Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/629

Rh praise, although he otherwise abominates the man. There can be no doubt that Carbo was a person of no principle, and that he attached himself to the party from which he hoped to derive most advantages. (Liv. Epit. 59, 61; Appian, B. C. i. 18, 20; Vell. Pat. ii. 4; Cic. De Amicit. 25, De Leg. iii. 16, Ad Fam. ix. 21, De Orat. ii. 2, 25, 39, 40, i. 10, iii. 7, 20, Brut. 27, 43, 62, Tuscul. i. 3; Tacit. Orat. 34.)

3., a son of No. 1, was consul in 113, together with C. Caecilius Metellus. He was according to Cicero (ad Fam. ix. 21) the father of Cn. Papirius Carbo, who was thrice consul [No. 7], whereas this latter is called by Velleius Paterculus (ii. 26) a brother of No. 6. This difficulty may be solved by supposing that our Cn. Papirius Carbo and C. Papirius Carbo [No. 2] were brothers, so that the word frater in Velleius is equivalent to frater patruelis or cousin. (Perizon. Animadv. Hist. p. 96.) In his consulship the Cimbrians advanced from Gaul into Italy and Illyricum, and Carbo, who was sent against them, was put to flight with his whole army. He was afterwards accused by M. Antonius, we know not for what reason, and put an end to his own life by taking a solution of vitriol (atramentum sutorium, Cic. ad Fam. ix. 21; Liv. Epit. 63).

4., a son of No. 1, is mentioned only by Cicero (ad Fam. ix. 21) as having fled from Sicily.

5., a son of No. 1, is likewise mentioned only by Cicero (ad Fam. ix. 21) as having been accused by Flaccus and condemned.

6., with the surname , was a son of No. 2 (Cic. Brut. 62), and throughout his life a supporter of the aristocracy, whence Cicero calls him the only good citizen in the whole family. He was tribune of the people in 90, as we may infer from Cicero (Brut. 89), though some writers place his tribuneship a year earlier, and others a year later. In his tribuneship Carbo and his colleague, M. Plautius Silvanus, carried a law (lex Plautia et Papiria), according to which a citizen of a federate state, who had his domicile in Italy at the time the law was passed, and had sent in his name to the praetor within sixty days after, should have the Roman franchise. Carbo distinguished himself greatly as an orator, and though according to Cicero he was wanting in acuteness, his speeches were always weighty and carried with them a high degree of authority. We still possess a fragment of one of his orations which he delivered in his tribuneship, and which Orelli (Onom. Tull. ii. p. 440) erroneously attributes to his father. [No. 2.] In this fragment (Cic. Orat. 63) he approves of the death of M. Livius Drusus, who had been murdered the year before, 91. Cicero expressly states, that he was present when the oration was delivered, which shews incontrovertibly, that it cannot belong to C. Papirius Carbo, the father, who died long before Cicero was born. He was murdered in 82, in the curia Hostilia, by the praetor Brutus Damasippus [, No. 19], one of the leaders of the Marian party. (Cic. pro Arch. 4, Brut. 62, 90, Ad Fam. ix. 21, De Orat. iii. 3; Schol. Bobiens. p. 353, ed. Orelli; Vell. Pat. ii. 26; Appian, B. C. i. 88.)

7., a son of No. 3 and cousin of No. 6, occurs in history for the first time in 92, when the consul Appius Claudius Pulcher made a report to the senate about his seditious proceedings. (Cic. De Legg. iii. 19.) He was one of the leaders of the Marian party, and in 87, when C. Marius returned from Africa, he commanded one of the four armies with which Rome was blockaded. In 86, when L. Valerius Flaccus, the successor of Marius in his seventh consulship, was killed in Asia, Carbo was chosen by Cinna for his colleague for  85. These two consuls, who felt alarmed at the reports of Sulla's return, sent persons into all parts of Italy to raise money, soldiers, and provisions, for the anticipated war, and they endeavoured to strengthen their party, especially by the new citizens, whose rights, they said, were in danger, and on whose behalf they pretended to exert themselves. The fleet also was restored to guard the coasts of Italy, and in short nothing was neglected to make a vigorous stand against Sulla. When the latter wrote to the senate from Greece, the senate endeavoured to stop the proceedings of the consuls until an answer from Sulla had arrived. The consuls declared themselves ready to obey the commands of the senate, but no sooner had the ambassadors to Sulla quitted Rome, than Cinna and Carbo declared themselves consuls for the year following, that they might not be obliged to go to Rome to hold the comitia for the elections. Legions upon legions were raised and transported across the Adriatic to oppose Sulla; but great numbers of the soldiers began to be discontented and refused fighting against their fellow-citizens. A mutiny broke out, and Cinna was murdered by his own soldiers. Carbo now returned to Italy with the troops which had already been carried across the Adriatic, but he did not venture to go to Rome, although the tribunes urged him to come in order that a successor to Cinna might be elected. At length, however, Carbo returned to Rome, but the attempts at holding the comitia were frustrated by prodigies, and Carbo remained sole consul for the rest of the year.

In 83, Sulla arrived in Italy. Carbo, who was now proconsul of Gaul, hastened to Rome, and there caused a decree to be made, which declared Metellus and all the senators who supported Sulla, to be enemies of the republic. About the same time the capitol was burnt down, and there was some suspicion of Carbo having set it on fire. While Sulla and his partizans were carrying on the war in various parts of Italy, Carbo was elected consul a third time for the year 82, together with C. Marius, the younger. Carbo's army was in Cisalpine Gaul, and in the spring of 82 his legate, C. Carrinas, fought a severely contested battle with Metellus, and was put to flight. Carbo himself, however, pursued Metellus, and kept him in a position in which he was unable to do any thing; hearing of the misfortunes of his colleague Marius at Praeneste, he led his troops back to Ariminum, whither he was followed by Pompey. In the mean time Metellus gained another victory over an army of Carbo. Sulla, after entering Rome and making some of the most necessary arrangements, marched out himself against Carbo. In an engagement on the river Glanis, several of the Spaniards, who had joined his army a little while before, deserted to Sulla, and Carbo, either to avenge himself on those who remained with him, or to set a fearful example, ordered all of them to be put to death. At Rh