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Earliest Record
The gens Fulcinia was a family at Rome. The first of this name to appear in history is Gaius Fulcinius, one of the ambassadors to Fidenae in 438 BC. After this, no Fulcinius is mentioned until the time of Cicero, so that one cannot even be certain that they belonged to the same family. Whatever the case, several Fulcinii are known from the first century BC
The Fulcinii are known to have used the praenomina Gaius, Marcus, and Lucius, all of which were amongst the most common names throughout Roman history.
- Gaius Fulcinius, one of four ambassadors sent to Fidenae in 438 BC to inquire into the reasons for the city's revolt against Rome. On the advice of Lars Tolumnius, the king of Veii, whose cause the Fidenates had joined, the ambassadors were put to death. Afterwards, the ambassadors were honoured with statues on the Rostra.
- Marcus Fulcinius, a native of Tarquinii in Etruria, was a man of high respectability, who carried on a considerable banking business at Rome.
- Marcus Fulcinius M. f., son of the banker, died young.
- Marcus Fulcinius, a freedman of the banker Marcus Fulcinius
- Gaius Fulcinius, father of Lucius.
- Lucius Fulcinius C. f., brought the charge of murder against Marcus Saufeius in BC 52.
- Lucius Fulcinius, whose name appears on Macedonian coins, had been quaestor, in an uncertain year
Gaius Fulcinius, Roman Ambassador
By the second half of the 5th century BC, the former Roman colony of Fidenae had revolted against Rome, and placed themselves under the protection of the wealthy Etruscan city-state of Veii. In 437, the Senate responded by sending four ambassadors, including Gaius Fulcinius, to the leaders of Fidenae. When Fulcinius and the rest arrived, they demanded that Fidenae abandon its pact with Veii, and return the colony to operating under Rome’s sphere of influence.[1]
According to Livy, the leaders of Fidenae sent an urgent message to Lars Tolumnius, the king of Veii, asking what they should do. Lars Tolumnius, with an eye to binding Fidenae closer to Veii, ordered them to execute Gaius Fulcinius and his fellow ambassadors, which they proceeded to do. This act saw Rome declare war on Veii, and they sent an army to besiege Fidenae. To honour their sacrifice for the Republic, the Romans later erected half-sized statues of Gaius Fulcinius and his colleagues Tullus Cloelius, Spurius Antius, and Lucius Roscius on the Rostra, in the Roman Forum.[2]
Cicero mentioned Gaius Fulcinius in his ninth Philippic, declaring that the reason Fulcinius was honoured was not that he died in bloodshed, but that he died for the Republic.[3] According to Cicero, his statue was no longer on the Rostra by the time he wrote his speech attacking Marc Antony (