Libo

• a Roman surname in the gens Marcia and Scribonia, Cic. Att. 12, 5, 3; id. Brut. 23, 89; id. de Or. 2, 65, 263; id. Ac. 1, 1, 3; Hor. Ep. 1, 19, 8.

[Libo, Scribonius, Nos. 5 and 6.]

was consul B. C. 267, with M. Atilius Regulus, three years before the first Punic war. The two consuls made war upon the Sallentini in Apulia, whom they conquered, and celebrated their victory by a triumph. (Eutrop. 2.17; Fasti Triumph.)

This name is found only on Roman asses, semisses, and trientes. A specimen of one of these coins is annexed, containing on the obverse the head of Jupiter, with S (the sign of Semissis), and on the reverse the prow of a ship.

a plebeian family (Dionys. A. R. 10.58), most of the members of which likewise bear the agnomen Visolus.

1. Q. Poetelius Libo Visolus, a member of the second decemvirate, B. C. 450. (Liv. 3.35; Dionys. A. R. 10.58, 11.23.)

2. C. Poetelius Libo Visolus, C. F. Q. N., perhaps a grandson of No. 1, was consul B. C. 360, with M. Fabius Ambustus. He gained a victory over the Gauls and the inhabitants of Tibur, and celebrateda triumph over both nations. In the Fasti Capitolini the name of Poetelius occurs in the form which is given above. Livy calls him C. Poetelius Balbus, and Diodorus gives the name without any cognomen. (Fasti Capit.; Liv. 7.11; Diod. 16.9.)

3. C. Poetelius, C. F. C. N., Libo Visolus, son of No. 2, is distinguished in the early legislation of the republic by two important laws which he proposed. He was tribune of the plebs B. C. 358, in which year he proposed the first law enacted at Rome against bribery. (Liv. 7.12.) He was consul for the first time in B. C. 346, with M. Valerius Corvus; and it was in this year that the ludi saeculares were celebrated a second time. (Liv. 7.27; Diod. 16.72; Censorin. de Die Nat. 17.) His second consulship is assigned by Pighius (Annal. vol. i. p. 329) to the year B. C. 333, though not on sufficient grounds; the consuls of this year it is impossible to ascertain. He was, however, undoubtedly consul again in B. C. 326, with L. Papirius Mugillanus, and dictator thirteen years afterwards, B. C. 313, when he gained some advantages over the Samnites, though some annalists gave the credit of these victories to the consul C. Junius Bubulcus Brutus. (Liv. 8.23, 9.28; Diod. 17.113.) Libo was the proposer of the Poetelia lex, which abolished imprisonment for debt in the case of the nexi. (Dict. of Ant. s. v. Nexum.) Livy places (8.28) this law in the last consulship of Poetelius, B. C. 326; but Niebuhr thinks (Rom. Hist. vol. iii. pp. 155, &c., 293) it more probable that it was brought forward in his dictatorship; and his opinion, which receives support from a corrupt passage of Varro (L. L. 7.105, ed. Muller), is adopted also by K. O. Muller (ad Varr. l.c.).

4. M. Poetelius Libo, M. F. M. N., consul B. C. 314, with C. Sulpicius Longus, and magister equitum in the following year, 313, to the dictator, C. Poetelius Libo. In his consulship, Poetelius and his colleague gained a brilliant victory over the Samnites, near Caudium, and afterwards proceeded to lay siege to Beneventum; but, according to the triumphal Fasti, it was Sulpicius alone who obtained the honour of a triumph. (Liv. 9.24_28 ; Diod. 19.73.)

a plebeian family, which afterwards became illustrious from its connection with Augustus. The name first occurs in the second Punic war.

1. L. Scribonius Libo, tribune of the plebs, B. C. 216, in which year the fatal battle of Cannae was fought, brought forward a motion for ransoming the Roman prisoners taken in that engagement, but it was rejected by the senate. A relation of his, L. Scribonius, was one of the prisoners, who was sent to Rome by Hannibal to negotiate the terms of the ransom. In the same year Libo was created one of the triumviri mensarii. (Liv. 22.61, 23.21.)

2. L. Scribonius Libo, probably son of the preceding, was praetor, B. C. 204, and received the peregrina jurisdictio and the province of Gaul. (Liv. 29.11, 13.)

