Gaius Flavius Fimbria, according to Cicero, rose to the highest honours in the republic through his own merit and talent.
In 105 BC, he was a candidate for the consulship, and the people gave him the preference to his competitor, Quintus Lutatius Catulus; and accordingly, Fimbria was the colleague of Gaius Marius in his second consulship, 104 BC. Fimbria must have acquired his popularity about that time, for previously he had been an unsuccessful candidate for the tribuneship.
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The gens Flavia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Its members are first mentioned during the last three centuries of the Republic. The first of the Flavii to achieve prominence was Marcus Flavius, tribune of the plebs in 327 and 323 BC; however, no Flavius attained the consulship until Gaius Flavius Fimbria in 104 BC. The gens became illustrious during the first century AD, when the family of the Flavii Sabini claimed the imperial dignity.
Under the Empire, the number of persons bearing this nomen becomes very large, perhaps due to the great number of freedmen under the Flavian dynasty of emperors. It was a common practice for freedmen to assume the nomina of their patrons, and so countless persons who obtained the Roman franchise under the Flavian emperors adopted the name Flavius, which was then handed down to their descendants. Freedmen under the Constantinian dynasty, whose members were also called Flavius, also adopted it, as did individuals who entered government service during their rule, often replacing their original nomina with the dynastic Flavius.