Marcus Furius Camillus

Marcus Furius Camillus (c. 26 BC – after AD 18) was a Roman senator and a close friend of the emperor Tiberius. Despite being without previous military experience, he enjoyed several successes against the Numidian rebel Tacfarinas while serving as governor of Africa, and was even praised in public by the Emperor and awarded triumphal honours. The historian Tacitus, in his Annales (published AD 109), joked that Camillus subsequently lived invisibly enough to survive this great honour (an allusion to the endless series of executions of prominent senators on spurious treason charges under Tiberius). Early life He was a member of the gens Furia, whose origin had been in the Latin city of Tusculum. An early member of this family was Marcus Furius Camillus (c. 446 - 365 BC), who was known as the Second Founder of Rome for his victory over the Gauls during the Gallic siege of Rome. The family had declined over the centuries and by the time of Augustus they were relatively unimportant. Career Information about his early career is not known but if he had followed the cursus honorum he would probably have been 33 years old at the time of his consulship in 8 AD. This was the normal age for a man of patrician rank to become consul under the Principate as opposed to during the Roman Republic when the minimum age was 40. From this information we can guess that he had been a Quaestor (1 BC), an Aedile (2 BC), Praetor (5 BC) and a governor of a small province before becoming Consul. In 17 AD he was named Proconsul of Africa and inherited a war against the Numidian insurgent Tacfarinas. The war proved to be a difficult one because the tribes of this region did not live in towns which the Romans could attack. Camillus then had to fight a tough campaign of guerrilla warfare against the tribes who were very adept at this type of war and would not be easily subdued.