3. L. Scribonius Libo, curule aedile, B. C. 193, with C. Atilius Serranus. They were the first aediles who exhibited the Megalesia as ludi scenici; and it was also in their aedileship that the senators had seats assigned them in the theatre distinct from the rest of the people. In B. C. 192, Libo was consul, and obtained the peregrina jurisdictio, and in B. C. 185 he was appointed one of the triumviri to conduct colonists to Sipontum and Buxentum. (Liv. 34.54; Ascon. in Cic. Cornel. p. 69, ed. Orelli; Liv. 35.10, 20, 39.23.)

4. L. Scribonius Libo, probably son of No. 3, tribune of the plebs, B. C. 149, accused in that year Ser. Sulpicius Galba on account of the abominable outrages which he had committed against the Lusitani. [GALBA, No. 6.] This accusation was supported in a powerful speech by M. Cato, who was then 85 years old; but, notwithstanding the eloquence of the accusers and the guilt of the accused, Galba escaped punishment. Cicero was in doubt (ad Att. 12.5.3) whether Libo was tribune in B. C. 150 or 149, but it must have been in the latter year that he held the office, as we are expressly told that Cato spoke against Galba in the year of his death, and this we know was B. C. 149. (Liv. Epit. 49; V. Max. 8.1.2; Cic. Brut. 23, de Orat. 2.65; Meyer, Orator. Roman. Fragm. p. 120, &c., p. 166, &c., 2d ed.) It was, perhaps, this same Libo who wrote an historical work (liber annalis), referred to once or twice by Cicero, and which must have come down at least as late as B. C. 132. (Cic. Att. 13.30, 32.) But Ernesti has remarked, with some justice, that supposing the accuser of Galba and the annalist were the same, it is rather strange that Cicero should have made no mention of Libo's historical compositions, when he was speaking of his style of oratory. (Comp. Krause, Vitae et Fragm. Histor. Roman. p. 138.)

It was perhaps this same Libo who consecrated the Puteal Scribonianum or Puteal Libonis, of which we so frequently read in ancient writers, and which is often exhibited on coins of the Scribonia gens. One of these is given below, the obverse representing a female head, with the legend Libo BON. EVENT. (that is, bonus eventss, and the reverse the puteal adorned with garlands and two lyres.

The Puteal Scribonianum was an enclosed place in the forum, near the Arcus Fabianus, and was so called from its being open at the top, like a puteal or well. C. F. Hermann, who has carefully examined all the passages in ancient writers relating to it (Ind. Lect. Marburg. 1840), comes to the conclusion that there was only such puteal at Rome, and not two, as was formerly believed, and that it was dedicated in very ancient times either on account of the whetstone of the augur Navius (comp. Liv. 1.36), or because the spot had been struck by lightning; that it was subsequently repaired and re-dedicated by Scribonius Libo, who had been commanded to examine the state of the sacred places (Festus, s. v. Scribonianum); and that Libo erected in its neighbourhood a tribunal for the praetor, in consequence of which the place was of course frequented by persons who had law-suits, such as money lenders and the like. (Comp. Hor. Sat. 2.6. 35, Epist. 1.19. 8; Ov. Remed. Amor. 561; Cic. pro Sex. 8.)

5. L. Scribonius Libo, the father-in-law of Sex. Pompey, the son of Pompey the Great, and consul B. C. 34, is first mentioned in B. C. 56, in which year he appears to have been tribune, as supporting Pompey's views in relation to the affairs of Egypt in the case of Ptolemy Auletes. (Cic. Fam. 1.1.) On the breaking out of the civil war in B. C. 49, Libo naturally sided with Pompey, and was entrusted with the command of Etruria. But the rapid approach of Caesar, and the enthusiasm with which he was every where received, obliged Libo to retire from Etruria and join the consuls in Campania, from whence he subsequently proceeded with the rest of the Pompeian party to Brundisium. While here Caesar sent to him Caninius Rebilus, who was an intimate friend of Libo, to persuade him to use his influence with Pompey to effect a reconciliation; but nothing came of this negotiation. (Flor. 4.2.1; Lucan, 2.461; Cic. Att. 7.12, 8.11, b; Caes. Civ. 1.26.)

