Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/744

Rh 30 LENTQLUS. Spain he was ci;rule aedile with his brother Cneius [No. 11], though he had been already praetor. (Liv. xxix. 11.) This might be to further his designs upon the consulship, which he obtained the year after his return, B. c. 199; and the year after that he was proconsul in Gaul. (Liv. xxxi. 49, xxxii. 1, 2, 8, 9.) He is perhaps the Lentulus that was decemvir sacrorum in b. c. 2 1 3, and died in 173. {Id. XXV. 2, xlii. 10.) 13. L. Cornelius Cn. f. L. n. Lentulus Lupus, son of No. 1 1, nephew to the last (Eckhel, vol ii. p. 302) ; curule aedile in b. c. 163 ; consul in 156; censor in 147. {Titul.Terentii Heaul.; Fasti, A. u. 597, 606 ; Cic. Brut. 20 ; Val. Max. vi. 9. §10.) 14. Cornelius Lentulus was praetor in Sicily, and was defeated in the Servile war about B.C. 134. (Floras, iii. 19, 7.) 15. Cn. Cornelius Lentulus, consul in b. c. 97. {Fasti; Plin. H. N. x. 2, xxx. 3(1); Cas- Biod.) He was probably father by adoption of No. 24. 16. P. Cornelius L. f. L. n. Lentulus, pro- bably son of No. 12. He was curule aedile with Scipio Nasica in B.C. 169: in their Circensian games they exhibited elephants and bears. (Liv. xliv. 18.) Next year he went with two others to negotiate with Perseus of Macedon, but without effect. (Liv. xlv. 4.) He was consul suffectiis, with C. Domitius, in b. c. 1 62, the election of the former consuls being declared informal. {Fasti, A. u. 591 ; Cic. de Nat. Deor. ii. 4, de Divin. ii. 35 ; Val. Max. i. 1. § 3.) He became princeps se- natus (Cic. Brut. 28, Divin. in Caecil. 21, de Orat. i. 48); and must have lived to a good old age, since he was wounded in the contest with C. Gracchus in B. c. 121. (Cic. in Cat. iv. 6, Philipp. viii. 4.) 17. P. Cornelius Lentulus, only known from Fasti, son of No. 16, and father of No. 18. 18. P. Cornelius P. f. P. n. Lentulus, sur- named Sura, son of the last, the man of chief note in Catiline's crew. (Cic. in Cat. iii. 5, iv. 6; Ascon. ad Divin. 21.) He was quaestor to Sulla in B. c. 81 (Plut. Cic. 17): before him and L. Triarius, Verres had to give an account of the monies he had received as quaestor in Cisalpine Gaul. (Cic. in Verr. i. 14.) He was soon after himself called to account for the same matter, but was acquitted. It is said that he got his cognomen of Sura from his conduct on this occasion ; for when Sulla called him to account, he answered by scornfully putting out his leg, "like boys," says Plutarch, "when they make a blunder in playing at ball." {Cic. 17.) Other persons, however, had borne the name before, one perhaps of the Lentulus family. (Liv. xxii. 31 ; comp. Suet. Domit. 13 ; Dion Cass. Ixviii. 9, 15.) In B. c. 75 he was praetor ; and Hortensius, pleading before such a judge, had no difficulty in procuring the acquittal of Terentius Varro, when accused of extortion. (Ascon. ad Divin. 7 ; Plut. Cic. 17 ; Acron. ad Ilorat. Serm. ii. 1. 49.) In B.C. 71 he was consul. {Fasti, A. u. 682 ; Consularis in Veil. Pat. ii. 34 ; Dion Cass, xxxvii. 30.) But in the next year he was ejected from the senate, with sixty-three others, for infamous life and manners. (Gell. v. 6 ; Plut. I. c. ; Dion Cass., &c. ; see No. 25.) It was this, probably, that led him to join Catiline and his crew. From his distinguished birth and high rank, he calculated on becoming chief of the con- spiracy ; and a prophecy of the Sibylline books was LENTULUS. applied by flattering haruspices to him. Three Cornelii were to rule Rome, and he was the tliird after Sulla and Cinna ; the twentieth year after the burning of the capitol, &c., was to be fatal to the city. (Cic. in Cat. iii. 4, iv. 1, 6; Sal. Cut. 47.)* To gain power, and recover his place in the senate, he became praetor again in b. c. 63. (Sail. B. C. 17, 46, &c.) When Catiline left the city for Etruria, Lentulus remained as chief of the home-conspirators, and his irresolution probably saved the city from being fired. (Sail. Cat. 32, 43 ; Cic. in Cat. iii. 4, 7, iv. 6, Brut. QQ, &c. ; comp. Ck- TH-EGUS, 8.) For it was by his over-caution that the negotiation with the ambassadors of the Allobrogos was entered into ; and these unstable allies revealed the secret to the consul Cicero, who directed them to feign compliance with the conspirators' wishes, and thus to obtain written documents which might be brought in evidence against them. The well-known sequel will be found under the life of Catiline [p. 632]. Lentulus was deposed from the praetor- ship ; given to be kept in libera custodia by the aedile P. Lentulus Spinther (No. 20 ; comp. Cic. in Cat. iii. 6, iv. 3,/). Red. ad Quir. 6 ; Sail. Cut. 50, &c.) ; and was strangled in the Capitoline prison on the 5th of December. (Cic. pro Flacc. 40, &c., PhUipp. ii. 7 (8) ; Sail. Cat. 55, &c.) His step-son Antony pretended that Cicero refused to deliver up his corpse for burial. (Cic. PhiUjip. I. c. ; Plut. Anton. 2.) Lentulus was slow m thought and speech, but this was disguised by the dignity of his person, the expressiveness and grace of his action, the sweetness and power of his voice. (Cic. Brut. 64.) His impudence was excessive, his morals infamous, so that there was nothing so bad but he dared say or do it ; but when danger showed itself he was slow and irresolute. The former qua- lities made him join the gang of Catiline ; the latter were in great part the ruin of their cause. (Comp. Senec. de Ira, iii. 38 ; Cic. pro Sull. 25.) 19. P. Cornelius L. f. Lentulus, father of the next. 20. P. Cornelius P. f. L. n. Lentulus, sur- named Spinther. {Fast. A. u. QQQ ; comp. Goltz. A. u. 698; Eckhel, vol. v. p. 182.) He received this nickname from his resemblance to the actor Spinther, and it was remarked as curious, that his colleague in the consulship, Metellus Nepos, was like Pam- philus, another actor. (Plin. H.N. vii. 10; Val. Max. ix. 14. § 4.) Caesar commonly calls him by this name {B. C. i. 15, &c.): not so Cicero ; but there could be no harm in it, for he used it on his coins when pro-praetor in Spain, simply to distin- guish himself from the many of the same family (Eckhel, /. c. ); and his son bore it after him. He was curule aedile in B. c. 63, the year of Cicero's consulship, and was entrusted with the care of the apprehended conspirator, P.Lent. Sura (No. 18). His games were long remembered for their splen- dour; but his toga, edged with Tyrian purple, gave offence. (Sail. Cat. 47 ; Cic. de Off. ii. 16 ; Plin. H. N. ix. 63, xxxvi. 12, (7).) He was praetor in B. c. 60 : at the Apollinarian games he, for the first time, drew an awning over the theatre {carhasina vela, Plin. //, N. xix. 6), and ornamented the scenes with silver. (Val. Max. ii. 4. $ 6.) By Caesar's interest he obtained Hither Spain for his the burning of the capitol is clear from Tacit Ann. vi. 12 ; comp. Suet. Od. 31.
 * That many fictitious oracles were current after