Mamurra

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Mamurra (fl. 1st century BC) was a Roman military officer who served under Julius Caesar.

Mamurra was an equestrian who originally came from the Italian city of Formiae.[1] His family must have been prominent there, as Horace calls it "the city of the Mamurrae".[2]

He served as praefectus fabrum (prefect of engineers) under Caesar in Gaul;[1] a poem by Catullus also refers to his service in Britain as well as in Pontus and Hispania,[3] suggesting he also served during the civil war. Among the engineering feats achieved by Caesar's army during this time, which Mamurra may have been a part of, include the rapid construction of a bridge over the Rhine in 55 BC,[4] the designing and building of a new kind of ship for the second expedition to Britain in 54 BC,[5] and the double circumvallation of Alesia in 52 BC.[6]

Mamurra's military service, and his patronage by Caesar, made him extremely rich.[3][7] According to Cornelius Nepos he was the first Roman to clad his entire house, on the Caelian Hill, in marble, and the first to use solid marble columns.[1] Catullus attacked his profligacy, womanising and scandalous lifestyle, nicknaming him "mentula" (a vulgar word for the penis) and accusing him of having a homosexual relationship with Caesar.[3][8] This was regarded as a "lasting stain" on Caesar's character, but Catullus later apologised, and was immediately invited to dinner by Caesar.[9] Catullus also refers in unflattering terms to Ameana, the mistress of "the bankrupt of Formiae", usually taken to mean Mamurra.[10]

A letter of Cicero of 45 BC refers to Caesar giving no visible reaction when he heard news of Mamurra, which has been interpreted by some as referring to his death,[11] although the reference is too ambiguous to be certain.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Pliny the Elder, Natural History 36.7
  2. ^ Horace, Satires 1.5
  3. ^ a b c Catullus, Carmina 29
  4. ^ Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 4.17-19
  5. ^ Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 5.1
  6. ^ Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 7.68-74
  7. ^ Cicero, Letters to Atticus 7.7
  8. ^ Catullus, Carmina 57
  9. ^ Suetonius, Julius Caesar 73
  10. ^ Catullus, Carmina 41, 43
  11. ^ Cicero, Letters to Atticus 13.52