Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1177

Rh TORQUATUS. 13. T. Manlius ToRQtTA-TUs, probably a son of No. 12, is spoken of by Cicero in his oration for Deiotarus, B.C. 45, as "optiraus adolescens." He appears to be the same person as the Torquatus who is mentioned by Cicero two or three times in his correspondence with Atticus in that year, from which we learn that he was augur. He was quaes- tor of Pansa in B.C. 43. (Cic. ;)ro Deiot. W^ad Ait. xiii. 20, 21, xii. 17 ; Appian, B.C. iii. 69, 76 ; Pseudo-Brut, ad Cic. i. 6.) 14. L, Manlius L. f. Torquatus, was consul B. c. 65 with L. Aurelius Cotta. Torquatus and Cotta obtained the consulship in consequence of the condemnation, on account of bribery, of P. Cor- nelius Sulla and P. Autronius Paetus, who had been already elected consuls. It is stated by Dion Cassius (xxxvi, 27) that Cotta and his colleague accused the consuls elect ; but it appears from Cicero (de Fin. ii. 19, pro Sull. 17, 18) that this is a mistake, and that it was the younger Tor- quatus [No. 15] who brought the accusation against Sulla and Paetus. Before Torquatus and Cotta entered upon the consulship, the hrst Catilinarian conspiracy, as it is called, was formed, in which Sulla and Paetus are said to have united with Catiline for the purpose of assassinating the con- suls on the 1st of January. This conspiracy, how- ever, failed. At this time and during his consulship Torquatus was in ciose connection with Hortensius, and he did not consult Cicero on any matters, although the latter was then praetor, and was very intimate with the younger Torquatus. (Cic. pro Sull. 4.) Notwithstanding this attempt, upon his life, Torquatus defended Catiline in the course of the same year when he was accused of extortion {de repetundis) in his province. After his consul- ship Torquatus obtained the province of Macedonia, where he performed some exploits ; in consequence of which the senate, upon the motion of Cicero, conferred upon him the title of imperator. During Cicero's consulship, B. c. 63, he took an active part in suppressing the Catilinarian conspiracy, although he was then out of health. He also supported Cicero, when he was banished in B.C. 58, and interceded in vain on his behalf with the consul Piso. He is not mentioned again, and probably died soon afterwards. Cicero speaks of him {Brut. 68) as ^'elegans in dicendo, in existimando admo- dura prudens, toto genere perurbanus ;" and as he belonged to the aristocratical party, the orator praises his gravitas, sandiias, and constaiitia. (Dion Cass, xxxvi. 27 ; Sail. Cat. 18; Li v. Epit. 101 ; Cic. de Div. i. 12, de Leg. Agr. ii. 17, pro Sull. 4, 10, 12, 29, ad Att. xii. 21, in Pison. 19, 20, 31.) 15. L. Manlius Torquatus, son of No. 13, accused of bribery, in b. c. 66, the consuls elect, P. Cornelius Sulla and P. Autronius Paetus, as is re- lated above, and thus secured the consulship for his father. He was closely connected with Cicero during the praetorship (b. c. Qb) and consulship (b. c. 63) of the latter. In b. c. 62 he brought a second accusation against P. Sulla, whom he now charged with having been a party to both of Cati- line's conspiracies. Sulla was defended by Hor- tensius and by Cicero in a speech which is still extant, and through the eloquence of his advocates, and the support of the aristocratical party, he ob- tained a verdict in his favour. In B. c. 54 Tor- quatus defended Gabinius when he was accused by Sulla. Torquatus, like his father, belonged to the Hristocratical party, and accordingly opposed Caesar TORQUATUS. 1165 on the breaking out of the civil war in B. c. 49. He was praetor in that year, and was stationed at Alba with six cohorts ; but on the fall of Corfi- niura he abandoned Alba and his soldiers went over to Caesar. He subsequently joined Pompey in Greece. In the following year (b. c. 48) he had the command of Oricum intrusted to him, but was obliged to surrender both himself and the town to Caesar, who, with his usual magnanimity, dis- missed Torquatus uninjured. Torquatus, however, forthwith joined Pompey, and fought under him against Caesar at Dyrrhachium ( Oros. v. 15). After the battle of Pharsalia he went to Africa, and upon the defeat of his party in that country, in B. c. 46, he attempted to escape to Spain along with Scipio and others, but was taken prisoner by P. Sittius at Hippo Regius and slain together with his companions. (Cic. pro Sull. 1, 8, 10, 12, ad Att. iv. 16. § 11, ad Q. Fr. iii. 3. § 2, ad Ait. vii. 12, 23, ix. 8 ; Caes. B. C. i. 24, iii. 11 ; Hirt. B. Afr. 96 ; Oros. vi. 16, where he is erroneously called Titus.) Torquatus was well acquainted with Greek literature, and is praised by Cicero as a man well trained in every kind of learning. Although he expressed himself with elegance and force, he was not much of an orator. He belonged to the Epicurean school of philosophy, of which he was one of the most distinguished disciples at that time at Rome ; and he is introduced by Cicero as the advocate of that school in his dialogue DeFinihus, the first book of which is called Torquatus in Cicero's letters to Atticus. (Cic. Brut. 76, de Fin. i. 5, ad Att. xiii. 5,, 32.) 16. Manlius Torquatus, the legatus of Pom- pey in the war against the pirates in a. c. 67 (Ap- pian, Mithr. 95), was probably the same as one of the preceding persons, but we have no means of determining which. 17. Torquatus, to whom Horace addresses two of his poems {Carm. iv. 7, Sat. i. 5), probably did not belong to the Manila gens, but was the same person as C. Nonius Asprenas. [Nonius, No. 8.] There are several coins bearing the name of L. Manlius Torquatus, who was the proquaestor of Sulla, as we learn from one of the coins. The spe- cimen annexed has on the obverse the head of Rome, encircled with a torques or chain [see No. 1], and on the reverse a man riding a horse at full gallop, with the legend L. torqva. (q.) ex s. c. (Eckhel, vol. v. p. 244.) coin of l. Manlius torquatus. TORQUA'TUS, NO'NIUS ASPRE'NAS. [Nonius, No. 8.] TORQUATUS, NOVE'LLIUS, of Medio- lanum (Milan), lived in the reign of Claudius, and obtained the surname of Tricongius by drinking three congii of wine at once, that is, nearly eighteen English pints ! (Plin. //. A^. xiv. 22. s. 28.) TORQUA TUS SILA'NUS. [Silanus, Nos. 11, 15.1