A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

120(6 NOBILIOR. NOBILIOR.
a fearful storm, which destroyed almost the whole Fulvius, in his censorship, erected a temple to
fleet, and strewed the coast from Camarina to Pa- Hercules and the Muses inll the Circus Flaminius,
chynus with wrecks and corpses. Both consuls, as a proof that the state ought to cultivate the
however, escaped, and celebrated a triumph as pro- liberal arts, and adorned it with the paintings and
consuls in the following year (Polyb. i. 36, 37; statues which he had brought from Greece upon his
Eutrop. ii. 22; Oros. iv. 9; Diod. xxiii. 14; conquest of Aetolia. He also set up Fasti in this
Zonar. viii. 14). Respecting the date of this cam- temple, which are referred to by Macrobius. (Cic.
paign, see Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, vol. iii. p. 591, pro Arch. 1. c.; Plin. H. N. xxxv. 10. s. 36. ~ 4;
and Arnold, Hist. of Rome, vol. ii. p. 593. n. 67. Eumenius, Orat. pro Schsolis Instaurand. 7. ~ 3;
2. M. FULVIUS M. F. SER. N. NOBILIOR, grand- Macrob. Saturn. i. 12.) He left behind him two
son of the preceding, was curule aedile B. C. 195, sons, both of whom obtained the consulship. [Nos.
and praetor B. C. 193, when he obtained Further 3 and 4.] His brother, by his mother's side, was
Spain as his province, with the title of proconsul. C. Valerius Laevinus, who accompanied him in his
He remained in this country two years, and fought Aetolian campaign (Polyb. xxii. 12), and who was
with great success against the nations that still consul in B.C. 176.
resisted the Roman supremacy. He gained a 3. M. FULVIUS M. F. M. N. NOBILIOR, son of
victory over the united forces of the Vaccaei, Tec- No. 2, was tribune of the plebs B. c. 171 (Liv. xlii.
tones, and Celtiberi, near the town of Toletum 32), curule aedile B. C. 166, the year in which the
(Toledo), and took their king, Hilermus, prisoner. Andria of Terence was performed (Tit. Andr.
He then obtained possession of the town of Tole- Terent.), and consul B. C. 159, with Cn. Cornelius
tum, which is the first time that this place is men- Dolabella. Of the events of his consulship we
tioned in history. On his return to Rome in B. C. have no records; but as the triumphal fasti assign
191 he was granted the honour of an ovation. him a triumph in the following year over the
(Liv. xxxiii. 42, xxxiv. 54, 55, xxxv. 7, 22, Eleates, a Ligurian people, he must have carried on
xxxvi. 2], 39.) In B. C. 189 he was consul with war in Liguria.
M. Fulvius Nobilior, and received the conduct of 4. Q. FULVIUS M. F. M. N. NoBILIoR, son of
the war against the Aetolians. He captured the No. 2, was consul B. C. 153 with T. Annius
strong town of Ambracia, and then compelled the Luscus. Livy mentions (xxxix. 44) a Q. Fulvias
Aetolians to sue for peace, which was granted Nobilior who was appointed in B. C. 184 one of the
them on favourable terms. Shortly afterwards he triumviri for founding the colonies of Potentia and
obliged the island of Cephallenia, which had been Pisaurum; and as Cicero says (Brut. 20) that Q.
excluded from the terms of the peace, to submit to Nobilior, the son of the conqueror of the Aetolians,
the dominion of Rome. He remained in his pro- was a triumvir coloniae deducendae, though he does
vince for the next year as proconsul; and on his not mention the name of the colony, it would seem
return to Rome, in B.C. 187, celebrated a most that the Q. Nobilior mentioned by Livy is the
splendid triumph. In the following year he ex- same as the one referred to by Cicero. But there
hibited for ten successive days the games which he are two objections to this natural conclusion: in
had vowed in the Aetolian war, and which were the first place, it is exceedingly unlikely, and quite
the most magnificent that had yet been seen at contrary to Roman practice, that such important
Rome. There were venationes of lions and pan- duties as were involved in the foundation of a
thers; and contests of athletae were now for the colony should have been entrusted to a person so
first time exhibited in the city. The conquest of young as Q. Nobilior must have been at that time,
Aetolia by this consul is also commemorated in the since he did not obtain the consulship for thirtyinscription of a statue discovered at Tusculum, one years afterwards; and in the second place, the
from which place the Fulvii originally came. [FUL- Q. Fulvius M. f. who, says Livy (xl. 42), was
VIA GENS.] (Polyb. xxii. 8-15; Liv. xxxvii. 47, elected triumvir epulo in B.c. 180, while still a boy
48, 50, xxxviii. 3-11, 28, 30, 35, xxxix. 4, 5, 22; (praetextataus), can hardly mean any one else than
Aurel. Vict. de Vir. 111. 52; Orelli, Inscr. No. the son of the great M. Fulvius whose name occurs
562.) In B. C. 179 he was censor with M. Aemi- so often in that part of the historian's writings.
lius Lepidus, the pontifex maximus. The two A consideration of dates will make it almost certain
censors had previously been at feud, but were re- that this Q. Fulvius M. f. must be the same as the
conciled to one another upon their election, and consul of B.C. 153; for supposing him to have
discharged the duties of their office with unani- been sixteen when he was enrolled in the college
mity and concord. They executed many public of the epulones, he would have been forty-three
works, which are mentioned by Livy. (Liv. xl. when he was elected consul, the age at which a
45, 46, 51, xli. 2; Val.: Max. iv. 2. ~ 1; Cic. de citizen could first obtain this honour. We thereProv. Cons. 9.) fore conclude that the Q. Nobilior who was triFulvius Nobilior had a taste for literature and umvir in B. C. 184 must be a different person from
art; he was a patron of the poet Ennius, who ac- the consul of 153.
companied him in his Aetolian campaign; and he The consuls of the year B.C. 153 entered upon
belonged to that party among the Roman nobles their office on the kalends of January, whereas up
who were introducing into the city a taste for to this time the ides of March had been the day on
Greek literature and refinement. He was, there- which they took possession of their dignity. Tihe
fore, an object of the attacks of Cato the Censor, formidable revolt of the Celtiberians is given as the
who actually reproached him with having taken reason of this alteration; but whatever may have
Ennius with him into Aetolia, and insinuated that been the cause, the kalends of January continued
he was corrupting the old Roman discipline by from this time forth to be the first day of the conbestowing military crowns upon the soldiers for sular year. (Cassiodorus and Marianus, Chron.;
trivial reasons. Cato also made merry with his Liv. Epit. 47, refers to this change, but the words
name, calling him mobiliorinstead of nobilior. (Cic. are not intelligible as they stand. See the notes in
Tuse. i. 2, Brut. 20, pro Arch. 11, de Orat. iii. 63.) Drakenborch's edition.) Since the conquest of the