person
C. Carbonem
also: Gaius Carbo
C. Papirius Carbo, tribune of the plebs 131 BC, consul 120, a powerful but mercurial figure who as tribune passed the lex Papiria tabellaria, prosecuted P. Scipio Africanus's death in the contio (Pro Milone 8), and as consul successfully suppressed the prosecution of L. Opimius for Gaius Gracchus's killing. He killed himself when prosecuted by L. Crassus the following year (Verr. 2.3.3; De or. 2.170).
Reading notes
- Ad Familiares 9.21 §3 with L. Crassus prosecuting, is said to have taken cantharides
C. Papirius Carbo (cos. 120 BC), a turbulent tribune suspected in the death of Scipio Aemilianus (the 'Publius Africanus' here), was prosecuted by the young orator L. Licinius Crassus and, condemned, killed himself --- by swallowing cantharides (Spanish-fly, a poison), according to the tradition Cicero repeats.
- Laelius, On Friendship §96 his law to make the tribunes of the plebs eligible for re-election
Gaius Papirius Carbo, as tribune in 131 BC, proposed allowing tribunes to be re-elected in successive years; Scipio Aemilianus spoke the bill down. Carbo (later cos. 120) is the demagogue of the passage.