From the Archives - Lucius Siccius Dentatus Recounts His Military Record

At one point in his Roman Antiquities, the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus (fl. c. 60–c. 5 B.C.), relating the events of 453 B.C., introduces the reader to Lucius Siccius Dentatus, who had served as Tribune of the Plebs the previous year.  Siccius, then perhaps 56 or 58, a champion of the commoners in their struggle for political equality with the Patricians, is speaking before the Plebian Assembly on the question of distribution of land, and opens his address with an account of his military career.

If I, plebeians, should choose to relate my exploits one by one, a day's time would not suffice me; hence I shall give a mere summary, in the fewest words I can.  This is the 40^th year that I have borne arms for my country, for the last 30 of which I have held some military command, sometimes over a cohort and sometimes over a whole legion, beginning with the consulship of Gaius Aquillius and Titus Siccius [487 B.C.], to whom the senate committed the conduct of the war against the Volscians.  I was then 17 years of age and in rank I was still under a centurion.  When a severe battle occurred and a rout, the commander of the cohort had fallen, and the standards were in the hands of the enemy, I alone, exposing myself in behalf of all, recovered the standards for the cohort, repulsed the enemy, and was clearly the one who saved the centurions from incurring everlasting disgrace — which would have rendered the rest of their lives more bitter than death — as both they themselves acknowledged, by crowning me with a golden crown, and Siccius the consul bore witness, by appointing me commander of the cohort.  And in another battle that we had, in which it happened that the primipilus of the legion was thrown to the ground and the eagle fell into the enemy's hands, I fought in the same manner in defence of the whole legion, recovered the eagle and saved the primipilus.  In return for the assistance I then gave him the primipilus wished to resign his command of the legion in my favor and to give me the eagle; but I refused both, being unwilling to deprive the man whose life I had saved of the honors he enjoyed and of the satisfaction resulting from them. The consul was pleased with my behavior and gave me the post of primipilus in the First Legion, which had lost its commander in the battle.

These, plebeians, are the noble actions which brought me distinction and preferment.  After I had already gained an illustrious name and was famous, I submitted to the hardships of all the other engagements, being ashamed to blot out the memory of the honors and favors I had received for my former actions.  And all the time since then I have continued to take part in campaigns and undergo their hardships without fearing or even considering my danger.  From all these campaigns I received prizes for valor, spoils, crowns, and the other honors from the consuls.  In a word, during the 40 years I have continued to serve I have fought about 120 battles and received 45 wounds, all in front and not one behind; 12 of these I happened to receive in one day, when Herdonius the Sabine seized the citadel and the Capitol [460 B.C.].  As to rewards for valor, I have brought out of those contests 14 civic crowns, bestowed upon me by those I saved in battle, three mural crowns for having been the first to mount the enemy's walls and hold them, and eight others for my exploits on the battlefield, with which I was honored by the generals; and, in addition to these, 83 gold torques, 160 gold bracelets, 18 spears, 25 splendid decorations, [and the spoils of twenty conquered enemies.]

Called by some “the bravest man in Rome,” Siccius, was almost certainly an actual historical figure.  And his war record may not be as exaggerated as it seems.  From other ancient sources, we learn that Siccius was nicknamed the "Roman Achilles," and reportedly had slain over 300 enemy soldiers in combat. 

Tradition has it that Siccius was killed about 405 BC, when aged 60, he was jumped by agents of the tyrannical Decimvir Appius Claudius; reportedly of his 25 attackers, only about ten got away and uninjured..