Hirtuleius
quaestor after the year B. C. 86, was the author of an amendment on the law of L. Valerius Flaccus, consul in the same year. [
L. VALERIUS FLACCUS, No. 11.] The Valerian law had cancelled debts by decreeing that only a quadrans should be paid to the creditor.
The amendment of Hirtuleius, by tripling the dividend to be paid, rendered the law almost nugatory. (
Cic. Font. 1.)
It is doubtful whether this Hirtuleius were the same with the quaestor and legatus of Sertorius in Spain (
Plut. Sert. 12; Frontin.
Strat. 1.5.8), who in B. C. 79, on the banks of the Anas, defeated L. Domitius Ahenobarbus [AHENOBARBUS, No. 15], ---- Therius, legatus of Q. Metellus Pius, and L. Manilius, praetor of Narbonne, in the neighbourhood of Lerida.
But early in the following spring Hirtuleius was himself routed and slain near Italica in Baetica by Metellus. Hirtuleius was so highly esteemed as an officer by Sertorius, that the latter is said to have stabbed the messenger who brought the news of his death, that the report of it might not discourage his own soldiers. (
Liv. Epit. 90;
Flor. 3.22; Appian,
App. BC 1.109; Schol. Bob.
in Cic. pro
Flacc. p. 235, ed. Orelli;
Eutrop. 6.1;
Oros. 5.23; Frontin.
Strat. ii . 1.2, 3.5, 7.5, 2.5.31, 4.5.19; Sallust.
Hist. ii. apud
Non. s. v. Sagum.)
[
W.B.D]
