A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

7. L.ValeriusFlaccus, P. F. L. N., a brother of No. 6, was curule aedile in B. C. 201, and in the year following he was elected praetor, and received Sicily as his province. In B. C. 195 he was made pontifex, in the place of M. Cornelius Cethegus. In the same year he was invested with the consulship, together with M. Porcius Cato, and received Italy for his province. During the summer he carried on the war against the Boians, and defeated them ; 8000 of them were slain, and the rest dispersed in their villages. Flaccus afterwards spent his time on the banks of the Po, at Placentia and Cremona, being occupied in restoring what had been destroyed by war. He remained in the north of Italy also in the year B. C. 194, as proconsul, and in the neighbourhood of Milan lie fought with great success against the Gauls, Insubrians, and Boians, who had crossed the Po under their chief, Dorulacus: 10,000 enemies are said to have been killed. In B. C. 191, although a consular, he served as legate under the consul, M'. Acilius Glabrio, in the war against the Aetolians and Macedonians. With 2000 picked foot soldiers, he was ordered to occupy Rhoduntia and Tichius. The Macedonians, by a mistake, approached his camp too closely, and, on discovering the enemy, they took to flight in the greatest disorder. Flaccus pursued them, and made great havoc among them. In B. C. 184 he was the colleague of M. Porcius Cato in the censorship, and in the same year he was made princeps senatus. He died as pontifex in B. C. 180, and was succeeded by Q. Fabius Labeo. (Liv. 31.4, 49, 50, 32.1, 33.42, 43, 34.21, 46, 36.17, 19, 39.40, &c., 52, 40.42; Plb. 20.9, &c.; Plut. Cat. Ma. 12; Nep. Cat. 2 ; Oros. 4.20.)