Curio
- a surname in the gens Scribonia; v. Scribonius; hence, Cū-rĭōnĭānus, a, um, adj., of or pertaining to Curio, Auct. B. Afr. 52 fin.
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. 41.26.)
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. 1.43, de Orat. 2.23, 33; Schol. Bob. in Argum. Orat. in Clod. et Curion.; Pseud.-Cic. ad Herenn. 2.20; Plin. Nat. 7.41.)
3. C. Scribonius 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 the Dardanians and Moesians with great success. He was the first Roman general who advanced in those regions as far as the river Danube, and on his return to Rome in 71, he celebrated a triumph over the Dardanians. Curio appears to have henceforth remained at Rome, where he took an active part in all public affairs. He acted as an opponent of Julius Caesar, and was connected in intimate friendship with Cicero. When the punishment of the Catilinarian conspirators was discussed in the senate, Curio also spoke, and afterwards expressed his satisfaction with Cicero's measures. In the trial of P. Clodius, for having violated the sacra of the Bona Dea, Curio spoke in favour of Clodius, probably out of enmity towards Caesar; and Cicero on that occasion attacked both Clodius and Curio most vehemently in a speech of which considerable fragments are still extant. This event, however, does not appear to have at all interrupted their personal friendship, for Cicero speaks well of him as a mall on all occasions; he says, that he was one of the good men of the time, and that he was always opposed to bad citizens. In B. C. 57 Curio was appointed pontifex maximus; he died four years later, B. C. 53. Works
Like his father and his son, Curio acquired in his time some reputation as an orator, and we learn from Cicero, that he spoke on various occasions; but of all the requisites of an orator he had only one, viz. elocution, and he excelled most others in the purity and brilliancy of his diction; but his mind was altogether uncultivated ; he was ignorant without being aware of this defect; he was slow in thinking and inventing, very awkward in his gesticulation, and without any power of memory. With such deficiencies he could not escape the ridicule of able rivals or of his audience; and on one occasion, probably during his tribuneship, while he was addressing the people, he was gradually deserted by all his hearers.
His orations were published, and he also wrote a work against Caesar in the form of a dialogue, in which his son, C. Scribonius Curio, was one of the interlocutors, and which had the same deficiencies as his orations. Further Information
The numerous passages in which he is spoken of by Cicero are given in Orelli's Onom. Tull. ii. p. 525, &c.; comp. Plut. Sull. 14; Appian, App. Mith. 60; Eutrop. 6.2; Oros. 4.23; Suet. Jul. 9, 49, 52; D. C. 38.16; V. Max. 9.14.5; Plin. Nat. 7.12; Solin. 1.6; Quint. Inst. 6.3.76.
4. C. Scribonius Curio, the son of the former, and, like his father, a friend of Cicero, and an orator of great natural talents, which however he left uncultivated from carelessness and want of industry. Cicero knew him from his childhood, and did all he could to direct his great talents into a proper channel, to suppress his love of pleasure and of wealth, and to create in him a desire for true fame and virtue, but without any success, and Curio was and remained a person of most profligate character. He was married to Fulvia, who afterwards became the wife of Antony, and by whom Curio had a daughter who was as dissolute as her mother. Owing to his family connexions and several other outward circumstances, he belonged to the party of Pompey, although in his heart he was favourably disposed towards Caesar. After having been quaestor in Asia, where he had discharged the duties of his office in a praiseworthy manner, he sued for and obtained the tribuneship for the eventful year B. C. 50. Curio, who was as reckless in squandering money as he was insatiable in acquiring it, had by this time contracted enormous debts, and he saw no way of getting out of his difficulties except by an utter confusion of the affairs of the republic. It was believed that he would direct his power and influence as tribune against Caesar, and at first he did so; but Caesar, who was anxious to gain over some of the influential men of the city, paid all Curio's debts on condition of his abandoning the Pompeian party. This scheme was perfectly successful; but Curio was too clever and adroit a person at once to turn his back upon his former friends. At first he continued to act against Caesar; by and by he assumed an appearance of neutrality; and in order to bring about a rupture between himself and the Pompeian party, he brought forward some laws which he knew could not be carried, but which would afford him a specious pretext for deserting his friends. When it was demanded that Caesar should lay down his imperium before coming to Rome, Curio proposed that Pompey should do the same. This demand itself was as fair as the source from which it originated was impure. Pompey shewed indeed a disposition to do anything that was fair, but it was evident that in reality he did not intend to do any such thing. Curio therefore now openly attacked Pompey, and described him as a person wanting to set himself up as tyrant; but, in order not to lose every appearance of neutrality even now, he declared, that if Caesar and Pompey would not consent to lay down their imperium, both must be declared public ememies, and war must be forthwith made against them. This excited Pompey's indignation so much, that he withdrew to a suburban villa. Curio, however, continued to act his part in the senate; and it was decreed that Pompey and Caesar should each dismiss one of their legions, which were to be sent to Syria. Pompey cunningly evaded obeying the command by demanding back from Caesar a legion which he had lent him in B. C. 53; and Caesar sent the two legions required, which, however, instead of going to Syria, took up their winterquarters at Capua.
