Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/172

Rh m FLA ecus. rated as flaraen Dialis, in B. c. 209, against his own will, by the pontifex maximus, P. Licinius. He was a young man of a wanton and dissolute character, and for this reason shunned by his own relatives ; but after his appointment to the priesthood, his conduct altered so much for the better, and his watchfulness and care in the performance of his duties were so great, that he was admitted into the senate. In B.C. 199 he was created curule aedile ; but being flamen dialis, he could not take the official oath, and his brother, L. Valerius Flaccus (No. 7), who was then praetor designatus, took it for him. (Liv. xxvii. 8, xxxi. 50, xxxii. 7.) 7. L. Valerios p. f. L. n. Flaccus, a brother of No. 6', was curule aedile in B.C. 201, and in the year following he was elected praetor, and received Sicily as his province. In b. c. 1 95 he was made ponti- fex, in the place of M. Cornelius Cethegus. In the same year he was invested with the consulship, together with M. Porcius Cato, and received Italy for his province. During the summer he carried on the war against the Boians, and defeated them ; 8000 of them were slain, and the rest dispersed in their villages. Flaccus afterwards spent his time on the banks of the Po, at Placentia and Cremona, being occupied in restoring what had been de- stroyed by war. He remained in the north of Italy also in the year b. c. 194, as proconsul, and in the neighbourhood of Milan he fought with great suc- cess against the Gauls, Insubrians, and Boians, who had crossed the Po under their chief, Dorulacus : 1 0,000 enemies are said to have been killed. In IJ. c. 191, although a consular, he served as legate under the consul, M'. Acilius Glabrio, in tlie war against the Aetolians and Macedonians. With 2000 picked foot soldiers, he was ordered to occupy Rhoduntia and Tichius. The Macedonians, by a mistake, approached his camp too closely, and, on discovering the enemy, they took to flight in the greatest disorder. Flaccus pursued them, and made great havoc among them. In b. c. 184 he was the colleague of M. Porcius Cato in the cen- sorship, and in the same year he was made princeps senatus. He died as pontifex in B. c. 180, and was succeeded by Q. Fabius Labeo. (Liv. xxxi. 4, 49, 50, xxxii. 1, xxxiii. 42, 43, xxxiv. 21, 46, xxxvi. 17, 19, xxxix. 40, &c., 52, xl. 42 ; Polyb. XX. 9, &c. ; Plut. Cat. Maj. 12 ; Nep. Cat. 2 ; Oros. iv. 20.) 8. L. Valerius Flaccus, a son of No. 4, one of the triumvirs appointed to conduct 6000 families as colonists to Placentia and Cremona, in B. c. 1 90, those places having become almost deserted by the late war. (Liv. xxxvii. 46.) 9. L.Valerius Flaccus, was consul in b.c. 152, b.it died during his magistracy. (J. Obseq. 77.) 10. L. Valerius Flaccus, was flamen Mar- tialis, and received the consulship in B. c. 131, with P. Licinius Crassus, then pontifex maximus. Flac- cus wished to undertake the command in the war against Aristonicus in Asia, but his colleague fined him for deserting the sacra entrusted to his care. The people, before whom the question was brought for decision, cancelled the fine, but com- pelled the flamen Flaccus to obey the pontiff Cras- sus. (Cic. Phil. xi. 8.) He may possibly be the same as the one whose quaestor, M. Aemilius Scau- rus, wanted to bring an accusation against him (Cic. Divin. in Caec. 19), though it is uncertain whether Scaurus was quaestor in the praetorship or consulship of Flaccus. FLACCUS. 11. L. Valerius Flaccus, probably a son of No. 10, and the father of L. Valerius Flaccus, whom Cicero defended. [See No. 15.] When he was curule aedile, the tribune, Decianus, brought an accusation against him. In B. c. 100 he was the colleague of C. Marius, in his sixth consulship. During the disturbances of L. Appuleius Saturni- nus, the consuls were ordered by the senate to avail themselves of the assistance of the tribunes and praetors, for the purpose of maintaining the dignity of the republic. In consequence of this, Valerius Flaccus put to death Satuminus, Glaucia, and others of the revolutionary party. Four years after these occurrences, b. c. 97, he was censor with M. Antonius, the orator. In b. c. 86, when Marius had died, in his seventh consulship, L. Va- lerius Flaccus was chosen by Cinna as his colleague, in the place of Marius, and received the com- mission to go into Asia, to resist Sulla, and to bring the war against Mithridates to a close. He was accompanied on this expedition by C. Flavins Fimbria. Flaccus was avaricious, and very cruel in his punishments, whence he was so unpopular with the soldiers, that many of them deserted to Sulla, and the rest were kept together only by the influence of Fimbria, who, taking advantage of the state of afiiiirs, played the part of an indulgent commander, and won the favour of the sol- diers. While yet at Byzantium, Fimbria had a quarrel with the quaestor, and the consul, Flaccus, being chosen as arbiter, decided in favour of the quaestor. Fimbria was so indignant, that he threatened to return to Rome, whereupon Flaccus dismissed him from his service. While the latter was sailing to Chalcedon, Fimbria, who had re- mained at Byzantium, created a mutiny among the soldiers ; Flaccus, on being informed of it, hastily returned to chastise the offender, but was com- pelled to take to flight. He reached Nicomedeia, and shut the gates against his pursuer, but Fimbria had him dragged forth, and murdered him : hia head was thrown into the sea, and his body was left unburied. Most authorities place the murder of Flaccus in the j^ear of his consulship, b. c. 86, but Velleius (ii. 23, 24) places it a year later. At the beginning of his consulship, Flaccus had carried a law, by which it was decreed that debts should be cancelled, and only a quadrans be paid to the creditors, and his violent death was regarded as a just punishment for his iniquitous law. (Liv. Epit. 82 ; Appian, Mifhrid. 51, «&c.. Bell. Civ. i. 75 ; Plut. Sail. 33 ; Oros. vi. 2 ; Cic. pro Flacc. 23, 25, 32, pro Rahir. 2->erd. 7, 10, in Cat. i. 2, Brut. 62; Val. Max. ii. 9. § 5 ; Dion Cass. Fragm. Peir. No. 127, p. 51, ed. Reimar.) It was probably this Valerius Flaccus who levied the legions which were called, after him, Valerianae^ and which are mentioned in the war of LucuUus against Mithri- dates. (Liv. Epit. 98 ; Dion Cass. xxxv. 14, 15, 16, xxxvi. 29 ; Sail. Hist, v.) ] 2. L. Valerius Flaccus. When Sulla en- tered Rome, after the defeat of his enemies, he ordered the senate to appoint an interrex : the choice fell upon L. Valerius Flaccus, who imme- diately brought forward and carried a law that Sulla should be invested with the supreme power (the dictatorship) for an indefinite number of years, and that all the arrangements he had pre- viously made should be sanctioned, and binding as laws. Sulla, on entering upon the dictatorship, made Flaccus his magister equitum. (Plut. SiiUa,