Corocotta facts for kids
Corocotta is a local hero for Cantabrians and his story is passed down orally in Cantabrian families from the elder generations to the younger. According to Roman sources (the only written history of the time), he was a guerrilla warrior or bandit in Cantabria during the 1st century BC, who, according to Cassius Dio, raided Roman territory causing considerable depredation in the area. Dio says that Corocotta's depredations caused Augustus to offer a large reward for his capture. Corocotta himself came forward to receive it, impressing Augustus with his audacity. Dio is the only source for the story.
The story from a Cantabrian viewpoint
Cantabrians are well aware of the story of how the Roman Empire struggled to conquer them (see the Cantabrian Wars). During that time, there would have been many warriors (male and female) who would have fought bravely to preserve their way of life and defend their people. Corocotta (or for some would be spelt Korokota, more similar to the neighbouring Basque language) would have been one of these warriors. The Cantabrian story says that he was probably a respected chief or warrior of some of the Cantabrian tribes and that such was the Romans anger towards him, that they set an enormously high price on his head. In response to this, Corocotta turned himself in to the Roman Emperor with the purpose of claiming the big financial reward himself and he willingly offering his life (head) in exchange.
This decision by Corocotta is viewed by Cantabrians as an act of self-sacrifice and it is believed that his act was intended to avoid any problems that could be created by the reward acting as a temptation for fellow Cantabrians to betray him or turning him in. Instead, Corocotta would take that vast sum of money (or his people would do for him after being killed) and distribute it amongst the people of Cantabria, who had suffered from years of war against the Romans. Such an act of bravery would affect the Roman morale, and the Cantabrians were well known for coming up with very creative and efficient warfare techniques, like singing hymns of victory from the Roman crosses that crucified them or cavalry and infantry moves in which they used the Cantabrian labarum as a flag to signal army manoeuvres, a tactic later copied by the Romans themselves. The story sometimes ends by saying that the Roman Emperor, bemused by Corocotta's bravery, let him go with his life and his money, but this ending is not always clear.
The story from a Roman viewpoint
Dio tells the story as part of an account of Augustus's forgiving nature. He writes that:
Besides these traits of his, people also recalled that he did not get blindly enraged at those who had injured him, and that he kept faith even with those who were unworthy of it. For instance, there was a robber named Corocotta, who flourished in Spain, at whom he [Augustus] was so angry at first that he offered a million sesterces to the man that should capture him alive; but later, when the robber came to him of his own accord, he not only did him no harm, but actually made him richer by the amount of the reward.
According to Peter Michael Swan the main purpose of the story is to contrast the clemency of Augustus with the vindictiveness of Dio's bête noire, Septimius Severus. Thomas Grünewald says that Dio wished to stress that Augustus had "a strong sense of humour and unshakeable self-confidence", and to compare this with the brutality that was the product of Severus' insecurity, represented by his vicious treatment of a similar "noble bandit" called Bulla Felix.
See also
In Spanish: Corocotta para niños
