil. Tr. c.p. 390
• A. Manlius A. f. Cn. n. Vulso Capitolinus (Pat) Mil. Tr. c.p. 405, 402

Legates; Ambassadors

• (Cn. Cornelius) Cossus (Pat) Mil. Tr. c.p. 406, 404, 401
• (P.) Licinius (Calvus Esquilinus) Mil. Tr. c.p. 400, 396
• (L.) Valerius Potitus (Pat) Cos. 392, Mil. Tr. c.p. 414, 406, 403, 401, 398

OR

• (C.) Valerius Potitus (Volusus) (Pat) Cos. 410, Mil. Tr. c.p. 415, 404
• (K.) Fabius Ambustus (Pat) Mil. Tr. c.p. 410, 404, 401, 395, 309?

OR

• (Num.) Fabius Ambustus (Pat) Mil. Tr. c.p. 406

Our Sources

• Dr Rad reads Livy, 5.16-18.
• Dr G reads Diodorus Siculus, 14.85.1; Fasti Capitolini.
• Bradley, G. 2020. Early Rome to 290 BC (Edinburgh University Press).
• Broughton, T. R. S., Patterson, M. L. 1951. The Magistrates of the Roman Republic Volume 1: 509 B.C. – 100 B.C. (The American Philological Association)
• Cornell, T. J. 1995. The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000-264 BC) (Taylor & Francis) Forsythe, G. 2006. A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War (University of California Press) 
• Kraus, C. S. 2020. ‘Urban Disasters and Other Romes: The Case of Veii’ in Closs, V. M., Keitel, E. eds. Urban Disasters and the Roman Imagination (De Gruyter), 17-31.
• Lomas, Kathryn (2018). The rise of Rome. History of the Ancient World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. doi:10.4159/9780674919938. ISBN978-0-674-65965-0. S2CID239349186.
• Ogilvie, R. M. 1965. A Commentary on Livy: Books 1-5 (Clarendon Press). 
• Raaflaub, K. A. 2006. Social struggles in archaic Rome: new perspectives on the conflict of the orders (2nd ed). (Wiley).
• Smith, C. 2019. ‘Furius Camillus and Veii’, in Taboli, J., Cerasuolo, O. (eds.) Veii (University of Texas Press), 219-224.
• Young, J. 1875. ‘The Alban Lake’ The Athenaeum no. 2505, pp 575-576.

Sound Credits

Our music is composed by the amazing Bettina Joy de Guzman.

Automated Transcript

Dr Rad 0:00
Hi listeners. Before we get into today’s episode, Dr G and I would just like to mention that we will once again be presenting at the podcast event of the year, Intelligence Speech in 2025 this event will be taking place on February 8, starting at 9am Eastern Standard Time. The tickets are $30 and are available at intelligentspeechonline.com this year’s topic is deception. So we will be hearing about all sorts of fake history. And historical deception seems timely. Last year, we had a blast talking about Augustus failed attempts to secure an air and we’re looking forward to presenting on something similarly Imperial and scandalous this year. We hope that you can join us and all your other favorite podcasters at Intelligent Speech, and now on with the episode you

Music. Welcome to the partial historians.

Dr G 1:13
We explore all the details of ancient Rome,

Dr Rad 1:18
Everything from political scandals, the love affairs, the battles wage, and when citizens turn against each other, I’m Dr rad, and

Dr G 1:28
I’m Dr G. We consider Rome as the Romans saw it, by reading different authors from the ancient past and comparing their stories.

Dr Rad 1:38
Join us as we trace the journey of Rome from the founding of the city.

Hello and welcome to a brand new episode of the partial historians. I am one of your hosts, Dr rad, and

Dr G 1:59
I am Dr G, and I’m super excited to be here because we’re about to talk about 397 BCE, indeed,

Dr Rad 2:09
we are Dr G as we trace the story of room from the founding of the city. But before we get to 397 Can we please quickly recap what happened in 398,

Dr G 2:22
look, there was some sort of lake. It rose up. I think that might be all I recall. Yeah, no, it was important. I didn’t have a lot of evidence, but I think I had some things that suggested that, you know, we had a dangerous time. There was some reading of some portents, one of the people from they revealed the nature of the portent to the Romans, which then prompted the Romans to take some action to make sure the portent worked out in their favor.

Dr Rad 2:51
You are more correct than you know. Dr G, so we’re right in the middle of this lengthy siege of they a rival Etruscan city to Rome, that even though we’ve got this very epic story, is actually not that far away. But we understand why the Romans want to conquer it. It’s powerful. It’s on their doorstep. It’s from a rival peoples they want it for their close to home. Yeah, and it’s been dragging on for a while. It’s been causing internal tension in Rome over issues like military pay and military service. So the quicker this is wrapped up, the better. And last episode, we did indeed have a man from ve, potentially an older man, a soothsayer of some kind, being kidnapped, and he revealed that the only way Rome was going to be able to conquer the city of a was if they figured out how to deal with the excessive water in this particular lake that you mentioned.

Dr G 3:52
Now, intriguing. Now, I have to say, one of our Patreon supporters got in touch with us about this, to discuss the way that there is some evidence from a volcanology perspective, that’s right, or the flooding of these kinds of volcanic lakes from volcanic activity that happens below them that then pushes the water up above the line that it usually sits at. So if you’ve got a lot of magma moving around under the surface, all of a sudden, you might get a situation which appears preternatural, but is actually the result of volcanic activity. And I loved the fact that they reached out with this detail, because I am not a volcanologist. I am an ancient historian.