person
Marcus Atilius Regulus
M. Regulus
Roman consul 267 and 256 BC; captured by the Carthaginians and (in the legend) tortured to death after returning to Rome on parole and advising the senate against terms.
Reading notes
- Ad Atticum 16.11 §4 Regulus's case is of this kind
M. Atilius Regulus, the consul captured by Carthage who (by legend) returned to captivity and death rather than break his word; the textbook example of honour conflicting with self-interest.
- On the Ends of Good and Evil §2.65 Marcus Regulus
Marcus Atilius Regulus, consul and general in the First Punic War, captured by Carthage and (per tradition) sent to Rome on parole, who advised against peace and then returned to Carthage to be tortured to death. Cicero makes him the supreme example of virtue chosen over pleasure and even life.
- On the Ends of Good and Evil §5.82 Regulus
Marcus Atilius Regulus, the consul who, captured by Carthage, returned to keep his word and was tortured to death. He is the Roman emblem of virtue triumphant amid the worst evils.
- On Duties §1.39 Regulus
Marcus Atilius Regulus, consul captured by Carthage in the First Punic War, the Roman exemplum of honor under oath. Sent to Rome to negotiate, he argued against the exchange and then returned to certain death rather than break his sworn word to an enemy.
- On Duties §3.99 Marcus Atilius Regulus
Consul captured by the Carthaginians in the First Punic War and sent to Rome on oath to negotiate a prisoner exchange. He argued against the exchange, then returned to torture and death rather than break his oath - Cicero's supreme example that nothing dishonourable is expedient.
- Stoic Paradoxes §16 M. Regulus
Marcus Atilius Regulus, consul captured by Carthage in the First Punic War, who (in the tradition) returned to torture rather than break his word. The stock Roman example of virtue triumphant over bodily suffering.
- Eleventh Philippic §9 Regulus, too, by the Carthaginians
Marcus Atilius Regulus, the Roman general of the First Punic War whom legend held to have been tortured to death by the Carthaginians after returning to captivity; a paradigm of suffering at an enemy's hands, set against Dolabella's torture of a fellow citizen.