Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/507

Rh PONTIA. POMPO'NIUS LABEO. [Labeo.] POMPO'NIUS MARCELLUS. [Marcel- LUS.] POMPO'NIUS MELA. [Mela.] POMPO'NIUS RUFUS. [Rupus.] POMPO'NIUS SABFNUS. [Sabinus.] POMPO'NIUS SECUNDUS. [Secundus.] POMPO'NIUS SILVA'NUS. [Silvanus.] T. POMPO'NIUS VEIANTA'NUS, com- mander of some of the allied troops in Southern Italy in B. c. 213, ventured to attack Hanno, the Carthaginian general, was defeated and taken pri- soner. He had formerly been one of the publicani, and had earned a bad character by cheating both the state and the farmers of the revenue with whom he was in partnership. (Liv. xxv. 1, 3.) POMPOSIA'NUS ME'TTIUS. [Mettius.] C. POMPTI'NUS, is first mentioned in B.C. 71, when he served as legate under M. Crassus, in the Servile war. (Frontin. Strat. ii. 4. § 8.) He was praetor B. c. 63, in which year he ren- dered important service to Cicero in the suppres- sion of the Catilinarian conspiracy, especially by the apprehension of the ambassadors of the Allo- broges. He afterwards obtained the province of Gallia Narbonensis, and in B. c. 61 defeated the Allobroges, who had invaded the province. In consequence of this victory he sued for a triumph on his return to Rome ; but as it was refused by the senate, he remained for some years beyond the pomoerium, urging his claim. At length, in B. c. 54, his friends made a final attempt to procure him the long-desired honour. He was opposed by the praetors, M. Cato and P. Servilius Isau- ricus, and by the tribune Q. Mucins Scaevola, who urged that he was not entitled to the privilege, because he had not received the imperium by a lex curiata ; but he was supported by the consul Appius, and by most of the praetors and tribunes ; and as there was no hope of prevailing upon the senate to grant the favour, his former legate, Serv. Sulpicius Galba, brought the matter before the people, and obtained from them a resolution, passed contrary to law before daylight, in virtue of which Pomptinus at length entered the city in triumph. (Sail. Cat. 45 ; Cic. in Cat. iii. 2, de Frov. Cons. 13, in Pison. 14, ad Att. iv. 16, v. 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 14, ad Q. Fr. iii. 4. § 6 ; Dion Cass, xxxvii. 47, xxxix. 65 ; Liv. Epit. 103.) In B.C. 51 Pomptinus accompanied Cicero as legate to Cilicia, but he did not remain there longer than a year, according to the stipulation he had previously made with Cicero. (Cic. ad Att. V. 21. §9, vi. 3, ad Fam. ii. 15. § 4, iii. 10. § 3, XV. 4. § 9.) There is considerable variation in the orthography of the name. We find him called Fomptinius, Fomtinitis, Fomtinus and Fontinius, as well as Fomptinus, which seems the preferable form. PO'MPYLUS {UofitriXos), a slave of Theo- phrastus, who also became celebrated as a philo- sopher. (Diog. Laert. v. 36 ; Gall. ii. 18 ; Macrob. Sat. i. 11.) PONNA'NUS, the author of an epigram in the Latin Anthology (No. 539, ed. Meyer) on a picture respecting the death of Cleopatra, but of whom nothing is known. PO'NTIA. 1. A woman in the reign of Nero, who obtained an infamous notoriety as ihe mur- derer of her own children (Juv. vi. 638, &c..; PONTIUS. A95 Martial, ii. 34, iv. 42. 5.) The scholiast on Juve- nal states that she was the wife of P. (C?) Pe- tronius, who was condemned as one of the con- spirators against Nero ; that having been convicted, after her husband's death, of destroying her own children by poison, she partook of a sumptuous banquet, and then put an end to her life by open- ing her veins. In an inscription published by Gruter (p. 921. 6), recording this act of villany, she is called the daughter of T. Pontius ; but we may, with Heinrich (ad Juv. I. c), question the genuineness of this inscription, as it was probably manufactured out of this passage of Juvenal. 2. PoNTiA PosTUMiA, was slain by her lover, Octavius Sagitta, tribune of the plebs, a.d. 58, because she refused to marry him after promising to do so. Sagitta was accused by the father of Pontia, and condemned under the lex Cornelia de Sicariis to the severest form of banishment {de- portatio in insidam). In the civil wars following the death of Nero, Sagitta returned from banish- ment, but was again condemned by the senate, in A. D. 70, to his former punishment. (Tac. Jww. xiii. 44. Hist. iv. 44.) PO'NTIA GENS, plebeian, was originally Samnite. It never attained much eminence at Rome during the republic, but under the empire some of its members were raised to the consulship. During the republican period Aquila is the only cognomen borne by the Roman Pontii ; but in the imperial times we find various surnames, of which an alphabetical list is given below, after Pontius, where the Samnite Pontii are also mentioned. PONTIA'NUS. 1. Mentioned in one of Cicero's letters {ad Att. xii. 44. § 2), appears to have been a friend of Mustela, and to have been defended upon some occasion by Cicero. 2. P. AuFiDius PoNTiANUS, of Amitemum, spoken of by Varro. {R.R. ii. 9. § 6.) 3. Ser. Octavius Laenas Pontianus, consul A. D. 1 31, with M. Antonius Rufinns. 4. Pontianus, consul suffectus in a.d. 135. 5. Proculus Pontianus, consul a.d. 238. PO'NTICUS, a Roman poet, and a contempo- rary of Ovid and Propertius, wrote an heroic poem on the Theban war, and hence is compared to Homer by Propertius (Ovid, Trist. iv. 10. 47 ; Propert. i. 7, i. 9. 26.) PONTI'DIA is mentioned twice in Cicero's letters {ad Att. v. 21. § 14. vi. 1. § 10), from which it appears that Cicero had entered into negotiations with her for the marriage of his daughter TuUia to her son. PONTI'DIUS. 1. C. PoNTiDius, is mentioned by Velleius Paterculus (ii. 16) as one of the leaders in the Social or Marsic war, B. c. 90. There can be no doubt that he is the same person a& Appian calls {B. C. i. 40) C. Pontilius ; and as the name of Pontidius occurs elsewhere, the ortho- graphy in Velleius seems preferable. 2. M. Pontidius, of Arpinum, was an orator of some distinction, speaking with fluency, and acute in the management of a case, but velieraent and passionate (Cic Brvi. 70, comp. de Orut. ii. 68.) TI. PONTIFI'CIUS, a tribune of the plebs, B. c. 480, attempted to introduce an agrarian law. (Liv. ii. 44.) PONTI'LIUS. [Pontidius, No. 1.] PONTI'NIUS. [P0MPTINU.S.] PO'NTIUS. 1. A friend of Scipio Africanus