Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/193

Rh FONTEIA. snme with Julius Florus who in the eighth year of 1'iberius headed an insurrection among theTreviri. (Tac. Ann. iii. 40, 42). See Weichert, Poet. Lett. Iteliq. p. 365, &c. [W. R.] FLORUS, JU'LIUS SECUNDUS, a dis- tinguished orator, the contemporary and dear friend of Quintilian. Julius Florus, named above as famed for his eloquence in Gaul, was the pater- nal uncle of Julius Floius Secundus. (Quintil. x. 3, § 13 ; Senec. Controv. iv. 25.) [W. R.] FOCA or PHOCAS, a Latin grammarian, au- thor of a dull, foolish life of Virgil in hexameter verse, of which one hundred and nineteen linos and a half have been preserved in two fragments, together with a short Sapphic ode, by way of exor- dium, on the progress of historj'-, addressed to the Muse Clio. The title of the piece, as found in MSS., is Vita Virgilii a Foca Grammatico Urhis Romae Versibus edita, or with the complimentary addition Grammatico Urbis Romae perspicacissimo et clarissimo, from which we may conjecture that he was one of the public salaried teachers who gave lectures at Rome under the later emperors, Avhile his name indicates that he was a Greek by extraction at least, if indeed we are not to imder- stand that Rome here denotes New Rome or Con- stantinople. We know nothing regarding the history of Foca, nor the precise period when he flourished, except that he lived before Priscian and Cassiodorus, by both of whom he is quoted. In addition to the life of Virgil, we have three cou- plets. In Jeneidem Virgilii., and two tracts in prose, one De Aspirations, and the other Ars de Nomine et Verbo, with a preface in elegiac verse. The metrical productions of this writer will be found in the Antkol. Lat. ii. 175, 185, 186, 256, ed. Burmann, or No. 286 — 289, ed. Meyer ; the prose treatises in Putschius, Grammaticae Latinae Auctores Antiqui, p. 1687 and p. 1722. See also Wernsdorf, Poet. Latini Min., vol. iii. pp. 347, 410. [W. R.] FOCAS, emperor. [Phocas.] FONTA'NUS, a Roman poet of the Augustan age, who sang the loves of the nymphs and satyrs. (Ov.ea' Pont. iv. 16. 35.) [W. R.] FONTEIA, one of the vestal virgins in b. c. 6.9, daughter of C. Fonteius [No. 4], and sister of M. Fonteius [No. 5], at whose trial she was pro- duced by Cicero, to move the compassion of the judices in behalf of her brother. (Cic. pro Font. 17) [W. B. D.] FONTEIA GENS came originally from Tus- culum (Cic. pro Font. 14), of which municipium it was one of the most distinguished families. The Fonteii were plebeian (Cic. pro Dom. 44), and. bore the cognomens AomprA, Balbus (omitted under Balbu.s, but given under Fonteius), and Capito. The cognomen Crassus (Frontin. Stra- lag. i. 5. § 12, iv. 5. § 8) is an error of the MSS., since there were no Fonteii Crassi. The first member of this gens, whose name appears on the consular Fasti, is C Fonteius Capito, one of the consuls suffecti in B. c. 33. [W. B. D.] There are several coins of this gens ; but Capito is the only cognomen which occurs upon them : those which have no cognomen upon them are given below. The obverse of the first represents a doubk-faced head, which is supposed by Vaillant and others to be the head of Janus, and to indicate that the race was descended from Fontus, who, we learn from Arnobius {adv. Gentes, iii. 29), was FONTEIUS. 179 regarded as the son of Janus: but, ns Janus is always represented in later times with a beard. Eckhel (vol. v. p. 214, &c.) maintains that the two heads refer to the Dioscuri, who were worshipped at Tusculura Avith especial honours, and who may be regarded as the Dii Penates of the gens. The heads of the Dioscuri also occur on other coins of the Fonteia gens, as we see in the second specimen figured below. The head on the obverse of the third coin, with a thunderbolt beneath it, is pro- bably that of Apollo Veiovis ; the reverse repre- sents a winged boy riding on a goat, with the two caps of the Dioscuri suspended above him, and a thyrsus below. FONTEIUS. 1. T. Fonteius, legatus of P. Cornelius Scipio, in Spain, B. c. 212. (Liv. xxv. 32.) After the defeat and death of P. and Cn. Scipio, Fonteius, as prefect of the camp, would have succeeded to the temporary command at least of the legions. But the soldiers, deeming him un- equal to conduct a defeated army in the midst of a hostile country, chose instead an inferior officer, L. Marcius, for their leader. (Liv. xxv. 34, 38.) Fonteius, however, seems to have been second in command (xxvi. 17) ; and if he were the same with T. Fonteius mentioned by Frontinus (Straiag. i. 5. ^12, iv. 5. § 8), he was a brave, if not an able, officer. 2. P. Fonteius Balbus, praetor in Spain, b.g. 169. (Liv. xliv. 17.) 3. M. Fonteius, praetor of Sardinia, b. c. 1 67. (Liv. xlv. 44.) 4. C. Fonteius, legatus of the praetor Cn. Servilius Caepio, with whom he was slain in a popular tumult at Asculum in Picenum, on the breaking out of the Marsic or Social War, b. c. 90. (Cic. p-o Font. 14 ; Liv. Fpit. 72; Veil. Pat. ii. 15 ; Appian, B. C. i. 38 ; Oros. v. 18.) He was th^ father of Fonteia (Cic. pro Font. 17), and of No. 5. 5. M. Fonteius, son of the preceding. The praenomens of both these Fonteii are very doubt- ful. (Orelli, Onom. Tull. s. v. Fonteius.) Cicero enumerates the offices borne by M. or M'. Fonteius in the following order. He was a triumvir, but N 2