Titus Manlius Torquatus (born before 279 BC – died 202 BC) was a politician of the Roman Republic. He had a long and distinguished career, being consul in 235 BC and 224 BC, censor in 231 BC, and dictator in 208 BC. He was an ally of Fabius Maximus "Cunctator".
Family background
Titus belonged to the patrician gens Manlia, one of the most important gentes of the Republic. It already counted 13 consulships, and 14 consular tribuneships before him. Titus' ancestry is a bit uncertain as the Fasti Consulares list him with the same filiation ("son of Titus, grandson of Titus") as Aulus Manlius Torquatus Atticus, who was consul two times in 244 BC and 241 BC, as well as censor in 247 BC, and possibly princeps senatus. Münzer tentatively supposed that Aulus was Titus' uncle. Titus' father and grandfather are not known, but his great-grandfather—also named Titus—was consul in 299 BC.
The cognomen Torquatus was first received by Titus' ancestor Titus Manlius Imperiosus in 361 BC after he had defeated a Gaul in single combat, and took his torque as a trophy. The torque then became the emblem of the family, whose members proudly put it on the coins they minted. Imperiosus Torquatus was famous for his severity; he famously killed his own son after he had disobeyed him during a battle.
Political career
Consul (235 BC) Titus' early career is not known because Livy's books on years 292 BC – 220 BC are lost. However, Broughton guessed that he entered the college of pontiffs in his youth, since he tried to be pontifex maximus in 212 BC and was therefore one of its senior members.
His first recorded mention was his election as consul in 235 BC, alongside Gaius Atilius Bulbus, a plebeian who had already been consul in 245 BC. Eutropius and Cassiodorus—who relied on Livy—described Titus as the consul prior, which means the Centuriate Assembly elected him before Atilius.Titus was sent to Sardinia, which had just come under Roman control in the aftermath of the First Punic War (264 BC – 241 BC). The war indemnity demanded by Rome was so high that Carthage could not pay its mercenaries, who rebelled. While Carthage was fighting the mercenaries in Africa, its mercenaries stationed in Sardinia decided to rebel as well. Rome initially refused to support the Sardinian rebels, but in 237 BC Rome prevented Carthage from reclaiming the island on the pretext that its army had actually turned against Rome. Titus' mission was therefore to pacify the island, which he did successfully. He received a triumph for his victory over the rebels as a result. Several ancient authors tell that after his victory, Titus closed the doors of the Temple of Janus, symbolically meaning that Rome and its neighbours were at peace. It was only the first time that the temple was closed since the reign of Numa Pompilius—the legendary second king of Rome—and remained so for eight years; its gates then stayed open until Augustus closed them again after the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. However, Livy says that this event took place "after the First Punic War", so some modern scholars place it in 241 BC, when Aulus Manlius Torquatus—Titus' uncle—was consul in order to celebrate the end of the First Punic War. This view has however been contested.
Titus' consulship marks a return to normal after the aggressive foreign policy of his predecessors, Lucius and Publius Cornelius Lentulus Caudinus, proponents of an expansionist strategy against Carthage and the Celts in Northern Italy. This policy lasted until 232 BC and the first consulship of Fabius Maximus, the most important Roman statesman of the second half of the third century, and the leader of the "peace faction" at Rome. The very powerful gens Fabia was also allied with the Manlii since at least the fourth century.
Censor and consul for the second time (231–224 BC) In 231 BC, Titus was elected censor prior with Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, who had already been consul in 237 BC. Because of a flaw in their election, they had to resign and could not complete the lustrum (the ritual purification of the Roman people). They were replaced the next year by Fabius Cunctator and Marcus Sempronius Tuditanus.
In 224 BC, Titus was elected consul for a second time, with his former short-term colleague Fulvius Flaccus, and was once again described as consul prior. Titus and Fulvius were sent north against the Boii, a Celtic tribe at war with Rome since 225. The consuls led the first Roman army to cross the Po river, then defeated the Boii there. The Celts lost 23,000 men and 5,000 of them were captured, but the consuls had to retreat because of poor weather and deaths among their troops.