Curio
- a surname in the gens Scribonia; v. Scribonius; hence, Cū-rĭōnĭānus, a, um, adj., of or pertaining to Curio, Auct. B. Afr. 52 fin.
(1) Gaius, praetor B.C. 121, but did not attain to the consulship. Cicero speaks with praise of his oratory, an opinion founded, not on personal knowledge, but on the speeches he had left.
(2) C. Scribonius, consul with Gnaeus Octavius, B.C. 76. On returning from the province of Macedonia, he triumphed over the Dardani, as proconsul, B.C. 72. Cicero often mentions him, and in his Brutus (cap. 49) enumerates him among the Roman orators, along with Cotta and others.
(3) C. Scribonius, son of the preceding, a turbulent and unprincipled man, and an active partisan of Iulius Caesar's. Being deeply involved in debt when tribune of the plebs, Caesar gained him over by paying for him what he owed (Plut. Pomp. 58), and Curio immediately exerted himself with great vigour in his behalf. Caesar, it seems, was under obligations to him before this, since Curio is said to have saved his life when he was leaving the Senatehouse after the debate about Catiline's accomplices, his personal safety being endangered by the young men who stood in arms around the building (Plut. Caes. 8). Plutarch ascribes Antony's early initiation into licentious habits to his acquaintance with Curio. On the breaking out of the Civil War, Caesar, after having possessed himself of Rome, sent Curio to take charge of Sicily. The latter subsequently crossed over from this island into Africa, with an armed force, against Iuba and the followers of Pompey, but was defeated and slain.