Marcus Baebius Tamphilus was a consul of the Roman Republic in 181 BC along with P. Cornelius Cethegus. Baebius is credited with reform legislation pertaining to campaigns for political offices and electoral bribery (ambitus). The Lex Baebia was the first bribery law in RomeAn earlier law in 358 (the Lex Paetelia) is sometimes referenced, but dubiously; the law may not have existed, or may have existed and not dealt with bribery, or not been put into effect; see T. Corey Brennan, The Praetorship in the Roman Republic (Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 170–171 online. On the Lex Baebia as the first law on bribery, see also A.E. Astin, Cato the Censor (Oxford University Press, 1978, reprinted 2000), p. 121 online; Callie Williamson, The Laws of the Roman People (University of Michigan Press, 2005), pp. 301–302, full text online; James S. Reid, M. Tulli Ciceronis. Cato Maior de Senectute (Cambridge University Press, 1894), p. 21 online; Aubrey Stewart and George Long, Plutarch's Lives (London, 1881), vol. 2, p. 226 online. and had long-term impact on Roman administrative practices in the provinces.
Baebius played an important diplomatic and military role in the Roman-Syrian War. In carrying out the deportation of the Apuani of Liguria for the purpose of occupying their territory, Baebius is also a significant figure in tracing the history of Roman expansionism.
Family During the Republican era, all men with the family name Baebius who are known to have held the highest magistracies belong to the branch distinguished by the cognomen Tamphilus.Elizabeth Rawson, "Sallust on the Eighties?" Classical Quarterly 37 (1987), p. 166. Marcus's brother Gnaeus was consul in 182 BC, in an unusual instance of two brothers holding the office in succession. Their father, Quintus, was a praetor; the Q. Baebius Tamphilus who was tribune of the plebs in 200 may have been the eldest of his sons.See Baebia gens for more on Q. Baebius, the tribune of 200 BC.
Early career M. Baebius Tamphilus was a tribune of the plebs in 194.CIL 12 2.585. Broughton notes that the Lex agraria of 111 names a M. Baebius who was both plebeian tribune and one of the IIIvir col. deduc. and whom Mommsen identified as this man. Giovanni Niccolini, in I fasti dei tribuni della plebe (Milan 1934), the standard work of tribunicial prosopography, regards this as uncertain. Further discussion by Andrew Lintott, Judicial reform and land reform in the Roman Republic: a new edition, with translation and commentary, of the laws from Urbino (Cambridge University Press, 1992) pp. 245–246 online. In that same year, he served on a three-man commission (triumviri coloniae deducendae) with an otherwise unknown Decimus Junius Brutus and the Marcus Helvius who was praetor in 197, for the purpose of establishing a Roman colony at Sipontum in southern Italy.Livy, 34.45.3.
Roman-Syrian War
See Roman–Syrian War for background on Baebius's military and diplomatic activities.
In November 193 BC, Baebius was elected praetor for the following year. In the sortition to allot provincesA provincia was a task assigned to an elected magistrate who held imperium; although the task might be defined in terms of a geographical area, it was not originally a "province" in the modern sense of an area under formal administration. Baebius drew Hispania Citerior and Atilius Serranus got Hispania Ulterior. Although the sequence of events and thus reconstructions of causation differ among scholars,For a detailed and provocative examination of the background to Baebius's command, see John D. Grainger, The Roman War of Antiochos the Great (Brill, 2002), particularly Chapter 8, pp. 163–191, limited preview online. the Roman Senate decided to override the lots, a constitutional procedure that during this period required a senatorial decree and a vote in the people's assembly.On the workings of the constitutional machinery, see T. Corey Brennan, The Praetorship in the Roman Republic (Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 187 online. The senate is sometimes thought to have reacted to news at Rome that Antiochus III of Syria had invaded Greece by crossing to Demetrias, but this report was likely not delivered until mid-year. At any rate, the senate awarded Atilius the dual provinciae of Macedonia and the Roman fleet, with orders to build 30 quinqueremes and to man them with sailors from the allies, and sent him in the spring of 192 to the Peloponnese. Baebius was given a provincia over the Bruttii, in modern-day Calabria, with command of two legions, 15,000 Italian allied infantry, and 500 Italian allied cavalry. The Bruttii had sided with Hannibal and the Carthaginians until their defeat by the Romans; during the previous year, three Roman colonies had been established in their confiscated territory, which was not yet regarded as secure.Grainger, The Roman War of Antiochos pp. 165–167, 188 (note 75). Later that year, Baebius and his troops were moved to Tarentum and Brundisium, where he prepared for a crossing to Epirus.The province of the Bruttii passed to A. Cornelius Mamulla, praetor 191 BC, in command of a force comparable in size to that of Baebius; see Grainger, The Roman War of Antiochus p. 167; Brennan, Praetorship, p. 203 online. During this same time, the consul L. Quinctius Flamininus levied troops in preparation for war the following year.R.M. Errington, "Rome against Philip and Antiochus," in The Cambridge Ancient History: Rome and the Mediterranean to 133 B.C. (Cambridge University Press, 1989, 2nd edition, reprinted 2003), vol. 8, pp. 282–283 online. From 192 to 190, praetors were regularly dispatched to southern Italy to guard the coastline against rumored attack and to ensure the continued loyalty of Roman allies. Baebius's assignment from the senate was "to guard the entire coast in the vicinity of Tarentum and Brundisium."Brennan, Praetorship p. 203. Grainger (pp. 170–172) maintains that these military measures were insufficient if the senate had serious fears of an invasion and were instead "cosmetic" for the purpose of quelling exaggerated rumors (described by Livy as "anonymous and groundless," 35.23.2) of Antiochus's intentions. Grainger attributes the rumors to Africanus, who was trying to make a case that an alliance between Antiochus and Hannibal would pose a serious threat. On the sequence of events, see also William V. Harris, War and Imperialism in Republican Rome, 327–70 B.C. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979), p. 220, note 4 online.
