A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

AHENOBARBUS.
art. Among the many sayings recorded of both,
we are told that Crassus observed, "that it was no
wonder that a man had a beard of brass, who had
a mouth of iron and a heart of lead." (Plin. H. N.
xviii. 1; Suet. 1. c.; Val. Max. ix. 1. ~ 4; Macrob.
Sat. ii. 11.) Cicero says, that Domitius was not
to be reckoned among the orators, but that he
spoke well enough and had sufficient talent to
maintain his high rank. (Cic. Brut. 44.)
5. L. DOMITIUS CN. F. CN. N. AHENOBARBUS,
son of No. 3 and brother of No. 4, was praetor in
Sicily, probably in B. c. 96, shortly after the Servile war, when slaves had been forbidden to carry
arms. He ordered a slave to be crucified for killing a wild boar with a hunting spear. (Cic. Verr.
v. 3; Val. Max. vi. 3. ~ 5.) He was consul in
94. In the civil war between Marius and Sulla,
he espoused the side of the latter, and was murdered at Rome, by order of the younger Marius,
by the praetor Damasippus. (Appian, B. C. i. 88;
Vellei. ii. 26; Oros. v. 20.)
6. CN. DOMITIUS CN. F. CN. F. AHENOBARBUS,
apparently a son of No. 4, married Cornelia, daughter of L. Cornelius Cinna, consul in B. c. 87, and
in the civil war between Marius and Sulla espoused
the side of the former. When Sulla obtained the
supreme power in 82, Ahenobarbus was proscribed,
and fled to Africa, where he was joined by many
who were in the same condition as himself. With
the assistance of the Numidian king, Hiarbas, he:ollected an army, but was defeated near Utica by
Cn. Pompeius, whom Sulla had sent against him,
md was afterwards killed in the storming of his,amp, B. c. 81. According to some accounts, he
vas killed after the battle by command of Pompey.
ILiv. Epit. 89; Plut. Pomp. 10, 12; Zonaras, x. 2;
)ros. v. 21; Val. Max. vi. 2. ~ 8.)
7. L. DOMITIUS CN. F. CN. N. AHENOBARBUS,
on of No. 4, is first mentioned in B. c. 70 by
Micero, as a witness against Verres. In 61 he
vas curule aedile, when he exhibited a hundred
4umidian lions, and continued the games so long,
hat the people were obliged to leave the circus
efore the exhibition was over, in order to take
>od, which was the first time they had done so.
Dion Cass. xxxvii. 46; Plin. H. N. viii. 54; this
ause in the games was called diludium, Hor. Ep.
19. 47.) He married Porcia, the sister of M.
ato, and in his aedileship supported the latter in
is proposals against bribery at elections, which
ere directed against Pompey, who was purchasing
)tes for Afranius. The political opinions of Ahe)barbus coincided with those of Cato; he was
roughout his life one of the strongest supporters
the aristocratical party. He took an active part
opposing the measures of Caesar and Pompey
ter their coalition, and in 59 was accused by
Attius, at the instigation of Caesar, of being an
complice to the pretended conspiracy against the
o of Pompey.
Ahenobarbus was praetor in B. c. 58, and prosed an investigation into the validity of the
lian laws of the preceding year; but the senate
red not entertain his propositions. He was canlate for the consulship of 55, and threatened
it he would in his consulship carry into execun the measures he had proposed in his praetorp, and deprive Caesar of his province. Hie was
'eated, however, by Pompey and Crassus, who
Sbecame candidates, and was driven from the
mpus MIartins on the day of election by force of

AIlENOBARBUS. 85
arms. He became a candidate again in the following year, and Caesar and Pompey, whose power
was firmly established, did not oppose him. He
was accordingly elected consul for 54 with Ap.
Claudius Pulcher, a relation of Pompey, but was
not able to effect anything against Caesar and
Pompey. He did not go to a province at the expiration of his consulship; and as the friendship
between Caesar and Pompey cooled, he became
closely allied with the latter. In B. c. 52, he was
chosen by Pompey to preside, as quesitor, in the
court for the trial of Clodius. For the next two
or three years during Cicero's absence in Cilicia, our information about Ahenobarbus is principally derived from the letters of his enemy Coelius
to Cicero. In B. c. 50 he was a candidate for the
place in the college of augurs, vacant by the death
of Hortensius, but was defeated by Antony through
the influence of Caesar.
The senate appointed him to succeed Caesar in
the province of further Gaul, and on the march of
the latter into Italy (49), he was the only one of
the aristocratical party who shewed any energy or
courage. He threw himself into Corfinium with
about twenty cohorts, expecting to be supported by
Pompey; but as the latter did nothing to assist
him, he was compelled by his own troops to surrender to Caesar. His own soldiers were incorporated into Caesar's army, but Ahenobarbus was
dismissed by Caesar uninjured-an act of clemency
which he did not expect, and which he would certainly not have shewed, if he had been the conqueror. Despairing of life, he had ordered his
physician to administer to him poison, but the latter gave him only a sleeping draught. Ahenobarbus'
feelings against Caesar remained unaltered, but he
was too deeply offended by the conduct of Pompey
to join him immediately. He retired for a short
time to Cosa in Etruria, and afterwards sailed to
Massilia, of which the inhabitants appointed him
governor. He prosecuted the war vigorously
against Caesar; but the town was eventually taken,
and Ahenobarbus escaped in a vessel, which was
the only one that got off.
Ahenobarbus now went to Pompey in Thessaly,
and proposed that after the war all senators should
be brought to trial who had remained neutral
in it. Cicero, whom he branded as a coward, was
not a little afraid of him. He fell in the battle of
Pharsalia (48), where he commanded the left wing,
and, according to Cicero's assertion in the second
Philippic, by the hand of Antony. Ahenobarbus
was a man of great energy of character; he remained firm to his political principles, but was
little scrupulous in the means he employed to
maintain them. (The passages of Cicero in which
Ahenobarbus is mentioned are given in Orelli's
Onomasticon Tullianum; Suet. Ner. 2; Dion Cass.
lib. xxxix. xli.; Caes. Bell. Giv.)
8. CN. DonITIus L. F. CN. N. AHENOBARBUS,
son of the preceding, was taken with his father at
Corfinium (B. c. 49), and was present at the battle
of Pharsalia (48), but did not take any further
part in the war. He did not however return to
Italy till 46, when he was pardoned by Caesar. He probably had no share in the murder
of Caesar (44), though some writers expressly
assert that he was one of the conspirators; but he
followed Brutus into Macedonia after Caesar's
death, and was condemned by the Lex Pedia in
43 as one of the murderers of Caesar. In 42 he