Marcus Furius Camillus

Roman patrician who first appears as censor in 403 BC. He was five times made dictator, and carried out several military victories. In 390 BC, according to legend, he is said to have driven the Gauls from Rome. He routed the Aequi, Volsci, and Etrusci, and in 367 BC defeated the Gauls near Alba.

Marcus Furius Camillus (circa 446- 365 BC) was a Roman soldier and statesman of patrician descent. Along with this complaint against him was added his patrician haughtiness and his triumphal entry into Rome in a chariot drawn by white horses which, to many Romans, recalled the days of the kings. Subsequently the Romans, when besieged in the Capitol by the Gauls after the Battle of the Allia, created him dictator. After assembling the Roman forces in allied towns as well as the remenants of the army at Veii he drove the Senones from the streets of Rome and subsequently defeated them completely just south of the city.

He dissuaded the Romans, disheartened by the devastation wrought by the Gauls, from migrating to Veii, and induced them to rebuild the city. He afterwards fought successfully against the Aequi, Volsci and Etruscans, and repelled a fresh invasion of the Gauls in 367 BC.

The story of Camillus is no doubt largely apocryphal. To this element probably belongs the story of the schoolmaster who, when Camillus was attacking Falerii, attempted to betray the town by bringing into Camillus's camp the sons of some of the principal inhabitants of the place.