46

According to this study Q. Curius had already been quaestor or aedile by 70. At this time he was expelled from the Senate because of his gambling passion, but he reached the praetorship in 68 or 67, sought unsuccessfully the consulship of 64, joined the Catiline conspiracy and finally informed Cicero about this plot. Since he was senator as evidenced by Q. Cic., pet. 10, he was not index, even if he was almost rewarded for his help. In order to reconstruct his career, a true testimony of the decay of the aristocratic ethos, this paper reconsiders two ciceronian texts: in Cic. Att. 1.1.2 one should revert to Curium instead of Turium for the name of the candidate for the consular elections of 65; in Cic. tog. cand. frg. 27 Crawford ( ap. Ascon., p. 93 Cl.). F. Schoell was right to correct quaestorius in quaestuarius. This emendation is in keeping with Q. Curius’ venality as a gambler and resolves the contradiction with his rank in 64.