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

664 CENSORINUS.
god had a temple. (Apollod. ii. 7. ~ 7; Ov. Met.
ix. 136.) [L. S.]
CE'NCHRIAS (Ke-yxptas), a son of Poseidon
and Peirene, was killed accidentally by Artemis.
He and his brother Leches were believed to have
given their names to Cenchreae and Lechaeum,
the two port-towns of Corinth. (Paus. ii. 2. ~ 3,
3. ~ 3, 24. ~ 8.) [L. S.]
CENSORI'NUS, the name of a plebeian family
of the Marcia gens. The name of this family was
originally Rutilus, and the first member of it who
acquired the name of Censorinus, was C. Marcius
Rutilus [No. 1, below], who is said in the Capitoline Fasti to have received this surname in his
second censorship, B. c. 265. Niebuhr, however,
remarks (Hist. of Rome, iii. p. 556), that this
statement is doubtful, as he might have derived it
from the circumstance of his father having first
gained for the plebs a share in this dignity.
1. C. MARCIUS C. F. L. N. RUTILUS CENSORINUS, was the son of C. Marcius Rutilus, the
first plebeian dictator (B. c. 356) and censor (B. c.
351). He was consul in B. c. 310 with Q. Fabius
Maximus, and while his colleague was engaged in
his brilliant campaign in Etruria, Rutilus conducted the war in Samnium and took the town of
Allifae. He afterwards fought a battle with the
Samnites, in which he was probably defeated; for
the statement of Livy, that the battle was a drawn
one, is almost outweighed by his confession, that
the consul himself was wounded and a legate and
several tribunes of the soldiers killed. (Liv. ix.
33, 38; Diod. xx. 27.)
On the admission of the plebs to the priestly
colleges by the Ogulnian law in B. c. 300, by
which also the number of their members was increased, Rutilus was elected one of the pontiffs.
(Liv. x. 9.) He was censor with P. Cornelius
Arvina in 294 (Liv. x. 47), and a second time
with Cn. Cornelius Blasio in 265, the only instance in which a person held the office of censor
twice.. It is mentioned above that he is said to
have received the surname of Censorinus in this
honour. After his election Rutilus rebuked the
people for having conferred this dignity upon him
again, and brought forward a law enacting that no
one in future should be eligible to this office a
second time. (Liv. Epit. 16; Eutrop. ii. 18; Val.
Max. iv. 1. ~ 3; Plut. Coriol. 1.)
2. L. MARcIus C. F. C. N. CENSORINUS, consul
with M'. Manilius in B. c. 149, the first year of
the third Punic war. Both consuls were ordered
to proceed to Carthage: the command of the army
was entrusted to Manilius, and that of the fleet to
Censorinus. In the negotiations between the
consuls and Carthaginians which preceded actual
hostilities, and of which Appian has given us a
detailed account, Censorinus acted as spokesman
because he was the better orator. After the Carthaginians had refused compliance with the commands of the Romans, who required them to
abandon Carthage and build another town not less
than ten miles from the sea, the consuls formally
laid siege to the city; but Censorinus was compelled shortly afterwards to return to Rome in
order to hold the comitia, leaving the conduct of
the siege in the hands of his colleague. (Appian,
Pun. 75-90, 97-99; Liv. Epit. 49; Flor. ii.
15; Eutrop. iv. 10; Oros. iv. 22; Vell. Pat. i.
S3; Zonar. ix. p. 463; Cic. Brut. 15, 27, ad Att.
xii. 5,) Censorinus was censor in B. c. 147, with

CENSORINITS.
L. Cornelius Lehttilus Lupus. (Val. Max. vi. 9.
~ 10.)
It was to this Censorinus that the philosopher
Cleitomachus dedicated one of his works. (Cic.
Acad. ii. 32.)
3. C. MARCIUS CENSORINUs, one of the leading
men of the Marian party, is first mentioned as the
accuser of Sulla on his return from Asia in B. c.
91. (Plut. Sull. 5.) He entered Rome together
with Marius and Cinna in B. c. 87, and took a
leading part in the massacres which then ensued.
It was Censorinus who killed the consul Octavius,
the first victim of the proscription; he cut off his
head and carried it to Cinna, who commanded it to
be hung up on the rostra. Censorinus shared in
the vicissitudes of the Marian party, and took an
active part in the great campaign of B. c. 82, which
established the supremacy of Sulla. He had the
command of one of the Marian armies, and is first
mentioned as suffering a defeat from Pompey near
Sena. He was afterwards sent with eight legions
by the consul Carbo to relieve the younger Marius,
who was kept besieged at Praeneste; but on his
march thither, he was attacked from an ambush
by Pompey, and was compelled after considerable
loss to take refuge on. a neighbouring hill. His
men, believing him to be the cause of their defeat,
deserted him in a body, with the exception of
seven cohorts, with which miserable remnant he
was compelled to return to Carbo. When Carbo
shortly afterwards abandoned Italy in despair,
Censorinus united his forces with those of Brutus
Damasippus and Carrinas, and these three generals,
after an ineffectual attempt to force the passes of
Praeneste with the object of relieving the town,
marched towards Rome, hoping to take the city as
it was destitute of men and provisions. Sulla,
however, hastened after them, and a dreadful
battle was fought near the Colline gate, which
ended in the total defeat of the Marian army.
Censorinus and Carrinas took to flight, but were
overtaken and brought back to Sulla, who commanded them to be put to death, and their heads
to be cut off and carried round the walls of Praeneste to inform Marius of the fate of his friends.
(Appian, B. C. i. 71, 88, 90, 92, 93.) Censorinus is spoken of by Cicero as one of the orators
of his time, and as tolerably well versed in Greek
literature. (Brut. 67, 90.)
4. (MAntcus) CENSORINUS, one of the friends
of Q. Cicero in Asia, B. c. 59 (Cic. ad Q. Fr. i. 2.
~ 4), may possibly be the same as the following.
5. L. MAtcIus L. F. C. N. CENSORINUS, a violent partizan of M. Antony, and one of the praetors in B. c. 43. (Cic. Phil. xi. 5, 14, xiii. 2,
duo praetores, xii. 8; comp. Garaton. ad xii. 8.)
When Antony passed over into Asia after arranging the affairs of Greece in B. c. 41, he left Censorinus governor of the province. (Plit. Anton. 24.)
His adherence to Antony procured him the consulship in 39 (Dion Cass. xlviii. 34), and we learn from
the Triumphal Fasti, that he obtained a triumph
for some successes he had gained in Macedonia,
which must consequently have been his province.
6. C. MARCIus L. F. L. N. CENSORINUS, son of
No. 5, was consul in B. c. 8 (Dion Cass. lv. 5;
Plin. H. AN. xxxiii. 10. s. 47; Censorin. 22; Sueton. Vit. lIorat.; Lapis Ancyranus), and seems to
have obtained subsequently the government of
Syria, from the way in which he is mentioned by
Josephus (Ant. xvi. 6. ~ 2) in the decree of Augus