Appius Claudius Pulcher (consul 212 BC)
Appius Claudius Pulcher (
Latin:
APP•CLAVDIVS•P•F•APP•N•PVLCHER) was a
Roman general of the
3rd century BC, active in the
Second Punic War.
Son of
Publius Claudius Pulcher (consul
249 BC), in
217 BC he was aedile.
[Livy, xxii. 53.] In the following year he was
military tribune, and fought at
Cannae. Together with
Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major he was raised to the supreme command by the troops who had fled to
Canusium. In
215 BC he was created
praetor, and conducted the relics of the defeated army into
Sicily, where his efforts to detach Hieronymus, the grandson of
Hiero II, from his connexion with the
Carthaginians, were unsuccessful.
[Livy, xxiii. 24, 30, 31, xxiv. 6, 7.] He remained in Sicily the following year also, as
propraetor and
legatus to
Marcus Claudius Marcellus,
[Livy, xxiv. 10, 21, 27, 29, 30, 33, 36.][ Polybius, viii. 3, 5, 9.] having charge of the fleet and the camp at
Leontini.
[Livy, xxiv. 39.] In
213 BC, when the
Carthaginians landed there, he co-commanded an expedition to the island with M. Claudius Marcellus. In
212 BC he was elected consul, and in conjunction with his colleague
Quintus Fulvius Flaccus undertook the siege to
Capua. At the close of his year of office, in pursuance of a decree of the
Senate, he went to Rome and created two new consuls. His own command was prolonged another year. In the battle with
Hannibal before Capua he received a wound, from the effects of which he died shortly after the surrender of the city. He ineffectually opposed the infliction of the sanguinary vengeance which Fulvius took on the Capuans.
[ Livy, xxv. 2, 22, 41, xxvi. 1, 5, 6, 8, 15, 16.][Polybius, ix. 3.] He was the father of
Appius Claudius Pulcher (consul 185 BC),
Publius Claudius Pulcher (consul 184 BC) and
Gaius Claudius Pulcher (consul 177 BC).
This entry incorporates public domain text originally from:*
William Smith (ed.),
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1870.
