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Quintus Baebius Tamphilus (''fl.'' late-3rd century BC) was a praetor of the Roman Republic who participated in negotiations with Hannibal attempting to forestall the Second Punic War. Little is known of Baebius's life and political career, but it is likely that he held the praetorship before 218 BC. When Hannibal besieged Saguntum (now Sagunto), an ally of Rome, the Saguntines petitioned for assistance, and in response the Senate sent Baebius and Publius Valerius Flaccus as envoys to Spain, with instructions to demand that Hannibal leave Saguntum alone. They two were then to proceed to Carthage to ask for his surrender as punishment for breaking the treaty that had been concluded at the end of the First Punic War. Turned back in Spain, the delegation got a hearing in the Carthaginian senate, but the Carthaginians supported Hannibal.〔Livy 21.6; Cicero, ''Philippics'' 5.27.〕 T.R.S. Broughton points out〔''MRR1'' p. 237.〕 that the dating of the embassy is vexed. The Augustan-era historian Livy (21.6.3) seems to indicate that Valerius and Baebius were dispatched by the consuls of 218. Saguntum fell before the winter of 219–218, and since the envoys were supposed to have arrived before Hannibal's attack, the latest possible date is early 219. Dating based on Polybius points to a different story. "Probably deliberately," notes Dexter Hoyos, "Roman historical tradition afterwards distorted the facts about this embassy. … This story gathered increasingly implausible features as it went on."〔Dexter Hoyos, ''Hannibal's Dynasty: Power and Politics in the Western Mediterranean, 247–183 BC'' (Routledge, 2003, reprinted 2005), p. 92 (online. ) The embassy of Valerius and Baebius to Hannibal is discussed at length by Hoyos, ''Unplanned Wars: The Origins of the First and Second Punic Wars'' (de Gruyter, 1997), pp. 196–218, limited preview (online. )〕 In 218, Baebius was part of a delegation〔The others were M. Livius Salinator, L. Aemilius Paullus, C. Licinius Varus, and either Q. Fabius Maximus Verrucosus or M. Fabius Buteo.〕 sent to Carthage with an ultimatum in expectation of declaring war. Livy notes that the five diplomatic legates were elder statesmen;〔''Maiores natu'', "greater in birth."〕 they were all of consular rank except for the praetorian Baebius.〔His presence among them is one piece of evidence for his otherwise shadowy praetorship; see T. Corey Brennan, ''The Praetorship in the Roman Republic'' (Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 896, note 18 (online. )〕 The ambassadors then visited Spain and Gaul to recruit allies, with mixed results.〔Livy 21.18.1 and 21.19.6 and 20.9; Cassius Dio frg. 55.10; Zonaras 8.22; Polybius 3.20.6 and 9, 33.1–4, 40.2; Frontinus, ''Stratagems'' 1.11.4; Silius Italicus 2.1–390; Appian, ''Iberica'' 13.〕 Rome's failure to act more speedily on the diplomatic front allowed the war to expand into Gaul and Italy from Spain.〔H.H. Scullard, "The Carthaginians in Spain," in ''Cambridge Ancient History: Rome and the Mediterranean to 133 B.C.'' (Cambridge University Press, 1989, reprinted 2003), 2nd ed., vol. 8, p. 38 (online. )〕 Quintus Baebius's sons Gnaeus and Marcus were consuls in an unusual instance of brothers holding the office successively (in 182 and 181 BC). The eldest son was probably the plebeian tribune Q. Baebius who opposed going to war with Philip V of Macedon in 200 BC. ==See also== * Baebia (gens) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Quintus Baebius Tamphilus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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