Pāpĭrius

, a centurion engaged to murder Piso the proconsul of Africa. Tacitus , Histories , bk. 4 , ch. 49 .――A patrician, chosen rex sacrorum , after the expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome.――A Roman who wished to gratify his unnatural desires upon the body of one of his slaves called Publilius. The slave refused, and was inhumanly treated. This called for the interference of justice, and a decree was made which forbade any person to be detained in fetters, but only for a crime that deserved such a treatment, and only till the criminal had suffered the punishment which the laws directed. Creditors also had a right to arrest the goods, and not the person, of their debtors. Livy , bk. 8 , ch. 28 .――Carbo, a Roman consul who undertook the defence of Opimius, who was accused of condemning and putting to death a number of citizens on mount A vent in us, without the formalities of a trial. His client was acquitted.――Cursor, a man who first erected a sun-dial in the temple of Quirinus at Rome, B.C. 293; from which time the days began to be divided into hours.――A dictator who ordered his master of horse to be put to death, because he had fought and conquered the enemies of the republic without his consent. The people interfered, and the dictator pardoned him. Cursor made war against the Sabines and conquered them, and also triumphed over the Samnites. His great severity displeased the people. He flourished about 320 years before the christian era. Livy , bk. 9 , ch. 14 .――One of his family surnamed Prætext at us , from an action of his whilst he wore the prætext a , a certain gown for young men. His father, of the same name, carried him to the senate-house, where affairs of the greatest importance were then in debate before the senators. The mother of young Papirius wished to know what had pa ed in the senate; but Papirius, unwilling to betray the secrets of that august a embly, amused his mother by telling her that it had been considered whether it would be more advantageous to the republic to give two wives to one husband, than two husbands to one wife. The mother of Papirius was alarmed, and she communicated the secret to the other Roman matrons, and, on the morrow, they a embled in the senate, petitioning that one woman might have two husbands, rather than one husband two wives. The senators were astonished at this petition, but young Papirius unravelled the whole mystery, and from that time it was made a law among the senators, that no young man should for the future be introduced into the senate-house, except Papirius. This law was carefully observed till the age of August us, who permitted children of all ages to hear the debates of the senators. Macrobius , Saturnalia , bk. 1 , ch. 6 .――Carbo, a friend of Cinna and Marius. He raised cabals against Sylla and Pompey, and was at last put to death by order of Pompey, after he had rendered himself odious by a tyrannical consulship, and after he had been proscribed by Sylla.――A consul defeated by the armies of the Cimbri.――Cra us, a dictator who triumphed over the Samnites.――A consul murdered by the Gauls, . ――A son of Papirius Cursor, who defeated the Samnites, and dedicated a temple to Romulus Quirinus.――Maso, a consul who conquered Sardinia and Corsica, and reduced them into the form of a province. At his return to Rome, he was refused a triumph, upon which he introduced a triumphal proce ion, and walked with his victorious army to the capitol, wearing a crown of myrtle upon his head. His example was afterwards followed by such generals as were refused a triumph by the Roman senate. Valerius Maximus , bk. 3 , ch. 6 .――The family of the Papirii was patrician, and long distinguished for its services to the state. It bore the different surnames of Cra us , Cursor , Mugillanus , Maso , Prætext at us , and Pætus , of which the three first branches became the most illustrious.