Lurco, M. Aufid'ius
tribune of the plebs, in B. C. 61. was the author of the
Lex Aufidia de Ambitu, which enacted, aniong other things, that, if a candidate promised and paid money to a tribe at the comitia, he should pay besides to that tribe 3000 sesterces yearly during his life : but if lie merely promised and did not pay, he should be exempt. (
Dict. of Antiq. s. v. Ambitious) this, however, is Cicero's version of the principal clause of the Lex Aufidia, and, since it is part of his account of a wit-combat between himself and P. Clodius in the senate (
ad Att. 1.16), B. C. 61, it is probably exaggerated. Three years afterwards, B. C. 59, Lurco was one of the witnesses for the defence at the impeachment of L. Valerius Flaccus [
L. VALERIUS FLACCUS, No. 15], and then it suited Cicero's purpose to call him an honest man and his good friend (
pro Flacc. 4.34). In B. C. 52-1, Lurco prosecuted and procured the conviction of Sextus Clodius, for bringing the corpse of P. Clodius into the Curia Hostilia, and for other acts of violence (Ascon.
in Cic. Milon. p. 55, Orelli). Lurco was the maternal grandfather of the empress Livia, wife of Augustus. (
Suet. Cal. 23.)
He was the first person in Rome who fattened peacocks for sale, and he derived a large income from this source. (Varr.
R. R. 3.6;
Plin. Nat. 10.20.)
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W.B.D]
