Laevi'nus
3. C.
Valerius Laevinus, son of the preceding, was by the mother's side brother of M. Fulvius Nobilior, consul in B. C. 189. Laevinus accompanied his brother to the siege of Ambracia in that year, and the Aetolians, with whom he inherited from his father ties of friendship, chose him for their patron with the consul in behalf of the Ambraciots and the Aetolian league generally. Fulvius allowed of his mediation, granted the Ambraciots and Aetolians unusually favourable terms, and sent him with their envoys to Rome, to dispose the senate and the people to ratify the peace. In B. C. 179 Laevinus was one of the four praetors appointed under the Lex Baebia (
Liv. 40.44; Fest.
s. v. Royat. ; comp. Meyer.
Or. Rom. Fragn. p. 62), and obtained Sardinia for his province. In B. C. 176 Cn. Cornelius Scipio Hispallus died suddenly, in his year of office, and Laevinus was appointed consul in his room. Eager for military distinction, Laevinus left Rome only three days after his election, to take the command of the Ligurian war.
He triumphed over the Ligurians in B. C. 175. In B. C. 174 he was sent, with four other commissioners, to Delphi, to adjust some new dissensions among the Aetolians. In B. C. 173 the senate despatched him to the Macedonian court, to watch the movements of Perseus; and he was instructed to go round by Alexandreia, to renew the alliance of Rome with Ptolemy VI. Philometor.
He returned from Greece in B. C. 172. In B. C. 169 Laevinus was one of several unsuccessful candidates for the censorship. (
Plb. 22.12. 10,
14.2;
Liv. 38.9,
10,
40.44,
41.25,
42.6,
17,
43.14.)
