Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/793

LI BO. celebrated their victory by a triumph. (Eutrop. ii. 17 ; Fasti Triumph.) LIBO, Q. MA'RCIUS. This name is found only on Roman asses, seniisses, and trientes. A spe- cimen of one of these coins is annexed, containing on the obverse the head of Jupiter, with S (the aign of Semissis), and on the reverse the prow of a ship. LIBO. 779 COIN OF Q. MARCIUS LIBO. LIBO, POETE'LIUS, a plebeian family (Dio- nys. X. 58), most of the members of which likewise bear the agnomen Visolus. 1. Q. PoETELius LiBO VisoLUS, a member of the second decemvirate, B. c. 450. (Liv. iii. 35 ; Dionys. x. 58, xi. 23.) 2. C. POETELIUS, C. F. Q. N. LiBO ViSOLUS, perhaps a grandson of No. 1, was consul B.C. 360, with M. Fabius Ambustus. He gained a victory over the Gauls and the inhabitants of Tibur, and celebrateda triumph over both nations. In the Fasti Capitolini the name of Poetelius occurs in the form which is given above. Livy calls him C. Poetelius Balbus, and Diodorus gives the name without any cognomen. (Fasti Capit. ; Liv. vii. 11; Diod. xvi. 9.) 3. C. Poetelius, C. f. C. n., Libo Visolus, son of No. 2, is distinguished in the early legisla- tion of the republic by two important laws which he proposed. He was tribune of the plebs B. c. 358, in which year he proposed the first law en- acted at Rome against bribery. (Liv. vii. 12.) He was consul for the first time in b. c. 346, with M. Valerius Corvus ; and it was in this year that the ludi saeculares were celebrated a second time. (Liv. vii. 27 ; Diod. xvi. 72 ; Censorin. de Die Nat. 17.) His second consulship is assigned by Pighius (Annul, vol. i, p. 329) to the year b. c. 333, though not on sufficient grounds ; the consuls of this year it is impossible to ascertain. He was, however, undoubtedly consul again in b. c. 326, with L. Papirius Mugillanus, and dictator thirteen years afterwards, B.C. 313, when he gained some advantages over the Samnites, though some annal- ists gave the credit of these victories to the consul C. Junius Bubulcus Brutus. (Liv. viii. 23, ix. 28 ; Diod. xvii. 113.) Libo was the proposer of the Poetelia lex, which abolished imprisonment for debt in the case of the nexi. (Diet, of Ant. s. v. Nexum.) Livy places (viii. 28) this law in the last consulship of Poetelius, B. c. 326 ; but Nie- buhr thinks {Rom. Hist. vol. iii. pp. 155, &c., 293) it more probable that it was brought forward in his dictatorship ; and his opinion, which receives sup- port from a corrupt passage of Varro {L. L. vii. 105, ed. Miiller), is adopted also by K. 0. Miiller {ad Varr.l. c). 4. M. Poetelius, M. f. M. n. Libo, consul B. c. 314, with C. Sulpicius Longus, and magister equitum in the following year, 313, to the dictator, C. Poetelius Libo. In his consulship, Poetelius and his colleague gained a brilliant victory over the Samnites, near Caudium, and afterwards proceeded to lay siege to Beneventum ; but, according to the triumphal Fasti, it was Sulpicius alone who ob- tained the honour of a triumph. (Liv. ix. 24 — 28 ; Diod. xix. 73.) LIBO, SCRIBO'NIUS, a plebeian family, which afterwards became illustrious from its con- nection with Augustus. The name first occurs in the second Punic war. 1. L. ScRiBONius Libo, tribune of the plebs, B. c. 216, in which year the fatal battle of Cannae was fought, brought forward a motion for ransom- ing the Roman prisoners taken in that engagement, but it was rejected by the senate. A relation of his, L. Scribonius, was one of the prisoners, who was sent to Rome by Hannibal to negotiate the terms of the ransom. In the same year Libo was created one of the triumviri mensarii. (Liv. xxii. 61, xxiii. 21.) 2. L. ScRiBONius Libo, probably son of the preceding, was praetor, b. c. 204, and received the peregrina jurisdictio and the province of Gaul. (Liv. xxix. 11, 13.) 3. L. Scribonius Libo, curule aedile, b. c. 193, with C. Atilius Serranus. They were the first aediles who exhibited the Megalesiaas ludiscenici; and it was also in their aedileship that the senators had seats assigned them in the theatre distinct from the rest of the people. In B. c. 1 92, Libo was consul, and obtained the peregrina jurisdictio, and in b. c. 185 he was appointed one of the triumviri to conduct colonists to Sipontum and Buxentum. (Liv. xxxiv. 54 ; Ascon. in Cic. Cornel. p. 69, ed. Orelli ; Liv. xxxv. 10, 20, xxxix. 23.) 4. L. Scribonius Libo, probably son of No. 3, tribune of the plebs, B.C. 149, accused in that year Ser. Sulpicius Galba on account of the abominable outrages which he had committed against the Lu- sitani. [Galea, No. 6.] This accusation was supported in a powerful speech by M. Cato, who was then 85 years old ; but, notwithstanding the eloquence of the accusers and the guilt of the ac- cused, Galba escaped punishment. Cicero was in doubt (ad Att. xii. 5, I 3) whether Libo was tri- bune in B.C. 150 or 149, but it must have been in the latter year that he held the office, as we are expressly told that Cato spoke against Galba in the year of his death, and this we know was B. c. 1 49. (Liv. Epit. 49 ; Val. Max. viii. 1, § 2 ; Cic. Brut. 23, de Orat. ii. 65 ; Meyer, Orator. Roman. Fragm. p. 120, &c., p. 166, &c., 2d ed.) It was, perhaps, this same Libo who wrote an historical work {liber annalis)., referred to once or twice by Cicero, and which must have come down at least as late as B. c. 132. {dead Att. x . 30, 32.) But Ernesti has re- marked, with some justice, that supposing the accuser of Galba and the annalist were the same, it is rather strange that Cicero should have made no mention of Libo's historical compositions, when he was speaking of his style of oratory. (Comp. Krause, Vitae et Fragm. Histor. Roman, p. 1 38.) It was perhaps this same Libo who consecrated the Puteal Scribonianum or Puteal Libonis, of which we so frequently read in ancient writers, and which is often exhibited on coins of the Scribonia gens. One of these is given below, the obverse represent- ing a female head, with the legend libo bon. EVENT, (that is, bonus eventus)^ and the reverse the puteal adorned with garlands and two lyres. The Puteal Scribonianum was an enclosed place in the forum, near the Arcus Fabian us, and was so