Menenius Agrippa

:"For others with this name, see Agrippa (disambiguation)."Menenius Agrippa (lat. "Agrippa Menenius Lanatus") was a Roman of the patrician class. Was consul in 503 BC, with Publius Postumius Tubertus, conquered the Sabines and obtained the honour of a triumph on account of his victory. [Liv., "Ab Urbe condita libri": II. 16, 32, 33.]

According to Livy, writing five hundred years after the fact, Menenius was chosen by the patricians to persuade soldiers serving in the Roman army to re-enter the city and rejoin the community 494 BC. The soldiers had withdrawn from Rome in the first of so-called "secessions" ("secessio plebis"), specifically to protest the oppressive debt laws, but more broadly to protest the severe inequity of power in the early republic.

Livy says that Menenius told the soldiers a fable about the parts of the human body and how each has its own purpose in the greater function of the body. The rest of the body thought the stomach was getting a free ride so the body decided to stop nourishing the stomach. Soon, the other parts became fatigued and unable to function so they realized that the stomach did serve a purpose and they were nothing without it. In the story, the stomach represents the patrician class and the other body parts represent the plebs. Eventually, Livy concludes, the patricians conceded to some of the plebs' demands, such as creating a tribune of the people and establishing legal protection for all citizens against arbitrary intervention from an elected magistrate, and the soldiers returned to the city.

It is not improbable that St Paul, an educated Roman citizen, knew this story (not necessarily through Livy) and was prompted by it in his use of the same parable when he admonished the Christians of Corinth that, for all their "diversity of gifts", they were all members of one body (I Cor. 12: 13 ff).

It is important to note, however, that all ancient accounts of early Roman history are compromised by uneven use of sources, the author's bias toward either senatorial or popular interests, and sheer uncertainty. The very existence of the classes "plebeian" and "patrician" in the earliest period of Rome's history, for example, has been questioned by modern scholars. [ survey by A. Drummond, "Rome in the fifth century II," ch. 5, The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 7.2, The Rise of Rome.]

He had a son that would become consul in 439 BC. [Walbank, F. W. & A. E. Astin & M. W. Frederiksen & R. M. Ogilvie. (1990) "The Cambridge Ancient History", Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23446-8.]

He was also featured in William Shakespeare's Coriolanus.

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