Gaius Flavius Fimbria (consul 104 BC)

Gaius Flavius Fimbria (c.155 - 90s BC) was a distinguished Roman politician of the late 2nd century BC without senatorial ancestry who held the consulate with Gaius Marius in 104 BC, a striking achievement made possible chiefly by his great energy and abilities in civic public life.

Roman citizens without senatorial ancestry were known as " New Men " (novi homines) when they stood for public office. This was a somewhat equivocal term since the hereditary ruling class of patricians and plebeian nobilitas regarded such upstarts with interested distain. But the attainment of the consulate, the highest public office, by a novus homo marked him out as something of a celebrity in his day because such a political achievement was so difficult and rare. Like most novi consulars Fimbria won his consulate late after some delays and, no doubt, previous defeats at the consular comitia. His position in Cicero's chronologically ordered register of Roman orators, roughly coeval with L. Calpurnius Bestia the consul in 111 BC, indicates that he was born in the mid 150s BC and praetor around 113 BC. A passage in Cicero's de Oratore (II, 91) referring to him in the past tense at the dramatic date of September 91 BC implies that he was deceased by then, while the good body of evidence identifying all the 24 consulars who died during the civil wars decade of the 80s (not including him) confirms it.

A contemporary of Marius and Rutilius Rufus (both also born in the 150s BC), the scant evidence on Fimbria's career marks him as the Catonian type of honest, fiercely proud and independent spirited citizen, even if he lacked the intellect of Rutilius or even Cato. This was a type strongly admired in Republican Rome and in consequence he gained considerable personal authority. His fundamental political attitudes were conservative.

The alignment of Fimbria's tastes and sense of justice with the ethos of the Roman ruling class is demonstrated by an anecdote from Cicero's boyhood in the 90s BC ;

" As a boy I used to hear from my father that <C.> Fimbria the consular had been the judge for M. Lutatius Pinthia, a really honourable Roman horseman, when the latter had made a promise at law (sponsio) “ if he were not a good man ” (ni vir bonus esset); that therefore Fimbria had said to him that he would never pass judgement on that issue lest he rob a decent man of his reputation if he should have decided against him, or else appear to have ruled that anyone was a good man when that condition (res) was contained in countless dutiful services and praiseworthy qualities. To this good man then whom even Fimbria (not just Socrates) had known, in no way can anything appear to be advantageous which is not honourable.

“ even Fimbria ” implies that his refined, and indeed noble, sense of justice was arrived at through his domestic environment and a more or less traditional Roman education, rather than Hellenic philosophical thought.

Like almost all novi during their rise, Fimbria suffered at least one embarassing election defeat, in his case failure when standing for a tribunate of plebs. Ten of these were elected every year. Marius himself was long delayed to his first consulate, and twice defeated as an aedilician candidate.

Cicero explained Fimbria's defeat of the great Quintus Catulus (eventually cos. 102) at the consular comitia of 105, for the 104 office, with a notable tribute to his magnitudo animi and intelligence and contrasted that with Catulus' utterly inexplicable defeat by the incompetent and contemptible novus homo Cn. Mallius the previous year.

Cicero especially admired Fimbria for his eminence in law and rhetoric. His frequent forensic success, good knowledge of the civil law and self-confident independence of mind are all especially noted. Above all he was a fine orator, whose delivery was distinguished by energy and ferocity. As an advocate he was harsh and abusive, fiery and excitable. His speech was distinctive for his twisted mouth and broad pronunciation. A comparison of these last two passages shows that Cicero made an effort to reproduce the attitude of the great orator Antonius (consul 99 BC) to Fimbria – dislike combined with grudging respect. Antonius' closest friend (perfamiliaris), the learned M. Gratidius of Arpinum, gained something of a name for himself by prosecuting Fimbria on an extortion charge (de repetundis), and enjoyed the considerable advantage of gaining the First Lord of the Senate (princeps senatus) Marcus Aemilius Scaurus as a hostile character witness. A personal enemy of Fimbria, Scaurus ripped into him (proscidit), but to no avail as he was acquitted. This trial is sometimes placed after Fimbria's consulate, but he could hardly have returned to Rome from a provincial command before early 102, more likely during the spring or summer, by which time Gratidius had departed in the Antonian fleet for Cilicia, where he was killed serving as a praefectus during Antonius' two-year expedition fighting piracy in the eastern Mediterranean. Michael Alexander takes proper account of these considerations, dating the trial “106?”. Gratidius' failed prosecution belongs best to the context of a post praeturam provincial command, and so dates anytime c.113/06, but most likely closer to 110 BC than 106.

During the revolt of Saturninus in autumn 100 BC, Fimbria, with other consulars, took up arms to defend the public good.

Fimbria was unusual in his time for the care he took over writing down and publishing versions of his public speeches on political topics and in the law courts. These were much read by the Roman youth of the 100s-90s BC, the boy Cicero included, but towards the end of Cicero's life half a century later it was difficult to find copies of Fimbria's speeches, none of which survive today.

References

Modern Works

• ORF4 1976, orator #55, pp. 206-07

- Henrica Malcovati, Oratorum Romanorum Fragmenta (Paavia, Turin, 4th edition 1976)

• Alexander, Michael C. : Trials in the Late Roman Republic, 149 BC to 50 BC (Toronto, 1990)
• Sumner, Graham V. : The Orators in Cicero's Brutus : Prosopography and Chronology (Toronto, 1973)

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

Preceded by Gnaeus Mallius Maximus and Publius Rutilius Rufus

consul of the Roman Republic with Gaius Marius 104 BC

Succeeded by Lucius Aurelius Orestes and Gaius Marius