Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/167

Rh FLACCUS. the stenjest measures for the extirpation of idolatry. The Editio Princeps, as we hare remarked above, was printed at Strasburg in 1562 ; that of Wower, 8vo, Hamburg, 1603, was long held in high esti- mation, but the best and most recent is that of Miinter, 8vo, Havniae, 1826. See also the vo- lume of the Dutch Variorum Classics in 8vo, which contains Minucius Felix, Lug. Bat. 1709, and the BibL Pair, of Galland, vol. v. p. 23. [W. R.] FI'RMIUS CATUS. [Catus.] M. FIRMUS, one of the "minusculi tyranni" who sprung up during the reign of Aurelian. Ac- cording to Vopiscus, he was a native of Seleuceia, the friend and ally of Zenobia, and appears to have followed the profession of a merchant, carrying on a most extensive and lucrative trade. When Ze- nobia took up arms against the Romans, Firmus, in order to make a diversion in her favour, seized upon Alexandria ; but the rebellion was promptly crushed by the vigour and good fortune of the emperor. The Axigustan historian has chronicled a number of particulars with regard to the personal appearance, bodily strength, athletic and convivial exploits, wealth and magnificence of this petty usurper, some of which are curious in an anti- quarian point of view. We are expressly told that he issued a coinage, and a medal is contained in the Pembroke collection bearing the legend ATT. M. ^IPMIOS ETrC which some writers suppose to belong to hira. ( Vopisc. Firm. ; Eckhel, vol. vii. p. 496.) [W. R.] FIRMUS, PLO'TIUS, a contemporary and faithful friend of the emperor Otho. He had risen from the station of a common soldier to the offices of praepositus viyilibus and praefedtts pradorii. During an insurrection of the soldiers he exerted himself in suppressing the revolt, by addressing each maniple separately, and causing large sums of money to be distributed among them. During the last struggle of Otho, Plotius Firmus implored him not to abandon his faithful army, and exhorted him to resume his courage. (Tac. Hist. i. 46, 82. ii. 46, 49.) [L. S.] FISTUS, P. CURIA'TIUS,with the agnomen TRIGE'MINUS, consul b. c. 453, in which year the city was visited with a great pestilence (Li v. iii. 32 ; Fasti Capit.) ; and one of the first de- cemvirate in B.C. 451. (Liv. iii. 33; Dionys. x. 54.) FLACCINA'TOR, M. FO'SLIUS. 1. One of the consular tribunes in B.C. 433, in which year, notwithstanding the opposition of the plebeian tri- bunes, the consular tribunes were all patricians. (Liv. iv. 25 ; Diod. xii. 58, where he is called Falinius.) 2. Master of the equites to the dictator C. Mae- nius, for the first time in B. c. 320, according to the Fasti, but according to Livy in B. c. 31 2 (ix. 26). Both the dictator and Flaccinator resigned on being accused of illegal association against the republic ; and both were tried before the consuls and honorably acquitted. Flaccinator was consul in B.C. 318 (Liv. ix. 20), and master of the equites, according to the Fasti, a second time to C. Mae- nius B. c. 314, but according to Livy (ix. 28) to the dictator C. Poetelius. The cause and cir- cumstances of his trial will be better understood by referring to Maenius. [W. B. D.] FLACCUS, C. AVIA'NUS, was an intimate friend of Cicero's, and had two sons, C. Avianus, FLACCUS. 153 and M. Avianus. (Cic. ad Fam. xiii. 35, 79.) Both father and sons seem to have been engaged in the farming of the public taxes. In b. c. 52, Cicero recommended Caius, the son, to T. Titius, one of Pompey's legates, who had the management of the corn-market, in accordance with the law which had conferred the superintendence of it upon Pompey {ad Fain. xiii. 75), and, in B. c. 47, Cicero recommends both sons to A. Allienus, the procon- sul of Sicily {ad Fam. xiii. 79). FLACCUS, CALPU'RNIUS, a rhetorician who was living in the reign of Hadrian, and whose fifty-one declamations frequently accompany those of Quintilian. They were first published byPithoeus, Lutet. 1580. 8vo. ; and subsequently have been edited with Quintilian by Gronovius, Schulting, Almeloveen, &c. Pliny (^. v. 2.) writes to Flaccus, who, in some editions, is called Calpurnius Flaccus. [W. B. D.] FLACCUS, FU'LVIUS. 1. M. Fulvius, Q. p. M. N. Flaccus, was consul with App. Clau- dius Caudex, in b. c. 264, the year in which the first Punic war broke out. In his consulship the first gladiatorial games were exhibited at Rome, in the forum boarium. (Veil. Pat. i. 12; Gell. xvii. 21 ; Val. Max. ii. 4. § 7 ; Eutrop. ii. 10 ; Ores, iv. 7, who erroneously calls the colleague of App. Claudius Caudex, Q. Fabius.) 2. Q. Fulvius M. f. Q. n. Flaccus, a son of No. 1, was consul in b. c. 237. He and his col- league, L. Cornelius Lentulus, fought against the Ligurians in Italy, and triumphed over them. In B. c. 224 he was consul a second time. The war in the north of Italy was still going on, and Flaccus and his colleague were the first Roman generals that, led their armies across the river Po. The Gauls and Insubrians were reduced to submission in that campaign. In B. c. 215, after having been twice consul, Q. Fulvius Flaccus obtained the city prae- torship, a circumstance which Livy thinks worth being recorded. The year before his praetorship, 216, he had been elected pontifex in the place of Q. Aelius Paetus, who had fallen in the battle of Cannae. In his praetorship the senate placed twentj'-four ships at his command, to protect the coast in the neighbourhood of the city, and soon after the senate decreed that he should raise 5000 foot and 400 horse, and cause this legion to be carried to Sardinia as soon as possible, and that he should appoint whomsoever he pleased as its commander, until Q, Mucins, who was severely ill, recovered. Flaccus accordingly appointed T. Man- lius Torquatus commander of the legion. In B. c. 214 he was the only one among his colleagues that was re-elected to the praetorship, and a senatus consultum ordained, that he, extra ordinem, should have the city for his province, and that he should have the command there during the absence of the consuls. In B, c. 213 he was appointed magister equitum to the dictator, C. Claudius Centho, and the year after was raised to the consulship for the third time, together with App. Claudius Pulcher. In this year he was also a candidate for the office of pontifex maximus, which, however, he did not obtain. During his third consulship Campania was his province ; and he accordingly went thither with his army, took up his position at Beneventum, and thence made an unexpected attack upon the camp of Hanno in the neighbourhood. After some very extraordinary but unsuccessful attempts to take the camp, which was pitched upon an almost inac-