Octavius Mamilius was princeps

Princeps

Princeps is a Latin word meaning "first in time or order; the first, chief, the most eminent, distinguished, or noble; the first man, first person."...

("leader, prince") of Tusculum

Tusculum

Tusculum is a ruined Roman city in the Alban Hills, in the Latium region of Italy.-Location:Tusculum is one of the largest Roman cities in Alban Hills. The ruins of Tusculum are located on Tuscolo hill—more specifically on the northern edge of the outer crater ring of the Alban volcano...

, an ancient city of Latium

Latium

Lazio is one of the 20 administrative regions of Italy, situated in the central peninsular section of the country. With about 5.7 million residents and a GDP of more than 170 billion euros, Lazio is the third most populated and the second richest region of Italy...

. He was the son-in-law of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus

Lucius Tarquinius Superbus

Lucius Tarquinius Superbus was the legendary seventh and final King of Rome, reigning from 535 BC until the popular uprising in 509 BC that led to the establishment of the Roman Republic. He is more commonly known by his cognomen Tarquinius Superbus and was a member of the so-called Etruscan...

, the seventh and last king of Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. According to tradition, the gens Mamilia was descended from Mamilia, reputedly the daughter of Ulysses (Odysseus

Odysseus

Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....

) and Circe

Circe

In Greek mythology, Circe is a minor goddess of magic , described in Homer's Odyssey as "The loveliest of all immortals", living on the island of Aeaea, famous for her part in the adventures of Odysseus.By most accounts, Circe was the daughter of Helios, the god of the sun, and Perse, an Oceanid...

, and Titus Livius

Livy

Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...

 described Octavius as head of one of the most distinguished families of Latium, and thus an important ally of Tarquinius.

Efforts to Restore Tarquinius

Following the overthrow of his father-in-law in 509 BC, Mamilius was associated with various efforts to restore Tarquinius to the throne. After the war between Clusium and Rome failed to win back the throne for Tarquinius, he sought refuge with Mamilius in Tusculum. With all hope of further aid from the Etruscans ended, Mamilius turned to the cities and towns of Latium, comprising some thirty communities. Some towns formerly allied with Rome were receptive to his overtures, while others dissented and joined the Roman cause.

Battle of Lake Regillus

In the year 498, Mamilius, now Dictator

Roman dictator

In the Roman Republic, the dictator , was an extraordinary magistrate with the absolute authority to perform tasks beyond the authority of the ordinary magistrate . The office of dictator was a legal innovation originally named Magister Populi , i.e...

 (a military title) of Tusculum, marched for Rome at the head of a Latin

Latins (Italic tribe)

The Latins were a people of ancient Italy who included the inhabitants of the early City of Rome. From ca. 1000 BC, the Latins inhabited the small part of the peninsula known to the Romans as Old Latium , that is, the region between the river Tiber and the promontory of Monte Circeo The Latins (or...

 army. They encountered a Roman expeditionary force near Lake Regillus, not far from Tusculum. The Romans were led by the Dictator, Aulus Postumius Albus

Aulus Postumius Albus Regillensis

Aulus Postumius Albus Regillensis was an ancient Roman who, according to Livy, was dictator in 498 BC, when he conquered the Latins in the great Battle of Lake Regillus. Many of the coins of the Albini commemorate this victory of their ancestor, as in the one pictured...

, and his Magister Equitum

Master of the Horse

The Master of the Horse was a position of varying importance in several European nations.-Magister Equitum :...

, Titus Aebutius Elva

Titus Aebutius Elva

Titus Aebutius T. f. Elva or Helva was the first member of the patrician gens Aebutia to obtain the Roman consulship, which he held in 499 BC. The following year, he was magister equitum under Aulus Postumius Albus at the Battle of Lake Regillus...

.

The fighting was especially fierce, as both the aged king Tarquinius and his last surviving son, Titus, were present and participated in the battle. Titus Aebutius and Octavius Mamilius, both fighting on horseback, charged one another and were seriously wounded. Mamilius was wounded in the breast and taken to the rear, while Aebutius' arm was so severely injured by his opponent's lance that he had to withdraw from the field and direct his forces at a distance.

Later in the battle, Mamilius hurried to the front with several companies of reserves, in order to relieve a company of Roman exiles under Titus Tarquinius, who had nearly been cut off by the dictator Postumius. As he did so, he was recognized by the Roman general Titus Herminius

Titus Herminius Aquilinus

Titus Herminius, surnamed Aquilinus, was one of the heroes of the Roman Republic. He participated in two of the most famous conflicts that attended the birth of the Republic, and was elected consul in 506 BC...

, who charged so fiercely that he killed the Latin prince with a single thrust of his spear. His triumph was short-lived, however; as Herminius stooped to claim Mamilius' armor as spoils, he was mortally wounded by a javelin. Postumius successfully rallied the Roman forces to carry the day.

Legacy

The defeat of Octavius Mamilius and the Latin army at the Battle of Lake Regillus ended the last serious attempt by Tarquinius to regain the throne. He died an old man at Cumae

Cumae

Cumae is an ancient Greek settlement lying to the northwest of Naples in the Italian region of Campania. Cumae was the first Greek colony on the mainland of Italy , and the seat of the Cumaean Sibyl...

 two years later (some historians placed the battle itself in 496, in which year Postumius was consul). Lucius Mamilius, perhaps the grandson of Octavius, was dictator of Tusculum in 460 BC, and sent an army to assist the Romans in recovering the Capitol during a revolt. Two years later, he was granted Roman citizenship

Roman citizenship

Citizenship in ancient Rome was a privileged political and legal status afforded to certain free-born individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance....

 by the Senate in recognition of his assistance in a war against the Aequi

Aequi

thumb|300px|Location of the Aequi in central Italy.The Aequi were an ancient people of northeast Latium and the central Appennines of Italy who appear in the early history of ancient Rome. After a long struggle for independence from Rome they were defeated and substantial Roman colonies were...

 and Volsci

Volsci

The Volsci were an ancient Italic people, well known in the history of the first century of the Roman Republic. They then inhabited the partly hilly, partly marshy district of the south of Latium, bounded by the Aurunci and Samnites on the south, the Hernici on the east, and stretching roughly from...

. Some members of the gens Mamilia later emigrated to Rome.