Quintus Fulvius Flaccus (c. 277 BC202 BC), son of

Marcus Fulvius Flaccus (consul 264 BC) Marcus Fulvius Flaccus was a consul in 264 BC. In the tradition of Livy, his praenomen is "Quintus". In his consulship, Fulvius Flaccus concluded the siege of Volsinii (Etruscan: Velzna), which his predecessor Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges had ...

, was

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...

in 237 BC, fighting the

Gauls The Gauls ( la, Galli; grc, Γαλάται, ''Galátai'') were a group of Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age and the Roman period (roughly 5th century BC to 5th century AD). Their homeland was known as Gaul (''Gallia''). They s ...

in northern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. He was censor in 231 BC, and again consul in 224 BC, when he subdued the

Boii The Boii (Latin plural, singular ''Boius''; grc, Βόιοι) were a Celtic tribe of the later Iron Age, attested at various times in Cisalpine Gaul ( Northern Italy), Pannonia (Hungary), parts of Bavaria, in and around Bohemia (after whom ...

. He was a

praetor Praetor ( , ), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected '' magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to discharge vario ...

in 215 BC and in 213 BC

Master of Horse Master of the Horse is an official position in several European nations. It was more common when most countries in Europe were monarchies, and is of varying prominence today. (Ancient Rome) The original Master of the Horse ( la, Magister Equitu ...

in the dictatorship of

Gaius Claudius Centho Gaius Claudius Centho or Cento was a 3rd-century BC member of a prominent and wealthy patrician Roman Republican family. He was the third son of Appius Claudius Caecus, and a member of the Claudii. He was consul in the year 240 BC. He was Roman cen ...

. He was again consul in 212 BC, during the

Second Punic War The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of three wars fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For 17 years the two states struggled for supremacy, primarily in Ital ...

, winning a victory over

Hanno, son of Bomilcar Hanno ( xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤀 , ), distinguished as the son of the suffet Bomilcar, was a Carthaginian officer in the Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC). Biography He was a nephew of Hannibal Barca, Carthage's leading general. Hanno's mother was one o ...

and capturing his camp at Beneventum. He was defeated by Hannibal at the

first Battle of Capua The First Battle of Capua was fought in 212 BC between Hannibal and two Roman consular armies. The Roman force was led by two consuls, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus and Appius Claudius Pulcher. The Roman force was defeated, but managed to escape. Ha ...

, then captured

Capua Capua ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Caserta, in the region of Campania, southern Italy, situated north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. History Ancient era The name of Capua comes from the Etrus ...

in 211 BC while serving as a

proconsul A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a consul. A proconsul was typically a former consul. The term is also used in recent history for officials with delegated authority. In the Roman Republic, military command, or ...

. In his fourth term as consul (209 BC), he retook

Lucania Lucania was a historical region of Southern Italy. It was the land of the Lucani, an Oscan people. It extended from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. It bordered with Samnium and Campania in the north, Apulia in the east, and Bruttiu ...

and

Bruttium 01 or '01 may refer to: * The year 2001, or any year ending with 01 * The month of January * 1 (number) Music * 01'' (Richard Müller album), 2001 * ''01'' (Son of Dave album), 2000 * ''01'' (Urban Zakapa album), 2011 * ''O1'' (Hiroyuki Sawa ...

. He opposed the

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n expedition of

Scipio Africanus Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (, , ; 236/235–183 BC) was a Roman general and statesman, most notable as one of the main architects of Rome's victory against Carthage in the Second Punic War. Often regarded as one of the best military com ...

in 205 BC, and he died sometime not long thereafter. Quintus Fulvius Flaccus was one of the three candidates for the position of Pontifex Maximus c. 212 BC, when he and another senior candidate Titus Manlius Torquatus, both former censors, were pipped at the post by a younger man, Publius Licinius Crassus who was not yet a curule aedile and thus probably aged in his middle thirties. Nevertheless, Flaccus made the new Pontifex his own Master of the Horse some years later. Flaccus was known for his severity towards the disloyal citizens of Capua, of whom he had the senior men executed and the rest of the citizenry condemned to slavery for their disloyalty to Rome. According to Livy, the Capuans complained of his behavior to the Roman Senate, which, however, ruled that Flaccus was within his rights. Flaccus was the grandfather of Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, consul in 125 BC, who was an ardent supporter of the Brothers Gracchi. He attempted to warn

Tiberius Gracchus Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus ( 163 – 133 BC) was a Roman politician best known for his agrarian reform law entailing the transfer of land from the Roman state and wealthy landowners to poorer citizens. He had also served in the Roma ...

of the plots against his life on the day that he was killed; in 121 BC, having supported

Gaius Gracchus Gaius Sempronius Gracchus ( – 121 BC) was a reformist Roman politician in the 2nd century BC. He is most famous for his tribunate for the years 123 and 122 BC, in which he proposed a wide set of laws, including laws to establish ...

in his reform program and tried to lead an armed resistance against the Senate, he and his elder son were tracked down and executed (beheaded) without trial on the orders of the consul

Lucius Opimius Lucius Opimius was a Roman politician who held the consulship in 121 BC, in which capacity and year he ordered the execution of 3,000 supporters of popular leader Gaius Gracchus without trial, using as pretext the state of emergency declared afte ...

; the youngest son, too young to have participated in any plotting or armed revolt, died in prison, again without trial (another son was apparently the father of

Fulvia Fulvia (; c. 83 BC – 40 BC) was an aristocratic Roman woman who lived during the Late Roman Republic. Fulvia's birth into an important political dynasty facilitated her relationships and, later on, marriages to Publius Clodius Pulcher, Gai ...

, third wife of

Mark Antony Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from a constitutional republic into the autoc ...

). The grandfather, a stern conservative, could probably never have imagined the fates of his descendants.

See also