Nobi'lior
2. M.
Fulvius Ser., M. F. N. NOBILIOR, grandson of the preceding, was curule aedile B. C. 195, and praetor B. C. 193, when he obtained Further Spain as his province, with the title of proconsul.
He remained in this country two years, and fought with great success against the nations that still resisted the Roman supremacy.
He gained a victory over the united forces of the Vaccaei, Tectones, and Celtiberi, near the town of Toletum (Toledo), and took their king, Hilermus, prisoner.
He then obtained possession of the town of Toletum, which is the first time that this place is mentioned in history. On his return to Rome in B. C. 191 he was granted the honour of an ovation. (
Liv. 33.42,
34.54,
55,
35.7,
22,
36.21,
39.) In B. C. 189 he was consul with M. Fulvius Nobilior, and received the conduct of the war against the Aetolians.
He captured the strong town of Ambracia, and then compelled the Aetolians to sue for peace, which was granted them on favourable terms. Shortly afterwards he obliged the island of Cephallenia, which had been excluded from the terms of the peace, to submit to the dominion of Rome.
He remained in his province for the next year as proconsul; and on his return to Rome, in B. C. 187, celebrated a most splendid triumph.
In the following year he exhibited for ten successive days the games which he had vowed in the Aetolian war, and which were the most magnificent that had yet been seen at Rome.
There were
venutiones of lions and panthers; and contests of athietae were now for the first time exhibited in the city.
The conquest of Aetolia by this consul is also commemorated in the inscription of a statue discovered at Tusculum, from which place the Fulvii originally came. [FULVIA GENS.] (
Plb. 22.8-
15;
Liv. 37.47,
48,
50,
38.3-
11,
28,
30,
35,
39.4,
5,
22; Aurel. Vict.
de Vir. Ill. 52; Orelli,
Inscr. No. 562.) In B. C. 179 he was censor with M. Aemilius Lepidus, the pontifex maximus.
The two censors had previously been at feud, but were reconciled to one another upon their election, and discharged the duties of their office with unanimity and concord. They executed many public works, which are mentioned by Livy. (
Liv. 40.45,
46,
51,
41.2;
V. Max. 4.2.1; Cic.
de Prov. Cons. 9.)
Fulvius Nobilior had a taste for literature and art; he was a patron of the poet Ennius, who accompanied him in his Aetolian campaign; and he belonged to that party among the Roman nobles who were introducing into the city a taste for Greek literature and refinement.
He was, therefore, an object of the attacks of Cato the Censor, who actually reproached him with having taken Ennius with him into Aetolia, and insinuated that he was corrupting the old Roman discipline by bestowing military crowns upon the soldiers for trivial reasons. Cato also made merry with his name, calling him
mobilior instead of
nobilior. (Cic.
Tsc. 1.2,
Brut. 20, pro Arch. 11,
de Orat. 3.63.) Fulvius, in his censorship, erected a temple to Hercules and the Muses in the Circus Flaminius, as a proof that the state ought to cultivate the liberal arts, and adorned it with the paintings and statues which he had brought from Greece upon his conquest of Aetolia.
He also set up Fasti in this temple, which are referred to by Macrobius. (Cic.
pro Arch. Ic.; Plin. Nat. 35.10. s. 36.4; Enumenius,
Orat. pro Schlolis Instaurand. 7.3 ; Macrob.
Saturn. 1.12.)
He left behind him two sons, both of whom obtained the consulship. [Nos. 3 and 4.] His brother, by his mother's side, was C. Valerius Laevinus, who accompanied him in his Aetolian campaign (
Plb. 22.12), and who was consul in B. C. 176.
