Role Roman statesman | Name Marcus Regulus | |
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Preceded by Publius Sempronius Sophus and Appius Claudius Russus Succeeded by Decimus Iunius Pera and Numerius Fabius Pictor Succeeded by Marcus Aemilius Paullus and Servius Fulvius Paetinus Nobilior Children Gaius Atilius Regulus, Marcus Atilius Regulus Battles and wars Similar People Xanthippus of Carthage, Hamilcar Barca, Gaius Duilius, Pliny the Elder, Marcus Terentius Varro | ||
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Marcus Atilius Regulus (born probably before 307 BC–250 BC) was a Roman statesman and general who was a consul of the Roman Republic in 267 BC and 256 BC.
Contents
Life
Regulus first became consul in 267 BC, where he fought the Messapians. Elected as a consul again in 256 BC, he served as a general in the First Punic War (256 BC), where he defeated the Carthaginians in a naval battle at Cape Ecnomus near Sicily and invaded North Africa, winning victories at Aspis and Adys, until he was defeated and captured at Tunis in 255 BC. After he was released on parole to negotiate a peace, he is supposed to have urged the Roman Senate to refuse the proposals and then, over the protests of his own people, to have fulfilled the terms of his parole by returning to Carthage, where, according to Roman tradition, he was tortured to death. He was posthumously seen by the Romans as a model of civic virtue.
Family
Atilius Regulus, the son of the eponymous consul of 294 BC, descended from an ancient Calabrian family. According to later Roman historians, he married one Marcia, who tortured several Carthaginian prisoners to death on hearing of her husband's death. He had at least two sons and one daughter by Livy's account; both sons became consuls - Marcus in 227 BC and Gaius in 225 BC (killed in battle against the Gauls).
A brother or cousin, Gaius Atilius Regulus, served as consul in 257 BC and in 250 BC.