Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/745

Rh LENTULUS. next year's province, where he remained into part of 58. (Caes. B. C. I 22 ; Cic. ad Fam. i. 9. § 4, &c.) He returned to become candidate for the consul- ship, when he was elected again, by Caesar's sup- port, (Caes. I. c.) But on the very day of his entering office, 1 Jan. B. c. 57, he moved for the immediate recall of Cicero {Cic. in Pis. 15); brought over his colleague Metellus Nepos to the same views ; and his services were gratefully acknow- ledged by Cicero. {Pro Seod. 40, Qd," Brut. 77, ad Ait. iii. 22. &c.; and comp. the letters to Lentulus himself, ad Fain. i. 1 — 9.) Now, therefore, not- withstanding his obligations to Caesar, he had openly taken part with the aristocracy. Yet he opposed them in promoting Pompey's appointment to the supreme superintendence of the corn market. His secret motive was to occupy Pompey at home, and thus prevent him from being charged with the office of restoring Ptolemy Auletes, the exiled king of Egypt ; for then he hoped that this would fall to his share, as proconsul of Cilicia. (Cic. ad Att. jv. 1, ad Fam. i. 1. § 7 ; Plut. Pomp. 49. For the life and fortunes of this king, see Ptolemaeus Auletes). Lentulus obtained a decree in his favour ; and intended to depart at the close of his consulship. But in December, a statue of Jupiter on the Aiban hill was struck by lightning : the Sibylline books were consulted, and an oracle found which forbade the restoration of a king of Egypt by armed force. Cato, who had just become tribune, was an enemy of Lentulus: he availed himself of this oracle (which had probably been forged to use against Pompey), and ordered the quindecemviri to read it publicly. (Fenestella, ap. Non. Marcell. p. 385, ed. Lips. 1 826.) The matter was then brought before the senate, and gave rise to long and intricate debates. The pre- tensions of Pompey were supported by several tribunes: Lentulus was backed by Hortensius and Lucullus. The high aristocratic party, led by Bibulus, leaned to a middle course, to send three ambassadors to Egypt. Cicero was boimd by gratitude to Lentulus ; by fear of another exile to Pompey ; and seems to have taken little active part in the matter. The proposition of Bibulus being rejected, the new consul, Marcellinus, ex- erted himself to procure the adjournment of the question sine die, and it rested till the year 55 li. c, when Gabinius got a law passed, without the authority of the senate, entrusting the coveted office to Pompey. (See Cic. to Lentulus, ad Fam. i., ad Q. Fr. ii. 2 and 6 ; Plut. Pomp. 49 ; Dion Cass, xxxix. 15, 16). Lentulus remained as pro- consul in Cilicia from B. c. 56 till July, 53, though Cato proposed to recall him. We hear little of his doings. He was saluted Imperator for a campaign in the Amanus, and Cicero warmly supported his claims to a triumph, which, however, he did not obtain till B. c. 51, when Cicero was himself in Cilicia. The orator praises his justice, but recom- mends him to make friends of the equites {publi- cani). (Cic. ad Fam. i. 5, &c., iii. 7, 3, pro Sext. 69 ; comp. Eckhel, vol. iv. p. 360, vol. v. p. 184.) That Cicero's praise was deserved appears from the fact that Lentulus was obliged to sell his villa at Tusculum soon after. {Ad Att. vi. 1. 20.) In B. c 49, when the civil wars began, Lentulus took part against Caesar, and had the command of 10 cohorts in Picenum. At the approach of the enemy, he fled and joined Domitius Ahenobarbus LENTULUS. 731 at Corfinium. When Caesar invested the place, and Pompey refused to come to their relief, Len- tulus was allowed by the garrison to open negotia- tions with Caesar. The general received him favourably, dismissed him with his friends, and took the troops into his own service. (Caes. B. C. i. 15 — 23.) Lentulus retired to Puteoli and pro- bably joined Pompey in Greece not long after. {Cc. ad Att. x. 11, 13, 15.) He shared in the presumption of his party, for we find him disputing with Metellus, Scipio, and Domitius, who had the best right to succeed Caesar as pontifex maximus. (Caes. B. C. iii. 83.) After Pharsalia, he followed Pompey to Egypt, and got safe to Rhodes. {Ad Fam. xii. 14 ; comp. Caes. B. C. iii. 102.) Of his subsequent fate we a.Te not informed. Lentulus Spinthei owes his importance chiefly to his high birth and his connection with Cicero. He was a common-place sort of man, of tolerable honesty. As an orator, he made up, by pains and industrjr, for the gifts that had been denied him by nature. (Cic. Brut. 77.) 21. P. Cornelius P. p. P. n. Lentulus Spinther, son of the last. (Cic. ad Fam. i. 7, xii. 15, ad Q. Fr. ii. 3, &c.) He assumed the toga virilis in B. c. 57, and therefore was born in 74. In the same year he was elected in the college of augurs, having been first received (by a sham adoption) into the Manlian gens ; because two of the same gens could not at once be in the college, and Faustus Sulla of the Cornelian Avas already a member. (Cic. pro Sext. 69 ; Dion Cass, xxxix. 17; comp. Vaill. Cornel. No. 48—51, Eckhel, vol. V. p. 184, &c.) In 56, when Cato endeavoured to recal his father from Cilicia, he appeared publicly in mourning. (Cic. ad Q. Fr. ii. 3, init.) He followed Pompey's fortunes with his father, and was supposed to have gone to Alexandria after the murder of their chief — perhaps to intercede with Caesar. {Ad Att. xi. 13.) The dictator pardoned him, and he returned to Italy. In b. c. 45 he was divorced from his abandoned wife, Metella. (He- rat. Serm. ii. 3. 339 ; Cic. ad Att. xi. 15, 23, xii. 52, xiii. 7.) Soon after we find him visiting Cicero, and in close connection with M. Brutus. After the murder of the dictator, he openly joined the conspirators. {Ad Att. xiii. 10, ad Fam. xii. 14, 4; Plut. Caes. 67, &c.) The senate sent him as proquaestor to C Trebonius, who held Asia as proconsul for the conspirators. When the latter was slain by Dolabella, Lentulus assumed the title of propraetor, and sent home a despatch containing an exaggerated account of his own services ; and he certainly was of use in supplying Cassius with money, and harassing Dolabella. (Cic. ad Fam. xii. 14, 15.) When Brutus and Cassius took the field, he joined them, and coined money in their name, with the figure and title of Libertas. (See the annexed coin.) He served with Cassius against Rhodes ; with Brutus in Lycia. (App. B. C iv. 72, 82.) After Philippi, he escaped death, for his name appears with the augurs' insignia on denariea