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

FLAVUS. FLORA. I:175
and fame as a teacher of rhetoric. He was re- sul B.C. 501, and again B. c. 498. In this second
garded at Rome as a youthful prodigy, and lectured consulship he took the town of Fidenae. (Dionys.
before he had assumed the dress of manhood. His v. 50, 59, 60; Liv. ii. 21.) His deference to the
master, Cestius, said that his talents were too pre- senate is contrasted by Dionysins with the military
cocious to be permanent; and Seneca (Controv. i. arrogance of the Roman generals of his own age.
p. 79. Bip.) remarks that Flavus always owed his In B. C. 498, ten years after the expulsion of the
renown in part to something beside his eloquence. Tarquins, the curiae found it necessary to create
At first his youth attracted wonder; afterwards a new magistracy, the dictatorship, limited indeed
his ease and carelessness. Yet he long retained a to six months, but within that period more -absonumerous school of hearers, although his talents lute than the ancient monarchy, since there was no
were latterly spoiled by. self-indulgence. Flavns appeal from its authority. (Dict. of Ant. s. v. Dic-'nnited -poetry and history or natural philosophy tator.).T. Lartius Flavus was the first dictator
(Plin. N. H. ix. 8. ~'2, and Elench. ix. (Dionys. v. 71; Liv. ii. 18): he received the imxii. xiv. xv.) to *rhetoric. (Senec. Controv. perium from his colleague, appointed his master of
i. vii. x. xiv; Schott, de Clar. ap. Senee. Rhet. i. the equites, held a census of the citizens, adjusted
p. 374;) [W.B.D.] the differences of Rome with the Latins, and afters
FLAVUS, L. CAESE'TIUS, tribune of the presiding at the next cofisular comitia, laid down
Plebs in B. c. 44, - and deposed from his'office by his office long before its term had expired. (Dionys.
C. Julius Caesar, because, in concert with C. Epi- v. 76, 77.) According to one account (id. vi. 1;
diUs Marullus, one of his colleagues in the tribunate, comp. Liv. ii. 8),. Lartius Flavus dedicated, the
he had removed the crowns from the statues of the temple of Saturn, or the Capitol on the Capitoline
dictator, and imprisoned a person who had saluted hill. He was one of the envoys sent by the senate,
Caesar as "king." After expelling him from the B. c. 493, to treat with the plebs in their secession
senate, Caesar was urgent with the father of to the Sacred Hill (Dionys. vi. 81), and in the
Flavus to disinherit him. But the elder Caesetius same year he served as legatus to the consul, Posreplied, that he would rather be deprived of his tumus Cominius, at the siege of Corioli. (Id. 92;
three sons than brand one of them with infamy. Plut. Coriolan. 8.) In a tumult of the plebs,
At the next consular comitia, many votes were arising from the pressure of debt, B.c. 494, Lartius
given for Flavus, who, by his bold bearing towards recommended conciliatory measures (Liv. ii. 29),
the dictator, had become highly popular at Rome. and this agrees with the character of.him by Diony(Appian, B. C. ii. 108, 122, iv. 93; Suet. Caen. sius (11. cc.) as a mild and just man. [W. B. D.]
79, 80; Dion Cass. xliv. 9, 10, xlvi. 49; Plat. FLAVUS or FLA'VIUS, SU'BRIUS, tribune
Caes. 61, Anton. 12; Vell. Pat. ii. 68; Liv. in the Praetorian guards, and most active agent in
Epit. cxvi.; Cic. Philipp. xiii. 15; Val. Max. the conspiracy against Nero, A. D. 66, which, from
v. 7, ~ 2.) [W. B. D.J its most distinguished member, was caqled Piso's
FLAVUS, C. DECI'MIUS, a tribune of the conspiracy. Flavus proposed to kill Nero while
soldiers, B. c. 209. He rescued M. Claudius Mar- singing on the stage, or amidst the flames of his
cellus from defeat by repulsing a charge of Hanni- palace. He was, said to have intended to make
bal's elephants. (Liv. xxvii. 14.) Flavus was away with Piso also, and to offer the empire to
praetor urbanus, B. C. 184, and died in his year of Seneca, the philosopher, since such a choice would
office. (Liv. xxxix. 32, 38, 39.) [W. B. D.] justify the conspirators, and it would be to little
FLAVUS, LA'RTIUS. 1. Sr. LARTIUS FLA- purpose to get rid of a piper, if a player-for Piso,
vus, consul B. C. 506. Dionysius (v. 36) says that too, had appeared. on the stage-were to succeed
nothing was recorded of this consulship, and him. The plot was detected. Flavus was betrayed
Livy omits it altogether. Niebuhr (Hist. of by an accomplice and arrested, and, after some
Rome, vol. i. p. 536) considers the consulship of attempts at excuse, gloried in the charge. He was
Lartius Flavus and his colleague T. Herminius beheaded, and died with firmness. Dion Cassius
Aquilinus'to have been inserted to fill up the calls him 2ov'ltos Iadhlos, and in some MSS. of
gap of a year. Lartius Flavus belongs to the Tacitus the name is written Flavius. (Tac. Ann.xv.
heroic period of Roman history. His name is 49, 50, 58, 67; Dion Cass. lxii. 24.) [W. B. D.]
generally coupled with that of Herminius (Dionys. FLAVUS, SULPI'CIUS, a companion of' the
v. 22, 23,24, 36; Liv. ii.'10, 11), and in the emperor Claudius I., who assisted the imperial stuoriginal lays they were the two warriors who stood dent in the composition of his historical works.
beside Horatius Cocles in his defence of the bridge. (Suet. Claud.4, 41.) [CLAuDIUs,II.] [W.B.D 1
[CocLES.] Mr. Macaulay (Lays of' Anc. Rome, FLAVUS TRICIPTI'NUS, LUCRE'TIUS.
"Horatius," st. 30) preserves this feature of the [TRICIPTINUrS.]
story, and adopts Niebuhr's reason for it (Hist. FLA:VUS, VIRGI'NIUS, a rhetorician, who
Rome, i. p. 542), that one represented the tribe of lived in the first century A. D., and was one of the
the Ramnes, and the other that of the Titienses. preceptors of A. PERSIus FLACCUS, the poet.
It is worth notice, however, that at the battle of (Suet. Persii Tita; Burmann, Praefat. ad CiO.
the Lake Regillus, where all the heroes meet to- Herennium, ed. Schliitz. p. xiv.) [W. B. D.]
gether for the last time, the name of Herminius FLORA, the Roman goddess of flowers and
appears, but not that of Lartius. (Dionys. v. 3, spring. The writers, whose object it was to bring
&c.; Liv. ii. 19, &c.) Lartius Flavus was consul the Roman religion into contempt, relate that
a second time in B. C. 490 (Dionys. vii. 68); Flora had been, like Acca Laurentia, a courtezan,
warden of the city (v. 75,.viii. 64); one of the five who accumulated a large property, and bequeathed
envoys sent to the Volscian camp when Coriolanus it to the Roman people, in return for which she
besieged Rome (viii. 72); and interrex for holding was honoured with the annual festival of the Flothe consular comitia B. c. 480 (viii. 90), in which ralia. (Lactant. i. 20.) But her worship was
year he counselled war with Veii (ib. 91). established at Rome. in the very earliest times, for
2. T. LARTIUS FLA;VUS, brother of No. 1, con- a temple is said to have been vowed to her by king