Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/173

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loc cit.
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FLACCUS. 33; Appian, B. C. i. 97, &c.; Cic. de Lep. Agr. iii. 2, ad Ait. viii. 3; Schol. Gronov. ad liosdan. p. 435, ed. OieUi.) 13. C. Valerius Flaccus was praetor iirbanus in B. c. 98, and, on the authority of the senate, he brought a bill before the people that Calliphana, of Yelia, should receive the Roman franchise. [Cal- liphana.] In B. c. 93 he was consul, with M. Herennius, and afterwards he succeeded T. Didius as proconsul in Spain. As the Celtiberians, who had been most cruelly treated by his predecessors, revolted in the town of Belgida, and burnt all their senators in the senate-house, because they refused to join the people, Flaccus took possession of the town by surprise, and put to death all those who had taken part in burning the senate-house. (Cic. pro Balb. 24 ; Schol. Bob. ad Cic. p. Place, p. 233, ed. Orelli ; Appian, Hispan. 100.) 14. C.Valerius Flaccus is called imperator and propraetor of Gaul in b. c, 83, in the consul- ship of L. Cornelius Scipio and C. Norbanus. (Cic. pro Quint. 7.) He may possibly be the same as No. 13. 15. L. Valerius Flaccus, a son of No. 11, served in Cilicia as tribune of the soldiers, under P. Servilius, in b. c. 78, and afterwards as quaestor, under M. Calpurnius Piso, in Spain. (Cic. pro Place. 3.) He was praetor in B. c. 63, the year of Cicero's consulship, who through his assistance got possession of the documents which the AUobrogian ambassadors had received from the accomplices of Catiline. In the year after his praetorship he had the administration of Asia, in which he was suc- ceeded by Q. Cicero. (Cic. joro Place. 13, 14, 21, 40.) In B. c. 59 he was accused by D. Laelius of having been guilty of extortion in his province of Asia ; but Flaccus, although he was undoubtedly guilty, was defended by Cicero (in the oration pro Placco, which is still extant) and Q. Hortensius, and was acquitted. (Comp. Cic. in Cat. iii. 2, 6 ; ad Att. i. 19, ii. 25, in Pison, 23 ; the oration pro Placco ; pro Plane. 1 1 ; Schol. Bob. p. Place, p. 228 ; Sallust, Cat. 45.) 16. C. Valerius Flaccus, a friend of App. Claudius Pulcher, whom Cicero saw in Cilicia b. c. 51. (Cic. ad Pam. iii. 4,1].) 17. L. Valerius Flaccus, a son of No. 15. When Cicero defended his father, Lucius was yet a little boy , and the orator introduced him into the court, for the purpose of exciting the pity of the judges. In the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, Flaccus fought on the side of the latter, and was killed in the battle of Dyrrhachium, b. c. 48. (Cic. pro Place. 36, Orat. 38 ; Caes. B. C. iii. 53.) 18. L. Valerius Flaccus, a flamen of Mars, a contemporary of Cicero, whose brother Quintus had heard him give an account of a marvellous oc- currence. (Cic. de Divin. i. 46 ; Varro, de L. L. vi. 21.) That he cannot be the same as the one mentioned, No. 10, is evident from the dates. Eck- hel (Docir. Num. vol. v. p. 333) believes that he is the same as the Flaccus whom Cicero defended ; but the latter is described by Cicero as praetor, whereas our L. Valerius Flaccus is expressly called Flaccus, the flamen of Mars, both by Cicero and Varro. 19. P. Valerius Flaccus, the accuser of Carbo. (Cic. ad Pam. ix. 21.) [L. S.] There are several coins of the Valeria gens be- longing to the family of the Flacci. Of these, three FLACCUS. 159 specimens are given beloAv. The first has on the obverse the head of Pallas, and on the reverBO Victory in a biga, with c. va. c. f. flac. The second has on the obverse the head of Victory, and on the reverse the military standard of an eagle, between two other military standards, with c. VAL. FLA. imperat. EX. s. c. This C. Va- lerius Flaccus may be the same as No. 14, whom Cicero calls Imperator. The third coin has on the obverse the head of Victory, and on the reverse Mars standing between an apex (Did. of Ant. s.v.) and an ear of com, with L. valeri flaccl The apex shows that this L. Flaccus was a flamen, and he may therefore have been either the L. Flaccus consul in b. c. 131 [No. 10], who was a flamen of Mars, or the L. Flaccus, a contemporary of Cicero [No. 18], who was also a flamen of Mars. (Eck- hel, vol. V. p. 333.) FLACCUS, C. VALE'RIUS. All that is known or that can be conjectured with plausibility in regard to this writer may be comprehended in a very few words. From the expressions of his friend Martial (i. 62, 77), we learn that he was a native of Padua ; from the exordium of his piece, we infer that it was addressed to Vespasian, and published while Titus was achieving the sub- jugation of Judea ; from a notice in Quintilian, Dodwell has drawn the conclusion that he must have died about a. d. 88. The lines (v. 5),

  • ' Phoebe, mone, si Cymaeae mihi conscia vatis

Stat casta cortina domo," whatever may be their import, are not in themselves sufficient to prove, as Pius and Heinsius imagine, that he was a member of the sacred college of the Quindecimviii ; and the words Seii?ms Balbus, affixed to his name in certain MSS., are much too doubtful in their origin and signification to serve as the basis of any hypothesis, even if we were certain that they applied to the poet himself, and not to some commentator on the text, or to some individual who may at one time have possessed the codex which formed the archetype of a family. The only work of Flaccus now extant is an un- finished heroic poem in eight books, on the Argo- nautic expedition, in which he follows the geneial