Quintus Fulvius Flaccus (consul 179 BC)

As curule aedile in 184 BC, Fulvius Flaccus created a furor by actively campaigning for the praetorship vacated by C. Decimius Flaccus, who died early in his term. The holding of two magistracies in a single year was prohibited, and Fulvius further violated decorum by campaigning sine toga candida ("without a white toga"); as a magistrate, he was required to wear the toga praetexta and not the pure white garment of a candidate.Livy 39.39.1–15, but Livy says Fulvius Flaccus was only aedile designate; see Broughton, MRR¹, p. 377, note 1, for a summary of the constitutional intricacies, based on Theodor Mommsen's arguments. The senate was so opposed to Fulvius' holding another curule office that it refused to hold elections.

As praetor in Hispania Ulterior in 182, he waged war successfully against the Celtiberians, capturing Urbicua.Livy 40.16.7–10. His imperium was extended for two years as propraetor. In 180, he requested but was denied permission to bring his army home. He won another victory against the Celtiberi and earned a triumph.Livy 40.18.6, 40.30.1–33.9, 40.35.3–36.13, 40.40.15, 42.34.9, 43.4–7; Diodorus Siculus 29.28; Frontinus, Stratagems 2.5.8 (where Cimbrico is taken as an error for Celtiberico; Appian, Iberian Wars 42; Orosius 4.20.31.

Fulvius was consul in 179; his colleague was L. Manlius Acidinus Fulvianus, his brother by birth. They were assigned the province of Liguria.Livy 40.44.3. During this period, many Ligures were being forcibly moved from their land and relocated to central Italy; Fulvius effected the resettlement of Ligurians from the mountains. He also helped block immigrants from Transalpine Gaul from settling in northern Italy.Livy 40.53.1–6; Florus 1.19.5. For these activities he was awarded a triumph.Livy 40.59.1–3. He fulfilled a vow for his victories in Spain by building a temple and holding games.Livy 40.44.8–12 and 45.6. His building of the temple was to prove fateful.

Fulvius was censor in 174 BC with A. Postumius Albinus Luscus. They expelled nine members from the senate, including Fulvius's own brother,Livy 41.27.2; Valerius Maximus 2.7.5; Velleius Paterculus 1.10.6; Frontinus, Stratagems 4.1.32. and downgraded the rank of several knights. They named M. Aemilius Lepidus princeps senatus.Livy 41.27.1.

The censors also carried out an extensive building program in Rome. Fulvius undertook additional projects in Pisaurum, Fundi, Potentia, and Sinuessa.Livy 41.27.1–2 and 5–13. The Augustan historian Livy says that when Fulvius built his temple to Fortuna Equestris ("Equestrian Luck"), he stripped the marble tiles for it from a temple of Juno Lacinia.Valerius Maximus (1.1.20) places this temple in Locri, Bruttium, but elsewhere correctly identifies its location as Croton, also in modern-day Calabria; see also Livy 42.3.1–11. The Temple of Fortuna Equestris was dedicated in 173.Livy 42.10.5.

In 180, Fulvius had been admitted to the College of Pontiffs, a lifetime appointment. Livy notes his priesthood in reporting the vile manner of his death (foeda morte).

In 172 BC, Fulvius had two sons serving in Illyricum; he received word that one had died and the other was suffering from a life-threatening illness. The next morning, the household slaves found him hanging by a noose in his bedroom. Although Romans regarded suicide as honorable in some circumstances, Fulvius's was seen as evidence of his mental instability: Livy says that "grief and fear overwhelmed his mind" (obruit animum luctus metusque); rumor had it that the wrath of Juno Lacinia had driven him mad.Livy 42.28.10–12. Discussed at length by Hans-Friedrich Mueller, Roman religion in Valerius Maximus (Routledge, 2002), p. 35ff. [https://books.google.com/books?id=1RUpQqic3e4C&dq=%22The+impious+shall+die%3A+Quintus+Fulvius+Flaccus%22&pg=PA35 online.]

The senate, according to Valerius Maximus, then had the marble tiles returned to the original temple to undo the deed of an impius ("consciously irreligious") man.Livy provides a practical detail: that the tiles were then left stacked within the temple precinct because there was no workman to restore them.

The Via Fulvia is attributed to him, but doubtfully.{{Citation needed|date=September 2009}} This Q. Fulvius Flaccus should not be identified with the man of the same name who was suffect consul in 180 BC.

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• Dates, offices, and citations of ancient sources by T.R.S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic (American Philological Association, 1951, 1986), vol. 1, pp. 375, 377 (note 1), 382, 385, 387 (note 3), 389, 390, 391–392, 404; vol. 2 (1952), p. 568.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fulvius Flaccus, Quintus consul 575 AUC}}

Category:Year of birth unknown

Category:172 BC deaths

Category:2nd-century BC clergy

Category:2nd-century BC Roman consuls

Category:2nd-century BC Roman generals

Category:2nd-century BC Roman praetors

Category:Pontifices

Category:Ancient Roman censors

Category:Suicides in Ancient Rome

Category:Suicides by hanging

Quintus consul 575 AUC