Publius Furius Sp.f. Philus

Publius Furius Sp.f. Philus, otherwise known as Publius Furius Philus (killed in battle 213 BC), a member of a member of the gens Furii of the branch cognomated Philus, was a consul and censor of the Middle Roman Republic.

He was the son of Spurius Furius Philus, of whom nothing is known. The Furii Phili were apparently Roman patricians belonging to the ancient patrician gens (clan) of Furii (gens Furia), which had given rise in another branch to the distinguished ancient Roman general Marcus Furius Camillus (d. 364 BC).

Consulship 223 BC

Publius Furius Philus was the first member of his stirps (branch) to become consul, in 223 BC along with the plebeian Gaius Flaminius C.f..

During their consulship, both consuls were ordered to resign on the grounds that they had been improperly inaugurated; Philus resigned immediately, but Flaminius refused and went on to win a triumph. (Flaminius was deeply unpopular in the Senate, partly because of this action and his own politics; he was however re-elected consul in 217 BC). Philus's piety or his obedience to the mos maiorum (the traditions of Ancient Rome) probably led to his subsequent election as censor in 214 BC, along with Marcus Atilius M.f. Regulus (himself twice consul). His co-consul Flaminius had become censor, however, in 220 BC, much earlier than the dutiful Philus.

Censorship 214-213 BC with Regulus

Philus and Regulus were notable during their "lustrum"(the two year period when the Roman state was ritually cleansed and when the censors were active) for their actions in condemning and degrading two groups of Romans of high rank, including senators and equestrians. The first group were those Roman officers captured in the Battle of Cannae (August 216 BC) who had come as Carthaginian hostages to Rome to plead for their ransom (and those of their fellow prisoners), and who had then refused to return to Carthaginian captivity when the Senate refused to ransom any prisoners. These officers were not only degraded by the censors but were despised by their fellow Romans. The second group degraded by the censors Philus and Regulus were those Romans who had advocated surrender to Carthage after Cannae, or had made plans to flee Rome and offer their services in Greece, Egypt, or Asia Minor. The most notable of these Romans was Lucius Caecilius Metellus, who had been aedile and who was later elected tribune of the plebs. Caecilius Metellus was degraded by the censors, i.e., stripped of his membership in the Senate and rank as a Senator, but also degraded from the equestrian rank and reduced to an aerarian.

The censors also took other actions deemed necessary in those troubled months when Rome was fighting Hannibal for the control of Tarentum, Capua, Venusia and other strategic cities and towns in southern Italy.

When Lucius Caecilius Metellus was elected tribune of the plebs (probably in December 214 BC), he attempted to prosecute the censors for having degraded him. The censors were however not put on trial; the opinion then was that censors were immune from prosecution for their official acts.

Death and consequences for Roman state

During the "lustrum", Publius Furius Philus died in battle, apparently during an ambush when he was commanding the Roman cavalry. It is not clear if he was the first Roman censor to die in battle during the lustrum; the effect was that the lustrum could not be completed and his colleague Regulus was obliged to resign.

The next censors, one of whom died before taking office, were not elected until 210 BC; obviously, the surviving colleague Crassus was forced to resign, which meant no lustrum could be undertaken. It was only the succeeding pair of censors Marcus Cornelius Cethegus and Publius Sempronius Tuditanus, elected 209 BC, who finally completed their lustrum in 207 BC.

Descendants

Philus is said to have had a son, also named Publius Furius Philus, who warned his friend Scipio Africanus about Lucius Caecilius Metellus's intentions to flee Rome instead of continuing fighting the Carthaginian forces after Cannae. [ [http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/2668.html William Smith. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, page 334 (v. 3)] . Retrieved 6 November 2007.] Nothing more is recorded of him in Livy, so he might have died during the Second Punic War.

Other Furii Phili are mentioned by Livy in succeeding years. A Publius Furius Philus was praetor in 174 BC, and went to Nearer Spain. He went into exile in 171 BC after being condemned by Cato the Elder for extortion. A Lucius Furius Philus (d. 170 BC), possibly his brother, was praetor in 171 BC, obtaining Sardinia for his province. He was a pontiff, a member of a college of priests, along with the consul Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Hispallus, in 176 BC. This Philus died in 170 BC. [ [http://www.uni-potsdam.de/u/klassphilol/priedv.htm A Prosopographical Data Base of Cultic Personnel in Ancient Rome] . Retrieved 6 November 2007.] [ [http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/2668.html William Smith. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, page 334 (v. 3)] ] . Both men may have been grandsons of the censor.

Publius Furius Philus may have been the ancestor of a later consul, Lucius Furius Philus who was consul in 136 BC and a good friend of Scipio Aemilianus.

Notes