Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/855

LURCO. by Pompey to take the charge of Achaia. (Caes. | li. C. iii. 55.) He may have been the father of Rutilius Lupus, the grammarian, spoken of below. LU'PUS, RUTI'LIUS, is the name attached to a rhetorical treatise in two books, entitled De Figuris Sententiurum et Elocutionis, which appears to have been originally an abridgement of a work {(TXVf^o- Siavoias Kol Ae|ews), by Gorgias of Athens, one of the preceptors of young M. Cicero, but which has evidently undergone many changes in the hands of those by whom it was used for the pui-poses of instruction. Its chief value is derived from the numerous translations which it contains of striking passages from the works of Greek orators now lost. At one time the author of this piece was believed to be the person spoken of by Quintilian as contemporary with himself ; but the reading Tutilium has been substituted for Rutilium in the passage in question by the best editors, on the authority of good MSS. and of all the earlier impressions. Lupus is now generally supposed to have been the son of P. Rutilius Lupus, mentioned above. The Editio Princeps of the De Figuris was printed along with Aquila Romanus by Zoppinus at Venice, Uvo. 1519. It will be found in the Antiqui Rlietores LaH?ii of F. Pithou, 4to. Paris, 1.599, p. 1 ; and under its best form, along with Aquila and Julius Rufiinianus, in the edition of Ruhnken, 8vo. Lug. Bat. 1768, reprinted, with many additions, by C. H. Frotscher, 8vo. Leip. 183]. (Quintil. iii. 1. § 21, ed. Spalding. Ruhn- ken, in his preface, has collected every thing known with regard to Lupus. See also Bahr, (Jeschichte der Romischen Litieratur, 3te Ausgabe, §262.) [W. R.J LUPUS, VI'RIUS, governor of Britain in the reign of the emperor Alexander Sevei-us, was obliged to purchase peace of the Maeatae, a people bordering upon the Caledonians. The name of Virius Lupus frequently occurs in inscriptions found in various parts of Britain. (Dion Cass. Ixxv. 5, with the note of Reimarus.) LURCO, M. AUFID'IUS, tribune of the plebs, in B. c. 61. WHS the author of the Lex Aufidia de Ambitu, which enacted, among other things, that if a candidate promised and paid money to a tribe at the comitia, he should pay besides to that tribe 3000 sesterces yearly during his life : but if he merely promised and did not pay, he should be exempt. (Diet, of Antiq. s. v. Ambitus.) This, however, is Cicero's version of the principal clause of the Lex Aufidia, and, since it is part of his ac- count of a wit-combat between himself and P. CIo- dius in the senate {ad Ait. i. 16), B. c. 61, it is pro- bably exaggerated. Three years afterwards, B. c. 59, Lurco was one of the witnesses for the defence at the impeachment of L. Valerius Flaccus [L. Valerius Flaccu.s, No. 15], and then it suited Cicero's purpose to call him an honest man and his good friend {pro Flacc. iv. 34). In B. c. 52 — 1, Lurco prosecuted and procured the conviction of Sextus Clodius, for bringing the corpse of P. Clodius into the Curia Hostilia, and for other acts of violence (Ascon. in Cic. Milon. p. 55, Orelli). Lurco was the maternal grandfather of the empress Livia, wife of Augustus. (Suet. Cat. 23.) He was the first person in Rome who fattened peacocks for sale, and he derived a large income from this source. (Varr. R. R. iii. C) ; Plin. //. N. X. 20.) [W. B. D.] LUSCINUS. sn M. LU'RIUS, praefect of Sardinia, under Augustus, in B. c. 40, was expelled from that island by Menas, Sextus Pompey's lieutenant. Lurius commanded the right wing of the Caesarian fleet at the battle of Actium, b. c. 31. (Dion Cass, xlviii. 30 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 85 ; comp. Pint. Ant. 65, 66 ; Appian, B. C. v. 55.) No family of the Lurii is known : but there is extant a coin of tlie moneyers of Augustus bearing on its obverse the legend " p. lurius agrippa hi. vir. a. a. a. f. f." (Ursin.Fam. Rom.; Vaillant, "Lurii.") [W.B.D.j LUSCIE'NUS. [LuciENus.] LUSCl'NUS, FABRl'CIUS. 1. C. Fabri- cius C. F. C. N. LusciNUS, one of the most popular heroes in the Roman annals, who, like Cincinnatus and Curius, is the representative of the poverty and honesty of the good old times. He is first men- tioned in b. c. 285 or 284, when he was sent as ambassador to the Tarentines and other allied states, to dissuade them from making war against Rome, but he was apprehended by them, while they sent embassies to the Etruscans, Umbrians, and Gauls, for the purpose of forming a general coalition against Rome. (Dion Cass. Frag. 144, ed. Keimar.) He must, however, have been re- leased soon afterwards, for he was consul in b. c. 282 with Q. Aemihus Papus. In his consulship he had to cairy on war in Southern Italy against the Samnites, Lucanians, and Bruttii. He nuirched first to the relief of the town of Thurii, to which the Lucanians and Bruttii had laid siege, under the command of Stalilius ; but on leading out his army against the enemy, his soldiers lost courage at seeing that their forces were much smaller than those of the foe, when suddenly a youth of gigantic stature appeared at their front, carrying a scaling ladder, with which he began to mount the ramparts of the enemy. The youth was discovered to bo Mars the Father ; and Niebuhr remarks, that this narrative is the last episode in Roman history that belongs to poetry. A great victory, however, was gained by the Romans ; the town of Thurii was relieved, and the grateful inhabitants erected a statue to the victorious consul. Fabricius followed up his success by gaining various other victories over the Lucanians, Bruttians, and Samnites, and taking several of their towns ; and he obtained so much boot}', that, after giving up a large portion to the soldiers, and returning to the citizens the tribute which they had paid the year before, he brought into the treasury after his triumph more than 400 talents. (Val. Max. i. 8. $ 6 , Plin. //. A^. xxxiv. 6, s. 15; Dionys. Encc. Leg. pp. 2344, 2355, ed. Reiske ; Liv. E^tit. 12 ; Niebuhr, IFist. of Rome., vol. iii. p. 437.) In B. c. 281 Pyrrhus landed at Tarentum, and in the following year, B. c. 280, the consul P. Vale- rius Laevinus was sent against him. Fabricius pro- bably served under him as legate, and was thus present at the unfortunate battle of Heracleia, on the Siris, where the Romans Avere defeated by Pyrrhus. The subsequent history of the campaign belongs to the life of Pyrrhus [Pyrrhusj ; and it is only- necessary to state iiere, that after the king of Epei- rus had advanced almost up to the gates of Rome, he found it necessary to retreat, and eventually took up his winter-quarters at Tarentum. While stopping in this city, the Romans sent to him an embassy, with Fabricius at its head, to negotiate a ransom or exchange of prisoners. The conduct of Fabricius on this occasion formed one of the