Lucius Valerius Flaccus
Lucius Valerius Flaccus was the name of several notable Romans of the Republican era, who were patricians from the gens Valeria. Six held consulships in the period from 261 BC to 86 BC; one also held a censorship.
Lucius Valerius Flaccus, consul 261 BC
He was a consul in 261 BC with Tiberius Otacilius Crassus. He was possibly the ancestor of all later consuls by that name, since he marks the first appearance of a Lucius Valerius Flaccus on the list of consuls.[1] He and his consular colleague waged war in Sicily.[2]
Lucius Valerius Flaccus, consul 195 BC
He was a consul in 195 BC and censor in 183 BC, serving both times with his great friend Cato the Elder, whom he brought to the notice of the Roman political elite.
L. Valerius Flaccus, consul 152 BC
Possibly son of the consul in 195 BC. Or the Plebeian Tribune who spoke for the repeal of the Oppian Law
L. Valerius Flaccus, consul 131 BC
Another Lucius Valerius Flaccus became consul in 131 BC, with Publius Licinius Crassus Dives Mucianus. He was flamen Martialis at the time, and so was forbidden by his co-consul and religious superior, as Pontifex Maximus since 132 BC, from taking the army to Asia Minor to fight the usurper Aristonicus. Furthermore, Flaccus was fined by his co-consul. Mucianus was supported by the people of Rome who wished Flaccus to obey the ruling of the Pontifex, but they remitted the fine. Ironically, Mucianus himself violated prior taboos by leaving Italy with an army, something his kinsman the consul of 205 BC had refused to do more than seventy years earlier. The subsequent political career or life of this Lucius Valerius Flaccus is unknown.
L. Valerius Flaccus, consul 100 BC
Another L. Valerius Flaccus, apparently son of the consul of 131 BC,[3] was consul in 100 BC along with Gaius Marius; Publius Rutilius Rufus characterized Flaccus as "more slave than colleague" however. As censor in 97, he was noted for helping enroll more Italians as citizens.
He was made princeps senatus in 86, and worked for agreement with Sulla, eventually joining his party and securing Sulla's election as dictator, for which Flaccus was rewarded with the post of magister equitum. Flaccus does not appear further, and is presumed to have died soon after.
Like his father, this Lucius Valerius Flaccus was also a Flamen Martialis.[4]
L. Valerius Flaccus, suffect consul 86 BC
Another L. Valerius Flaccus was aedile in 98 BC, but prosecuted (unsuccessfully) afterwards by Decianus. Flaccus was then praetor, then governor of Asia. He was a suffect consul in 86, taking command against Mithridates, passing a law cancelling three-quarters of all debts, and leaving for Asia. He was murdered in a mutiny by Gaius Flavius Fimbria. He was the brother of the Gaius Valerius Flaccus who was consul in 93 BC.
L. Valerius Flaccus, praetor 63 BC
The previous Flaccus' son was also L. Valerius Flaccus (d. 54 BC). He served in Asia under his father, but fled to his uncle Gaius, who was in Gaul. He later served as military tribune in Cilicia, quaestor in Hispania under Piso, a legate of Metellus in Crete. As urban praetor he was with Cicero in the Conspiracy of Catiline, and then governor in Asia. In 59 Cicero defended him in a speech.[5] Flaccus was then a legate of a later Piso, in Macedonia.
References
- ↑ A Lucius Valerius Flaccus had been magister equitum in 321 BC (Livy 8.18.13), but nothing else is known of the man.
- ↑ Polybius 1.20.3–7, cf. Diodorus Siculus 23.9; Frontinus, Stratagems 3.16.3; Zonaras 8.10, as cited by T.R.S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic (American Philological Association, 1951, 1986), vol. 1, p. 204.
- ↑ Smith: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology Ed. 1849, Vol. 2, p. 158
- ↑ Francis X. Ryan, Rank and Participation in the Republican Senate (Franz Steiner Verlag, 1998), p. 192 online.
- ↑ "No document found". Perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2013-10-04.