Lucius Papirius Cursor
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.
[13] The first mention of Cursor in history took place in 340 with his appointment as Magister equitum by his cousin, the dictator Lucius Papirius Crassus.
[14][15] The reason for the appointment of a dictator was the death of the consul Publius Decius Mus while fighting the Latins, and the illness of the other, the famous Titus Manlius Torquatus.
[16][18][19] In 332, Cursor might have been the praetor who passed the law granting half-citizenship to the city of Acerrae in Campania, 16 km northeast of Naples.
[27] The elections for 326 were subject to an intense political battle related to the Struggle of the Orders—the plebeians' campaign to obtain equal rights with the patricians, which took place during the fourth century.
[29][30] The 15th interrex was Lucius Aemilius Mamercinus Privernas, who presided over the elections of Cursor and the plebeian Gaius Poetelius Libo Visolus.
[35] Aemilius Privernas and Cursor possibly belonged to a group of patricians headed by the Aemilii that supported the demands of the plebeian elite, at the time championed by Publilius Philo.
[38] Livy does not distinguish the consuls' activity; he says that they captured Allifae (modern Alife), Callifae (perhaps near Pratella), and Rufrium (likely Presenzano).
[40] The main feature of their consulship was the Lex Poetelia Papiria de nexis, which abolished nexum, a form of debt-bondage.
The next year, Cursor was appointed dictator by the consul Lucius Furius Camillus, who was too ill to lead the army against the Samnites.
Despite supplications from the army, the senate, and the tribunes of the plebs, Cursor only withdrew his death order when Rullianus and his father Marcus Fabius Ambustus knelt and apologised before him.
Several modern historians have suggested it is an anticipation of the rivalry between the dictator Fabius Maximus (Rullianus' grandson) and his magister equitum Marcus Minucius Rufus in 217 BC.
[47] At the end of his dictatorship, Cursor vowed the construction of the Temple of Quirinus, which was finally dedicated by his son during his first consulship on 17 February 293.
The reason for the long delay (32 years) was possibly that the construction had to be funded by Cursor and also because his son waited until he became consul to make the dedication.
In 321, the two consuls were trapped in a Samnite ambush and forced to pass under the yoke, a famous event known as the disaster of the Caudine Forks.
[53] The election of both consuls broke the Lex Genucia, passed in 342, which theoretically forbade iteration of a magistracy within ten years.
[56][57] Cursor and Philo were at the time the most competent generals, and Livy writes it was the main reason behind their election because of the military situation after the Caudine Forks.
Meanwhile, Cursor could advance unhindered to Arpi in Apulia, from where he besieged Luceria in order to recover the Roman hostages given to the Samnites after the Caudine Forks.
The Roman hostages were returned, the standards recovered, and Cursor forced the garrison to in turn pass under the yoke, so he could wash the humiliation of the Caudine Forks.
However, his account of the events for 315 are very confused: he says that Fabius Rullianus was appointed dictator and commanded the army for the whole year, while the consuls stayed in Rome, which is constitutionally impossible.
[73] In 310 BC, when the Samnites again rose, Cursor was appointed dictator for the second time, and gained a decisive victory at Longula, in honour of which he celebrated a magnificent triumph.
[75] Livy adds that from this point on aediles regularly decorated the Forum for the Ludi Romani after the precedent set by Cursor.
His cognomen, Cursor, means "The Runner", as he was able to walk over 50 Roman miles a day in full marching order and demanded the same from his soldiers.
But later he had regained their good-will by more lenient treatment and lavish promises of booty; they fought with enthusiasm and gained a complete victory.
[79] In the 9th book of his Ab Urbe Condita, Livy made a much-discussed disgression on Alexander the Great, who had died a few years before the events he describes.
[81] It is possible that Augustus was inspired by Virgil's Aeneid and Livy's Ab Urbe Condita—the two most important literary works of his reign—when making his choice of statues.
The Dutch Golden Age painter Gerard De Lairesse pictured the famous story of Cursor's quarrel with Fabius Maximus Rullianus in 1688.
