FLAMINIUS, GAIUS, Roman statesman and general, of plebeian family. During his tribuneship (232 B.c.) , in spite of the determined opposition of the senate and his own father, he carried a measure for distributing among the plebeians the alter Gallicus Picenus, an extensive tract of newly-acquired territory to the south of Ariminum (Cicero, De senectute, 4, Brutus, 14). In 223, when consul with P. Furius Philus, he took the field against the Gauls, who were said to have been roused to war by his agrarian law. Having crossed the Po to punish the Insubrians, he at first met with a severe check and was forced to capitulate. Reinforced by the Cenomani, he gained a decisive victory on the banks of the Addua. He had previously been recalled by the optimates, but ignored the order. The victory seems to have been due mainly to the admirable discipline and fighting qualities of the soldiers; the decree of the senate against his triumph was overborne by popular clamour. His name is further associated with two great works. He erected the Circus Flaminius on the Campus Martius, for the accommodation of the plebeians, and continued the military road from Rome to Ariminum, which had hitherto only reached as far as Spoletium (see FLAMINIA, VIA). He probably also instituted the "plebeian" games. In 218, as a leader of the democratic opposition, Flaminius was one of the chief promoters of the measure which debarred senators from commercial speculation (Livy xxi. 63) . His support of this measure vastly increased the popularity of Flaminius with his own order, and secured his second election as consul in the following year (217), shortly after the defeat of T. Sempronius Longus at the Trebia. He hastened at once to Arretium, the termination of the western high road to the north, to protect the passes of the Apennines, but was defeated and killed at the battle of the Trasimene lake (see PUNIC WARS).
The testimony of Livy (xxi., xxii.) and Polybius (ii., no friendly friendly critics—shows that Flaminius was a man of ability, energy and probity. A popular and successful democratic leader, he cannot, however, be ranked among the great statesmen of the republic. As a general he was headstrong and self-sufficient and seems to have owed his victories chiefly to personal boldness favoured by good f ortune. He was certainly to blame for the Trasimene disaster.