Camillus3. L.FuriusCamillus, M. F., a son of No.
1. In B. C. 350, when one of the consuls was ill, and the other,
Popillius Laenas, returned from the Gallic war with a severe wound, L. Furius Camillus was
appointed dictator to hold the comitia, and P. Cornelius Scipio became his magister equitum.
Camillus, who was as much a patrician in his feelings and sentiments as his father, did not
accept the names of any plebeians who offered themselves as candidates for the consulship, and
thus caused the consulship to be given to patricians only. The senate, delighted with this,
exerted all its influence in raising him to the consulship in B. C.
349. He then nominated Appius Claudius Crassus as his colleague, who however died
during the preparations for the Gallic war. Camillus, who now remained sole consul, caused the
command against the Gauls to be given to himself extra sortem. Two
legions were left behind for the protection of the city, and eight others were divided between
him and the praetor L. Pinarius, whom he sent to protect the coast against some Greek pirates,
who in that year infested the coast of Latium. Camillus routed the Gauls in the Pomptine
district, and compelled them to seek refuge in Apulia. This battle against the Gauls is famous
in Roman story for the single combat of M. Valerius Corvus with a bold and presumptuous Gaul.
After the battle, Camillus honoured the gallantry of Valerius with a present of ten oxen and a
golden crown. Camillus then joined the praetor Pinarius on the coast; but nothing of any
importance was accomplished against the Greeks, who soon after disappeared. (Liv. 7.24_26; Cic. De
Senect. 12; Gel. 9.11.)