page_title: Lucius Postumius Megellus (consul 305 BC)
section_title: Third consulship
hierarchical_section_title: Lucius Postumius Megellus (consul 305 BC) / Third consulship
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Affresco di una tomba sannitica rinvenuta a Nola (non Paestum&#160;!), già facente parte della collezione del duca Carafa di Noja, oggi nel Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (inv. nr. 9363). [Tomba Weege 30]. Mostra il ritorno di guerrieri sanniti dalla battaglia. English: Samnite soldiers from a tomb fresco from Nola, 4th century BCE. Museo archeologico nazionale di Napoli (inv. nr. 9363).
context_page_description: Lucius Postumius Megellus was a politician and general during the middle years of the Roman Republic. Reportedly an arrogant and overbearing man, he was elected consul in 305 BC. The Second Samnite War was ongoing, and as consul he led troops against the Samnites. He defeated them at the Battle of Bovianum and took the town of Bovianum, which caused the Samnites to sue for peace, ending the war. Megellus was awarded a triumph.
  Six years later the Third Samnite War broke out. Megellus again served in a senior role, but saw little fighting and after a year his army was disbanded. In 294 he was elected consul for a second time. He led a consular army but was defeated, wounded and driven away. Recovering he led out another army and captured two towns. He then celebrated a second triumph in defiance of the senate's wishes. Only his subsequent participation in the victorious Battle of Aquilonia prevented his prosecution.
  Two years later, as the war was drawing to a close, Megellus held the office which oversaw the consular elections. He exploited this to have himself elected consul, in spite of the law requiring a ten year gap.
context_section_description: As soon as he left the office on 1 January 293, Megellus was immediately threatened with impeachment for his actions as consul by one of the tribunes, Marcus Cantius. With the ongoing crisis of the Samnite war, however, his military ability meant that he was desperately needed. Consequently, he was appointed legatus, a high military office, to the consul Spurius Carvilius Maximus, and agreement was reached to suspend his prosecution until the end of the campaigning season. However, the victories achieved by Carvilius Maximus, especially the Battle of Aquilonia, at which Megellus fought, resulted in the trial never taking place, as his opponents believed that his popularity meant that he would have inevitably been found innocent.
  At the end of 292, Megellus was appointed interrex in order to convene the Comitia Curiata and hold the consular elections. This office gave its holder the most senior position in Rome for the duration of the elections. During the election process, with the war against Samnium virtually won, he took the highly unusual step of nominating himself, thereby breaking the law prohibiting men serving as consul again until ten years had elapsed. Upon winning and entering office as senior consul in 291 BC, his first act was to demand that Samnium be assigned to him as his theatre of war, without waiting for the outcome of the drawing of lots for the provincial commands. Over the strenuous objections of his colleague Gaius Junius Bubulcus Brutus, who in the end decided not to impose his veto, Megellus’ request was granted. He then levied troops for that year’s campaigning season, even though Samnite resistance was almost completely crushed, and the previous year’s consul, Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges was still in the field with an army which he was commanding with proconsular authority. Regardless, he took his army into the field and marched to the borders of Samnium.
  Over the course of the last two years, Megellus had acquired large tracts of uncleared land from the Samnites which, although they were technically public land, he treated as his own. Instead of immediately going to join Gurges, who was besieging Cominium, he used some 2,000 of his soldiers to begin clearing the land, which he had them do for some considerable time, before moving to finally join Gurges. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a jealous Megellus prevented Gurges from taking the Samnite stronghold of Cominium. Approaching the town, Megellus wrote to Gurges, ordering him to withdraw from Samnium. Gurges declined, declaring his command had been given to him by the Senate, and wrote to Rome, asking the Senate to confirm his command. The Senate sent a delegation of senators to Megellus, stating that he was not to countermand the Senate’s decree. He responded to the deputation that, as long as he was the duly elected consul of Rome, it was up to him to command the Senate, not for the Senate to dictate to him how he was to go about his duties. He then marched on to Cominium, and forced Gurges to stand down from his command. Gurges had no choice but to obey, and Megellus, having taken command of both armies, immediately sent Gurges back to Rome. Cominium quickly fell, and he followed this up with a campaign against the Hirpini, followed by the capture of Venusia.
  With Venusia taken, Megellus recommended that the Senate should turn it into a Roman colony. Although the Senate followed his advice, they were swayed by the Fabii, who were the enemies of Megellus, and refused to appoint him as one of the commissioners responsible for assigning the lands to the colonists and overseeing  the foundation of the new settlement. Infuriated, Megellus decided to distribute all the plunder of the campaign amongst his soldiers, in order to prevent the Treasury of Rome getting any of the booty. Further, he disbanded his armies before his successor arrived to relieve him. Returning to Rome, he demanded another triumph for his victories, which the Senate refused to grant him. He petitioned the people to support him, but he only received lukewarm suppo
caption: Samnite soldiers from a tomb frieze in Nola, 4th century BC
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