A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

2. Q. OPIMIUS Q. F. Q. N., was consul B. C. 154, with L. Postumius Albinus. Opimius in his consulship carried on war with the Oxybii and Deciatae, Ligurian tribes on the northern side of the Alps, who had attacked the territory of the people of Massilia, the allies of the Roman people, and had laid, waste the towns of Antipolis and Nicaea, which belonged to Massilia. Opimius subdued these people without any difficulty, and obtained in consequence the honour of a triumph. (Plb. 33.5, 7, 8; Liv. Epit. 47; Fasti Capit.; Obsequ. 76.) This Opinmius seems to have been a man of as little principle as his son, and was notorious in his youth for his riotous living. Lucilius described him as "formosus homo et famosus" (Nonius, iv. s. u. Fame, p. 658, ed. Gothofred.), and Cicero speaks of him as "qui adolescentulus male audisset." (De Orat. 2.68, ed fin.) In the same passage Cicero relates a joke of Opimius.