The Clemency of Lucius Papirius Cursor, by Gerard de Lairesse, 1688, depicting his quarrel with Fabius Rullianus.
Lucius Papirius Cursor (c.365–after 310 BC)[i] was a celebrated politician and general of the early Roman Republic, who was five times consul, three times magister equitum, and twice dictator. He was the most important Roman commander during the Second Samnite War (327–304 BC), during which he received three triumphs.
He was a member of the patrician gens Papiria of ancient Rome. Cursor's strictness was proverbial; he was a man of immense bodily strength, while his bravery was beyond dispute. He was given the cognomen Cursor[1] from his swiftness of foot.[2]
Most of what is known of Cursor's life comes from the monumental History of Rome written by Livy during the reign of Augustus. Livy portrayed Cursor as an invincible hero, who avenged the humiliation of the Caudine Forks in 321 BC, when the Roman army had to pass under the yoke. In a famous digression, he even wrote that had Alexander the Great turned his army against Rome, he would have met his match with Cursor. With this narrative, Livy participated in the Roman propaganda sponsored by Augustus, which idealised several figures of the first part of the Republic. As a result, it is difficult to separate his life from the fiction elaborated by later Roman authors.
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LuciusPapiriusCursor (c.365–after 310 BC) was a celebrated politician and general of the early Roman Republic, who was five times consul, three times...
dictator LuciusPapiriusCursor. LuciusPapirius Sp. f. L. n. Cursor, was appointed magister equitum by his cousin, the dictator LuciusPapirius Crassus...
was decisively defeated by the Roman legionaries led by Consul LuciusPapiriusCursor and Consul Spurius Carvilius. According to Titus Livius, the Samnites...
wounded. The senate appointed LuciusPapiriusCursor as dictator. However, Quintus Fabius had a grudge against LuciusPapirius. A delegation of former consuls...
Imbrinium. However, he had acted without the authority of the dictator LuciusPapiriusCursor, who was angry and demanded that the Senate punish Fabius for disobeying...
his colleague. Then in 310 BC he was again named a legate under LuciusPapiriusCursor, and fought in a major battle at Longulae against the Samnites....
the conduct of the war in Apulia, and a second time in 319 with LuciusPapiriusCursor, when he conquered the Ferentani and received their city into surrender...
and earning an ovation. He was censor in 272, and in 270 he and LuciusPapiriusCursor were elected commissioners to oversee construction of the Anio Vetus...
permission of the dictator LuciusPapiriusCursor) and the Samnites near Imbrinium, a city in Samnium. In 325 BC, LuciusPapiriusCursor, a distinguished soldier...
discovered; on the hill, there was the tomb of Quirinus, which LuciusPapiriusCursor transformed into a temple for his triumph after the third Samnite...
LuciusPapiriusCursor, defeat the Etruscans. Third Samnite War (298–290 BC) 298 BC – Battle of Camerinum – Samnites defeat the Romans under Lucius Cornelius...
Cornelius Lentulus LuciusPapiriusCursor II 320 434 Titus Manlius Imperiosus Torquatus III LuciusPapiriusCursor III 316 438 Lucius Aemilius Mamercinus...
succeeds in conquering the city. The Samnites again rise against Rome. LuciusPapiriusCursor is appointed dictator for the second time and wins a great victory...
Odaenathus Lucius Opimius Publius Ostorius Scapula – responsible for the defeat and capture of Caratacus Gnaeus Papirius Carbo LuciusPapiriusCursor Tiberius...
command against the Gauls. Gaius Caedicius, a legates of the consul LuciusPapiriusCursor in 293 BC. He led the cavalry in an important battle against the...
of the city and kept harassing Milo from there. The Roman consul LuciusPapiriusCursor besieged the city. Hemmed in by the Romans on land and by the Carthaginians...
285 BC Lucius Postumius Megellus, in office 305, 294, 291 BC Spurius Carvilius Maximus, Roman Consul, in office 293, 272 BC LuciusPapiriusCursor, Roman...
six times consul between 346 and 299 BC, triumphed three times. LuciusPapiriusCursor, five times consul between 326 and 313 BC, hero of the Second Samnite...
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