Quintus Fulvius Nobilior


Quintus Fulvius Nobilior was a Roman consul who obtained the consulship in 153 BC.
His father Marcus Fulvius Nobilior and his brother Marcus Fulvius Nobilior were also consuls.
Nobilior and his father were patrons of the writer Quintus Ennius.
Quintus Fulvius Nobilior was in charge of a major military campaign in Spain, which was largely unsuccessful. The Roman army was initially deployed against the oppidum of Segeda, whose Celtiberian inhabitants, the Belli, had been strengthening the walls. Segeda was destroyed, but the Belli assembled an army which ambushed the Roman army inflicting heavy losses. Moving west to the meseta, Nobilior laid siege to Numantia, an oppidum whose inhabitants were to give Rome trouble for years.
The Roman army faced difficult conditions in the winter and had to withdraw. Nobilior was replaced as consul in 152 BC by Marcus Claudius Marcellus.
He was censor with Appius Claudius Pulcher, probably in 136 BC.
The Roman camp at Renieblas in Spain may have been Q. Fulvius Nobilior's winter quarters.

Cultural Impact

Nobilior was designated consul in 154 BC, however his appointment could not come into effect until the Ides of March, the day for settling debts that marked the end of the calendar year. To overcome this obstacle, and recognizing the need for immediate action, the Roman Senate decreed January 1 as the new beginning to the civil year.