Libo accompanied Pompey to Greece, and was actively engaged in the war that ensued. He and M. Octavius were placed over the Liburnian and Achaean fleets, serving as legates to Bibulus, who had the supreme command of the Pompeian fleet. They were very successful against Caesar's generals in Dalmatia; Dolabella they drove out of the country, and C. Antonius they not only defeated but made prisoner. (Caes. Civ. 3.5; D. C. 12.40; Florus, 4.2.31; Oros. 6.15.) Libo subsequently joined Bibulus; and, on the death of the latter shortly afterwards, the chief authority in the fleet appears to have devolved upon him, although no one was expressly appointed to the supreme command. With fifty ships he appeared before Brundisium, in order to blockade the place strictly, as M. Antony was still there with part of Caesar's troops, waiting for an opportunity to cross over to Greece. But having suffered a repulse from Antony, and being prevented by the cavalry of the latter from obtaining any water, Libo was obliged to retire from the place, and Antony soon afterwards escaped his vigilance and joined Caesar in Greece. (Caes. Civ. 3.15, 16, 18, 23, 24; D. C. 41.48.)

We hear nothing more of Libo for some time, but he probably did not make his submission to Caesar after the battle of Pharsalia, but united himself to those of his party who continued in arms. At the death of the dictator in B. C. 44, we find him in Spain with his son-in-law Sex. Pompey, on whose behalf he wrote to the ruling party at Rome. (Cic. Att. 16.4.) He continued with Pompey in the civil wars which followed, and is specially mentioned, in B. C. 40, as one of the persons of high rank who was commissioned to conduct to Antony in the East his mother Julia, who had taken refuge with Sex. Pompey in Sicily after the Perusinian war. This mission alarmed Octavian. He feared that Pompey, who was now decidedly master of the sea, should unite with Antony to crush him; and, in order to gain the favour of the former and of his father-in-law Libo, he proposed, on the advice of Maecenas, to marry Libo's sister, Scribonia, although she was much older than himself, and had been married twice before. The marriage shortly after took place, and paved the way for a peace between the triumvirs and Pompey. This was negotiated in the following year (B. C. 39) by Libo, who crossed over from Sicily to Italy for the purpose, and it was finally settled at Misenum. When the war was renewed in B. C. 36, Libo for a time continued faithful to Pompey, but, seeing his cause hopeless, he deserted him in the following year. In B. C. 34, he was consul with M. Antony, as had been agreed at the peace of Misenum. As his name does not occur again in history, he probably died soon afterwards. (Appian, App. BC 5.52, 53. 69-73, 139; D. C. 48.16, 49.38.)

6. The M. Livius Drusus Libo, who was consul B. C. 15, is supposed to have been a younger brother of No. 4, and to have been adopted by one of the Drusi. He is spoken of under DRUSUS, No. 8.

7. L. Scribonius Libo Drusus, or Libo Drusus, as he is also called, the conspirator against Tiberius, A. D. 16, is supposed to have been a son of the preceding [No. 5]. For an account of him see Drusus, No. 10.

8. L. Scribonius Libo, son, probably, of No. 4, was consul in A. D. 16, with T. Statilius Sisenna Taurus. (D. C. 57.15; Tac. Ann. 2.1.)

known only from coins, a specimen of which is given below. On the obverse is a head with CN. STATI. LIBO, and on the reverse a patera or discus, and a vessel used apparently in sacrifices, with Sacerdos. On some specimens we find Praef. (i. e. Praefectus). The coin was certainly not struck in Italy; and it has been conjectured that it was struck in Spain, and that the head on the obverse represents that of M. Agrippa. (Eckhel, vol. v. p. 316.)

, a plebeian family. (1) Lucius, tribune of the plebs, B.C. 149, accused Ser. Sulpicius Galba on account of the outrages which he had committed against the Lusitanians. (See Galba [1]). It was perhaps this Libo who consecrated the Puteal Scribonianum or Puteal Libonis, of which we so frequently read in ancient writers (Hor. Sat. ii. 6, 35). (See puteal.)

(2) Lucius, the father-in-law of Sex. Pompey, the son of Pompey the Great. On the breaking out of the Civil War in B.C. 49, he naturally sided with Pompey, and was intrusted with the command of Etruria. Shortly afterwards he accompanied Pompey to Greece, and was actively engaged in the war that ensued. On the death of Bibulus (B.C. 48) he had the chief command of the Pompeian fleet. In the Civil Wars which followed Caesar's death, he followed the fortunes of his son-in-law Sex. Pompey. In B.C. 40 Octavianus married his sister Scribonia, and this marriage was followed by a peace between the triumvirs and Pompey (39). When the war was renewed in 36, Libo for a time continued with Pompey, but, seeing his cause hopeless, he deserted him in the following year. In 34 he was consul with M. Antonius.