Gaius Papirius Carbo (consul 120 BC)
Gaius Papirius Carbo was an
Ancient Roman statesman and
orator. He was associated with
C. Gracchus in carrying out the provision of the agrarian law of
Tiberius Gracchus. When
tribune of the people (
131 BC) he carried a law extending voting by ballot to the enactment and repeal of laws; another proposal, that the tribunes should be allowed to become candidates for the same office in the year immediately following, was defeated by the
Scipio Aemilianus. Carbo was suspected of having been involved in the sudden death of Scipio (129). He subsequently went over to the optimates, and (when
consul in
120 BC) successfully defended
Lucius Opimius, the murderer of Gaius Gracchus, when he was impeached for the murder of citizens without a trial, and even went so far as to say that Gracchus had been justly slain. But the optimates did not trust Carbo. He was impeached by
Licinius Crassus on a similar charge, and, feeling that he had nothing to hope for from the optimates and that his condemnation was certain, he committed suicide.
[See Livy, Epit. 59; Appian, Bell. Civ. 1.18: Veil. Pat. ii.4; Val. Max. iii.7.6; A. H. J. Greenridge, History of Rome (1904)].
