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

CURIA'TIUS.
ricum, about B. c. 60, to whom two of Cicero's
letters are addressed (ad Fam. xiii. 41, 42), was
probably one of the Terentii.
CUMA'NUS, VENTI'DIUS. [FELIX, ANTONIUS.]
CUNCTA'TOR, a surname given to Q. Fabius
IiMaximus, who fought against Hannibal.
CUPI'DO was, like Amor and Voluptas, a
modification of the Greek Eros, whose worship was
carried to Rome from Greece. (Cic. ap. Lactant.
i. 20. 14; Plaut. Cure. i. 1, 3; see ERos.) [L. S.]
C. CUPIE'NNIUS. 1. A person to whom
Cicero wrote a letter in B. c. 44, entreating him to
interest himself in the affairs of the inhabitants of
Buthrotum, and reminding him of the friendship
which had existed between the father of Cupiennius and Cicero himself. (Cic. ad Att. xvi. 16, D.)
2. The Cupiennius attacked by Horace (Sat. i.
2. 36) on account of his adulterous intercourse
with Roman matrons, is said by the Scholiast on
Horace to have been C. Cupiennius Libo of Cuma,
a friend of Augustus.
There are some coins extant bearing the names
of L. Cupiennius and C. Cupiennius; but who
these persons were, is not known. (Eckhel, v.
p. 199.)
CURA, the personification of Care, respecting
whose connexion with man an ingenious allegorical
story is related by Hyginus. (Fab. 220.) [L. S.]
CURE'TES. [ZEUS.]
CURIA GENS, plebeian, is mentioned for the
first time in the beginning of the third century
B. c., when it was rendered illustrious by M'. Curius Dentatus. [DENTATUS.] This is the only
cognomen which occurs in the gens: for the other
members of it, see CURIUS. [L. S.]
CURIA'TIA GENS. The existence of a patrician gens of this name is attested by Livy (i.
30, comp. Dionys. iii. 30), who expressly mentions
the Curiatii among the noble Alban gentes, which,
after the destruction of Alba, were transplanted to
Rome, and there received among the Patres. This
opinion is not contradicted by the fact that in B. c.
401 and 138 we meet with Curiatii who were tribunes of the people and consequently plebeians,
for this phenomenon may be accounted for here, as
in other cases, by the supposition that the plebeian
Curiatii were the descendants of freedmen of the
patrician Curiatii, or that some members of the
patrician gens had gone over to the plebeians. The
Alban origin of the Curiatii is also stated in the
story about the three Curiatii who in the reign of
Tullus Hostilius fought with the three Roman
brothers, the Horatii, and were conquered by the
cunning and bravery of one of the Horatii, though
some writers described the Curiatii as Romans
and the Horatii as Albans. (Liv. i. 24, &c.;
Dionys. iii. 11, &c.; Plut. Parall. Gr. et. Rom. 16;
Flor. i. 3; Aurel. Vict. de Vir. Ill. 4; Zonar. vii.
6; Niebubr, Hist. of Rome, i. p. 348; comp.
HoRATIus.) No members of the patrician Curiatia
gens, so far as our records go, rose to any eminence
at Rome, and there are but few whose names have
come down to us. The only cognomen of the gens
in the times of the republic is FISTus. For the
plebeians who are mentioned without a cognomen,
see CURIATIUs. [L. S.]
CURIA'TIUS. 1. P. CURIATIUs, tribune of
the people in B. c. 401. The college of tribunes
in that year laboured under great unpopularity, as
teo of them had been appointed by the co-optation

CURIO.

901

of the college under the influence of the patricians.
P. Curiatius and two of his colleagues, M. Metilius
and M. Minucius, endeavoured to counteract the
unpopularity and turn the hatred of the people
against the patricians by bringing a charge against
Sergius and Virginius, two military tribunes of the
year previous, whom they declared to be the authors of all the mischief and the cause of the people's sufferings. Both the accused were condemned
to pay a heavy fine, and the tribunes of the people
soon after brought forward an agrarian law, and
prevented the tribute for the maintenance of the
armies being levied from the plebeians. (Liv. v.
11, 12.)
2. C. CURIATIUs, tribune of the people in B. c.
138, is characterised by Cicero (de Leg. iii. 9) as
a homos infimus. He caused the consuls of the
year, P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica (whom he nicknamed Serapio) and D. Junius Brutus to be thrown
into prison for the severity with which they proceeded in levying fresh troops, and for their disregard to the privilege of the tribunes to exempt
certain persons from military service. (Liv. Epit.
55; Val. Max. iii. 7. ~ 3.)
There are extant several coins, on which we
read C. CUR. TRIGE. or C. CUR. F., and which
may belong to this tribune or a son of his; but it
is just as probable that they belonged to some
patrician C. Curiatius, about whom history furnishes no information. (Eckhel, v. p. 199, &c.)
One C. Scaevius Curiatius, who lived in the early
period of the empire, is mentioned in an inscription in Orelli (No. 4046) as duumvir in the municipium of Veii. [L. S.]
CURIA'TIUS MATERNUS. [MATERNUS.]
CU'RIO, the name of a family of the Scribonia
gens.
1. C. SCRIBONIUS CURIO, was appointed curio
maximus in B. c. 174, in the place of C. Mamilius
Vitulus, who had been carried off by the plague.
(Liv. xli. 26.)
2. C. SCRIBONIUS CURIO, praetor in B. c. 121,
the year of C. Gracchus's death, was one of the
most distinguished orators of his time. Cicero
mentions one of his orations for Ser. Fulvius, who
was accused of incest, and states, that when a
young man he thought this oration by far the best
of all extant orations; but he adds, that afterwards
the speeches of Curio fell almost into oblivion. He
was a contemporary of C. Julius Caesar Strabo,
Cotta, and Antonius, and against the last of these
he once spoke in the court of the centumviri for
the brothers Cossus. (Cic. Brut. 32, de Invent. i.
43, de Orat. ii. 23, 33; Schol. Bob. in Argunm.
Orat. in Clod. et Curion.; Pseud.-Cic. ad ]H-erenn.
ii. 20; Plin. H. N. vii. 41.)
3. C. SCRIBOnsUS CURIO, a son of the former.
In B. c. 100, when the seditious tribune L. Appuleius Saturninus was murdered, Curio was with
the consuls. In B. c. 90, the year in which the
Marsic war broke out, Curio was tribune of the
people. He afterwards served in the army of
Sulla during his war in Greece against Archelaus,
the general of Mithridates, and when the city of
Athens was taken, Curio besieged the tyrant
Aristion in the acropolis. In B. c. 82 he was invested with the praetorship, and in 76 he was
made consul together with Cn. Octavius. After
the expiration of the consulship, he obtained Macedonia as his province, and carried on a war for
three years in the north of his province against