Caius Flāmĭnius, a Roman consul of a turbulent disposition, who was drawn into a battle near the lake of Thrasymenus, by the artifice of Annibal. He was killed in the engagement, with an immense number of Romans, B.C. 217. The conqueror wished to give a burial to his body, but it was not found in the heaps of slain. While tribune of the people he proposed an agrarian law against the advice of his friends, of the senate, and of his own father. Cicero, de Inventione, bk. 2, ch. 17.—Livy, bk. 22, ch. 3, &c.—Polybius.—Florus, bk. 2, ch. 6.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 1, ch. 6.
Titus Quinctius Flāmĭnius, or Flaminīnus, a celebrated Roman raised to the consulship, A.U.C. 556. He was trained in the art of war against Annibal, and he showed himself capable in every respect to discharge with honour the great office with which he was entrusted. He was sent at the head of the Roman troops against Philip king of Macedonia, and in his expedition he met with uncommon success. The Greeks gradually declared themselves his firmest supporters, and he totally defeated Philip on the confines of Epirus, and made all Locris, Phocis, and Thessaly tributary to the Roman power. He granted peace to the conquered monarch, and proclaimed all Greece free and independent at the Isthmian games. This celebrated action procured the name of patrons of Greece to the Romans, and insensibly paved their way to universal dominion. Flaminius behaved among them with the greatest policy, and by his ready compliance with their national customs and prejudices he gained uncommon popularity, and received the name of father and deliverer of Greece. He was afterwards sent ambassador to king Prusias, who had given refuge to Annibal, and there his prudence and artifice hastened out of the world a man who had long been the terror of the Romans. Flaminius was found dead in his bed, after a life spent in the greatest glory, in which he had imitated with success the virtues of his model Scipio. Plutarch, Parallel Lives.—Florus.——Lucius, the brother of the preceding, signalized himself in the wars of Greece. He was expelled from the senate for killing a Gaul, by Cato, his brother’s colleague in the censorship, an action which was highly resented by Titus. Plutarch, Flaminius.——Calp. Flamma, a tribune, who at the head of 300 men saved the Roman army in Sicily, B.C. 258, by engaging the Carthaginians and cutting them to pieces.
Flanaticus sinus, a bay of the Flanates, in Liburnia on the Adriatic, now the gulf of Carnero. Pliny, bk. 3, chs. 19 & 21.
Flāvia lex, agraria, by Lucius Flavius, A.U.C. 693, for the distribution of a certain quantity of lands among Pompey’s soldiers and the commons.
Flāviānum, a town of Etruria, on the Tiber, called also Flavinium. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 696.—Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 492.
Flāvinia, a town of Latium, which assisted Turnus against Æneas. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 696.
Flavius, a senator who conspired with Piso against Nero, &c. Tacitus.——A tribune of the people deposed by Julius Cæsar.——A Roman who informed Gracchus of the violent measures of the senate against him.——A brother of Vespasian, &c.——A tribune who wounded one of Annibal’s elephants in an engagement.——A schoolmaster at Rome in the age of Horace. Bk. 1, satire 6, li. 72.——One of the names of the emperor Domitian. Juvenal, satire 4, li. 37.
Flevus, the right branch of the Rhine, which formed a large lake on its falling into the sea called Flevo, now Zuider-Zee. It was afterwards called Helium, now Ulie, when its breadth became more contracted, and a fort erected there obtained the name of Flevum Frisiorum. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 2, ch. 6; bk. 4, li. 72.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 15.—Mela, bk. 3, ch. 2.
Flōra, the goddess of flowers and gardens among the Romans, the same as the Chloris of the Greeks. Some suppose that she was originally a common courtesan, who left to the Romans the immense riches which she had acquired by prostitution and lasciviousness, in remembrance of which a yearly festival was instituted in her honour. She was worshipped even among the Sabines, long before the foundation of Rome, and likewise among the Phoceans, who built Marseilles long before the existence of the capital of Italy. Tatius was the first who raised her a temple in the city of Rome. It is said that she married Zephyrus, and that she received from him the privilege of presiding over flowers, and of enjoying perpetual youth. See: [Floralia]. She was represented as crowned with flowers, and holding in her hand the horn of plenty. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 5, li. 195, &c. Varro, de Re Rustica, bk. 1.—Lactantius, bk. 1, ch. 20.——A celebrated courtesan passionately loved by Pompey the Great. She was so beautiful, that when the temple of Castor and Pollux at Rome was adorned with paintings, her picture was drawn and placed amongst the rest.——Another courtesan, &c. Juvenal, satire 2, li. 49.
Florālia, games in honour of Flora at Rome. They were instituted about the age of Romulus, but they were not celebrated with regularity and proper attention till the year [♦]A.U.C. 580. They were observed yearly, and exhibited a scene of the most unbounded licentiousness. It is reported that Cato wished once to be present at the celebration, and that when he saw that the deference for his presence interrupted the feast, he retired, not choosing to be the spectator of the prostitution of naked women in a public theatre. This behaviour so captivated the degenerate Romans, that the venerable senator was treated with the most uncommon applause as he retired. Valerius Maximus, bk. 2, ch. 10.—Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 1.—Paterculus, ch. 1.—Pliny, bk. 18, ch. 29.