The Family and Early Career of T. Quinctius Flamininus

There is hardly a more important character in the history of the Roman Republic than the young Patrician who first laid down the lines of Roman policy in Greece and the Eastand hardly a more mysterious one, despite frequent discussion. It is only the first and perhaps the most puzzling of the problems concerning him that will occupy us here; but the very fact that it is the first gives it an importance quite independent of other considerations: we are not likely to solve the others as long as this one is ignored. How did a young man of about twenty-nine come to be elected to a consulship and entrusted with a major war that had been going badly for Rome, after holding no office higher than the quaestorship 2 -and holding even this lowly charge so inconspicuously that Livy does not even mention him in it? The very facts make it clear that we cannot give a certain answer: the evidence is not good enough. Family alliances have been invoked, themselves poorly attested (if at all) and open to many interpretations; and they merely manage to cancel one another out.3 Miinzer, the master of them that know prosopography, in the end had to confess defeat: ' It is not at all apparent how Flamininus won the general confidence at such an early age.'4 Gundel, whose article in RE is based on Miinzer for the family background, inconclusively summarizes the inconclusive debate. I propose, after serving notice of inevitable use of conjecture, to approach the matter in a new way: perhaps closer investigation of the stemma may turn out helpful; perhaps a close look at that inconspicuous early career may be profitably employed in conjunction with the results of this.5 We start, perhaps topically, with a haircut-a historic haircut, if we are to believe Miinzer. The Patrician Quinctii were obviously proud of their hair. The old cognominaCincinnatus, Crispinus, Barbatus-speak for themselves.6 Hence the importance of a haircut. So Miinzer thought; and he arranged the almost impenetrable stemma of the Quinctii by that criterion; not unreasonably, except that the foundation was not very solidly laid.7 Barbers, he reminds us, first came to Rome from Sicily about 300 B.c., as Varro relates.8 At this time a Quinctius was flamen Dialis-the origin of the famous cognomen is made clear by the priestly apex on the coins of a later Quinctius.9 Now, Gellius informs us that the hair of the priest of Jupiter must not be cut by a slave: 10 surely this law was passed when the Greek tonsores (' slaves, of course ') first came to Rome; the conservative fiamen stood out against the fashion and refused to have his hair cut, while another Quinctius (perhaps a brother) had his cut short (and, we must add as a minor premiss which Miinzer omits, it thereupon grew curly). Hence their respective sons, probably homonymous and in need of distinction, came to be called, one Crispinus and one Flamininus: son of theshort-haired-curly one and son of the-long-haired-priest." Thus Miinzer. Alas, the historic haircut turns out, on scrutiny, to be historical fictiona sidelight on a facet of Miinzer's character (that of the lovable anecdotalist) often ignored by those ploughing through Adelsparteien, rather than a brilliant illumination of history. We need not even discuss (though we must mention) some of the questionable assumptions on which the story is based, such as the date when the taboo originated (surely not as late as