Chapter three examines Appius Claudius Caecus, a prominent political figure of the late fourth to early third centuries. The tradition ascribes to him important public works, high-stakes military activity, oratorical prowess, and reforms of the state’s constitutional, legal, and ritual infrastructure. Yet every area of his activity is represented as profoundly controversial, spurring both positive and negative evaluations from contemporary and later judging audiences and permitting him to be invoked as a model for imitation or avoidance in different contexts. For instance, Livy makes him an incompetent general who is forced to pursue alternative arenas of activity and achievement, while Cicero presents him as a “good old Roman” who instantiates upstanding, conservative moral values and who imposes a familial rebuke upon his descendants. This chapter also analyzes key monuments associated with Appius, which themselves display striking and contradictory moral bifurcations.