Spurius Carvilius S. f. C. n. Maximus Ruga (d. 212 BC) was Roman consul

Roman consul

A consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. Each consul was given veto power over his colleague and the officials would alternate each month...

 in 234 and 228 BC. Spurius Carvilius Ruga

Spurius Carvilius Ruga

Spurius Carvilius Ruga was the freedman of Spurius Carvilius Maximus Ruga. He is often credited with inventing the Latin letter G. His invention would have been quickly adopted in the Roman Republic, because the letter C was, at the time, confusingly used both for the /k/ and /g/ sounds...

, the schoolteacher, was his freedman

Freedman

A freedman is a former slave who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves became freedmen either by manumission or emancipation ....

.

Consulships

The son of Spurius Carvilius Maximus

Spurius Carvilius Maximus

Spurius Carvilius C. f. C. n., later surnamed Maximus, was the first member of the plebeian gens Carvilia to obtain the consulship, which he held in 293 BC, and again in 272 BC.-Early career:...

, Carvilius was elected consul with Lucius Postumius Albinus

Lucius Postumius Albinus (consul 234 and 229 BC)

Lucius Postumius A. f. A. n. Albinus was a Roman consul of the third century BC. Most of our knowledge about his career and his demise comes from Livy's Ab Urbe Condita. From his filiation, "A. f. A. n.", we know that he was probably the son of Aulus Postumius Albinus, consul in 242 BC.He was...

 for the year 234 BC. He carried on war with the Corsica

Corsica

Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....

ns, and then with the Sardinians

History of Sardinia

Archaeological evidence of prehistoric human settlement on Sardinia island is present in the form of the nuraghe which dot the land. The recorded history of Sardinia begins with its contacts with the various people who sought to dominate western Mediterranean trade in Classical Antiquity: the...

, over whom he obtained a triumph

Roman triumph

The Roman triumph was a civil ceremony and religious rite of ancient Rome, held to publicly celebrate and sanctify the military achievement of an army commander who had won great military successes, or originally and traditionally, one who had successfully completed a foreign war. In Republican...

.

Carvilius was consul a second time in 228 BC with Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus

Fabius Maximus

Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus Cunctator was a Roman politician and general, born in Rome around 280 BC and died in Rome in 203 BC. He was Roman Consul five times and was twice Dictator in 221 and again in 217 BC. He reached the office of Roman Censor in 230 BC...

. Cicero

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...

 reports that he did not object to the proposed agrarian law for dividing the lands of Gallia Cisalpina

Cisalpine Gaul

Cisalpine Gaul, in Latin: Gallia Cisalpina or Citerior, also called Gallia Togata, was a Roman province until 41 BC when it was merged into Roman Italy.It bore the name Gallia, because the great body of its inhabitants, after the expulsion of the Etruscans, consisted of Gauls or Celts...

, although Polybius stated that this law was passed four years earlier.

Later career

Following the disaster of the Cannae

Battle of Cannae

The Battle of Cannae was a major battle of the Second Punic War, which took place on August 2, 216 BC near the town of Cannae in Apulia in southeast Italy. The army of Carthage under Hannibal decisively defeated a numerically superior army of the Roman Republic under command of the consuls Lucius...

, Carvilius noted the greatly diminished numbers of the Senate

Roman Senate

The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...

, and with note to the uncertain loyalty of Rome's Latin allies in the face of Hannibal's invasion, he proposed that two senators should be elected from each of the Latin tribes, thereby filling many vacancies, and uniting the Roman state with her closest allies. This proposal was dismissed with the utmost indignation and contempt.

Carvilius was an augur

Augur

The augur was a priest and official in the classical world, especially ancient Rome and Etruria. His main role was to interpret the will of the gods by studying the flight of birds: whether they are flying in groups/alone, what noises they make as they fly, direction of flight and what kind of...

 at the time of his death in 212 BC.

Divorce

Some sources relate that Carvilius was the first person at Rome to have divorced his wife, which he did on grounds of barrenness. His conduct in this matter was generally disapproved. However, it may be noted that the laws of the Twelve Tables

Twelve Tables

The Law of the Twelve Tables was the ancient legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law. The Law of the Twelve Tables formed the centrepiece of the constitution of the Roman Republic and the core of the mos maiorum...

 provided for divorce more than two centuries before Carvilius.

Footnotes