Soon after, the consul Claudius Marcellus proposed to the senate the question, whether a successor of Caesar should be sent out, and whether Pompey was to be deprived of his imperium ? The senate consented to the former, but refused to do the latter. Curio repeated his former proposal, that both the proconsuls should lay down their power, and when it was put to the vote, a large majority of the senators voted for Curio. Claudius Marcellus, who had always pretended to be a champion of the senate, now refused obedience to its decree; and as there was a report that Caesar was advancing with his army towards Rome, he proposed that the two legions stationed at Capua should be got ready at once to march against Caesar. Curio, however, denied the truth of the report, and prevented the consul's command being obeyed. Claudius Marcellus and his colleague, Ser. Sulpicius Rufus now rushed out of the city to Pompey, and solemnly called upon him to undertake the command of all the troops in Italy, and save the republic. Curio now could not interfere, as he could not quit the city in the character of tribune; he therefore addressed the people, and called upon them to demand of the consuls not to permit Pompey to levy an army. But he was not listened to. Amid these disputes the year of Curio's tribuneship was coming to its close, and as he had good leason to fear for his own safety, he was induced by despair to quit the city and go to Caesar, who was at Ravenna and consulted him as to what was to be done. Curio urged the necessity of immediately collecting his troops and marching them against Rome. Caesar, however, was still inclined to settle the question in a peaceful manner, and despatched Curio with a message to the senate. But when Domitius Ahenobarbus was actually appointed Caesar's successor, and when the new tribunes, Antony and Q. Cassius, who followed in Curio's footsteps, were commanded by the consuls to quit the senate, and when even their lives were threatened by the partizans of Pompey, the tribunes together with Curio fled in the night following, and went to Caesar at Ravenna. He and his army received them as men persecuted, and treated as enemies for their zeal in upholding the freedom of the republic.
The breaking out of the civil war could now be avoided no longer. Curio collected the troops stationed in Umbria and Etruria, and led them to Caesar, who rewarded him with the province of Sicily and the title of propraetor, B. C. 49. Curio was successful in crushing the party of Pompey in Sicily, and compelled Cato to quit the island. After having effected this, he crossed over to Africa to attack king Juba and the Pompeian general, P. Attius Varus. Curio was at first successful, but desertion gradually became general in his army, which consisted of only two legions, and when he began to lay siege to Utica, he was attacked by Juba, and fell in the ensuing battle. His troops were dispersed, killed, and taken prisoners, and only a few of them were able to return to Sicily. Africa was thus again in the hands of the Pompeian party.
C. Scribonius Curio had been one of the main instruments in kindling the civil war between Caesar and Pompey. He was a bold man and profligate to the last degree; he squandered his own property as unscrupulously as that of others, and no means were ample enough to satisfy his demands. llis want of modesty knew no bounds, and he is a fair specimen of a depraved and profligate Roman of that time. But he was nevertheless a man of eminent talent, especially as an orator. This Cicero saw and appreciated, and he never lost the hope of being able to turn the talent of Curio into a proper direction. This circumstance and the esteem which Cicero had entertained for Curio's father, are the only things that can account for his tender attachment to Curio ; and this is one of the many instances of Cicero's amiable character. The first seven letters of the second book of Cicero's " Epistolae ad Familiares" are addressed to him. (Orelli, Onom. Tull. ii. p. 526, &c.; comp. Caes. Civ. 2.23, &c.; Vell. 2.48, 55; Appian, App. BC 2.23, &c.; Suet. Jul. 29, 36, de Clar. Rhet. 1; Tacit. de Clar. Orat. 37; Liv. Epit. 109, 110; Plut. Caes. 29, &c., Pomp. 58; D. C. 40.60, &c.; Quint. Inst. 1.3.76 ; Schol. Bob. in Argum. ad Cic. Orat. in Clod. ct Cur.) [L.S]
(1) Gaius, praetor B.C. 121, but did not attain to the consulship. Cicero speaks with praise of his oratory, an opinion founded, not on personal knowledge, but on the speeches he had left.
(2) C. Scribonius, consul with Gnaeus Octavius, B.C. 76. On returning from the province of Macedonia, he triumphed over the Dardani, as proconsul, B.C. 72. Cicero often mentions him, and in his Brutus (cap. 49) enumerates him among the Roman orators, along with Cotta and others.
(3) C. Scribonius, son of the preceding, a turbulent and unprincipled man, and an active partisan of Iulius Caesar's. Being deeply involved in debt when tribune of the plebs, Caesar gained him over by paying for him what he owed (Plut. Pomp. 58), and Curio immediately exerted himself with great vigour in his behalf. Caesar, it seems, was under obligations to him before this, since Curio is said to have saved his life when he was leaving the Senatehouse after the debate about Catiline's accomplices, his personal safety being endangered by the young men who stood in arms around the building (Plut. Caes. 8). Plutarch ascribes Antony's early initiation into licentious habits to his acquaintance with Curio. On the breaking out of the Civil War, Caesar, after having possessed himself of Rome, sent Curio to take charge of Sicily. The latter subsequently crossed over from this island into Africa, with an armed force, against Iuba and the followers of Pompey, but was defeated and slain.