Mu'tilus, C. Pa'pius
one of the principal Samnite generals in the Marsic or Social war, B. C. 90-89.
At the head of the greater part of the Samnite forces, he invaded Campania, took several of its towns, and obliged almost all the rest to surrender to him; but having made an attack upon the camp of the consul, Sex. Caesar, he was repulsed with a loss of 6000 men, B. C. 90.
In the following year hé had to resist Sulla, who had penetrated into Samnium, but he experienced a total defeat, was badly wounded in the engagement, and fled with a few troops to Aesernia. (Appian,
App. BC 1.40,
42,
51;
Oros. 5.18;
Vell. 2.16; Diod. xxxvii.
Ecl. 1.)
The name of this Samnite leader is given differently; but C. Papius Mutilus seems to have been his real name. Orosius calls him Papius Mutilus; Velleius terms him Papius Mutilius ; and Appian styles him in two passages (1.40, 42) C. Papius, and in the third (1.51) Motilus, who is evidently the same person as the one he had previously called C. Papius. Diodorus names him C. Aponius Motulus (
Μότυλος).
The name Mutilus has been conjectured by a recent writer to be the same as Metellus, but there is no certainty on this point. (Comp. Prosper Mérimée,
E'tudes sur l'Histoire Romaine, vol. i. pp. 137, 138, Paris, 1844.)
Appian relates (B. C. 4.25), in his account of the proscription of B. C. 43, that there was one Stations proscribed who had distinguished himself greatly as a leader of the Samnites in the Social war, and who had afterwards been admitted into the Roman senate on account of the renown of his exploits, his wealth, and his noble birth.
He was then eighty years of age, and his name was put down on the fatal list on account of his wealth. Now, as there is no one known in the Social war of the name of Statius, Wesseling conjectured (
ad Diod. l.c.) that we ought to read Papius instead; and this correction has been generally received by subsequent writers.
The principal objection to it, however, is that Livy speaks (
Epit. 89) of the death of a Mutilus in the proscription of Sulla; and from the prominence given to the death of this person in the Epitome, it would almost appear as if he intended the great Samnite leader. (Comp. Prosper Mérimée,
Ibid. vol. i. p. 325.)
