Gnaeus Papirius Carbo

Gnaeus Papirius Carbo (c. 130s BC – 82 BC) was a three-time consul of ancient Rome.

A member of the Carbones of the plebeian gens Papiria, and nephew of Gaius Papirius Carbo (consul of 120), he was a strong supporter of the Marian party, and took part in the blockade of Rome (87 BC). In 85 BC he was chosen by Lucius Cornelius Cinna as his colleague in the consulship, and extensive preparations were made for carrying out war in Greece against Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who had announced his intention of returning to Italy. Cinna and Carbo declared themselves consuls for the following year, and large bodies of troops were transported across the Adriatic Sea; but when Cinna was murdered by his own soldiers, who refused to engage in civil war, Carbo was obliged to bring them back.

In 82 BC, Carbo, then consul for the third time with Gaius Marius the Younger, fought an indecisive engagement with Sulla near Clusium but was defeated with great loss in an attack on the camp of Sulla's general, Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, near Faventia. Although he still had a large army and the Samnites remained faithful to him, Carbo was so disheartened by his failure to relieve Praeneste, where Marius the Younger had taken refuge, that he decided to leave Italy. He first fled to Africa, thence to the island of Cossyra (Pantelleria), where he was arrested, taken in chains before Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, at Lilybaeum, and put to death.

Although most notable for his role in the chaotic 80s, Carbo had also made a name for himself prior to that period, particularly during his tenure as Tribune of the Plebs in 92 BC.^[1] Under his supervision, and with his apparent encouragement, a meeting of the people broke down into disorder. The event was considered significant enough by the Senate to warrant a decree, championed by Lucius Licinius Crassus, placing responsibility for public disorder with the presiding officer; this decree was apparently still active forty years later in the time of Cicero^[2]

As with several of the notable politicians of the 90s and 80s BC, such as Publius Sulpicius, Marcus Antonius (orator), and Lucius Crassus, Carbo had a reputation for effective oratory. For instance, Cicero writes of one occasion when Carbo made use of a certain clausula (a dichoreus or double trochee – u – x), which was so effective that the audience all gave a shout.^[3]

References

• Appian, Bell. Civ. i. 67-98
• Livy, Epit. 79, 84, 88, 89
• Plutarch, Pompey, 5, 6, 10, and Sulla, 28
• Cicero, ad Fam. ix. 21
• Eutropius, v. 8, 9
• Orosius, v. 20
• Valerius Maximus, v. 3. 5, ix
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Carbo". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.