As propraetor for the following year, Baebius was assigned to Macedonia and Greece. These territories had not been annexed under Roman rule at the time, and the assignment was a military command.For ancient sources on Baebius's activities in 192–191 BC, see Livy 35.20.12–13, 23.5, 24.7; 36.1.7, 6.8, 8.6, 10.10, 13.1–9, 22.8; also Appian, Syrian Wars 16; Zonaras 9.19. The provinciae of Baebius and Atilius in the East overlap, but their missions differ. Atilius was charged with defending Roman allies with his fleet, ostensibly against Nabis of Sparta, who in any event had died before the praetor's arrival. Baebius's smaller force, shipped out in September or October, held the region around Apollonia.Brennan, Praetorship p. 206; Grainger, The Roman War of Antiochos p. 188.
During the winter of 191, Baebius negotiated at Dassaretis with Philip V of Macedon, who was increasingly ill-disposed toward Antiochus. Only the city of Demetrias and the Aetolians were supporting Antiochus. Baebius agreed that Philip should keep any territories he captured from the Aetolians and their allies, and Baebius himself garrisoned the strategically located Thessalian city of Larisa in time to prevent its capture by Antiochus. Before the arrival of the new consul M'. Acilius Glabrio in April, Philip and Baebius had conducted "devastatingly swift" operations in ThessalyThe future consul Appius Claudius Pulcher, as a young officer under Baebius's command, had taken a leading role in these operations; see Grainger, The Roman War of Antiochos pp. 228–229 and Livy 36.10.10–14 and 13.1 and Appian, Syrian War 16. that regained most of the towns the Aetolians had taken in the previous year, leaving little that Glabrio would be required to do.See especially Livy 36.13.6. See also a summary of these events by N.G.L. Hammond, "The Reigns of Philip V and Perseus," in A History of Macedonia: 336–167 B.C. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988, reprinted 2001), vol. 2, pp. 450–451 online. The consul's arrival precipitated the surrender of most of Antiochus's allies, and left the forces of the East outnumbered militarily by a two-to-one margin. Facing either retreat to Asia or a battle on his own terms, Antiochus chose to fight at Thermopylae, in the hope of using the terrain to compensate for his disadvantages. After an overwhelming defeat, he was compelled to abandon Greece, and returned to Ephesus. The entire campaign lasted only about six months.R.M. Errington, "Rome against Philip and Antiochus," in The Cambridge Ancient History (Cambridge University Press, 1989, 2nd edition), vol. 3, p. 283.
Although Antiochus's invasion had failed, the need to respond to it had shown the Roman senate the vulnerability of the settlement arrived at in Greece in 194, which diplomatic missions had hoped to address. "The conclusion was typical," notes a historian of the period, "not that the settlement was wrong in principle, but that the general conditions under which it had been implemented were too uncertain. Rome needed to ensure that no major threat to the peace existed, not merely in the Balkans, but in the whole Aegean area, including Asia Minor. … It was necessary to redefine, but this time not just in terms of physical geography but in terms of geo-politics."Errington, Cambridge Ancient History, p. 284 online. As a result, L. Cornelius Scipio, consul for 190, was given Greece as his province, with the understanding that he should cross into Asia as he deemed necessary.
Diplomatic missions From 185 to 184, Baebius was one of the ambassadors (legati)The others were Q. Caecilius Metellus and either Ti. Sempronius Gracchus or the Ti. Claudius Nero who was praetor in 181. sent to negotiate disputes between Philip, his former joint commander in the Roman-Syrian War, and surrounding Greek polities, who had lodged complaints about Philip's occupation of Aenus and Maroneia.Polybius 22.10; Livy 39.23.5–29.3; Pausanias 7.8.6. At a hearing, Philip himself testified on the question of whether Rome had agreed that he could hold any cities he had captured during the campaign of 191, or only those cities that had been "originally" Aetolian. Although Baebius should have been able to answer that question conclusively, he appears not to have, and the commission arrived at no summation: "The hearing was in fact a farce."N.G.L. Hammond, "The Reigns of Philip V and Perseus," in A History of Macedonia: 336–167 B.C. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, reprinted 2001), vol. 2, p. 456 online. See also John Briscoe, A Commentary on Livy, Books 38–40 (Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 315–316.
The delegation also met with Achaean magistrates to discuss Achaean treatment of Sparta.Polybius 22.10 and 23.4.7; Diodorus 29.17; Pausanias 7.8.6 and 9.1.
Consulship and triumph Marcus Baebius succeeded his brother Gnaeus in the consulship. Family influence was perhaps not absent in the election, since it fell to Gnaeus as presiding magistrate to select rogatores, the election officials to whom voters voiced their choice, and to declare the winners.Secret ballots were not used in Roman elections until the Lex Gabinia tabellaria of 139 BC. See Andrew Lintott, The Constitution of the Roman Republic (Oxford University Press, 1999, reprinted 2002), pp. 169–170 online.