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

1122 MURENA. MURENA.
Tyrannio was made prisoner, and he was given to Early in the month of December following Cicero
Murena at his request, who thereupon made him moved in the senate the question of punishing the
free, by which act it was implied that he had been conspirators who had been seized. Silanus, who
a slave. Plutarch (Lucull. 19) blames Murena for was first asked his opinion, was for putting them
his conduct in this matter, and adds that it was to death, and Murena ultimately voted the same
not in this instance only that Murena showed way (Cic. ad Att. xii. 21). The consulship of
himself far inferior to his general in honourable Silanus and Murena was a stormy period, owing
feeling and conduct. Murena followed Tigranes to the agitation of Q. Metellus Nepos, who wished
in his retreat from Tigranocerta to the Taurus, and for the return of Pompeius to oppose the party of
took all his baggage, and he was left to maintain the Optimates. The disturbances in Rome grew
the siege of Tigranocerta while Lucullus marched so high that the senate empowered the consuls in
from before that city to check Tigranes, who was the usual form to preserve the safety of the comagain in sight of Tigranocerta with a large army. monwealth. Cato, who was a colleague of Metellus,
He returned to Rome before the end of the war, was opposed to the consuls, but Murena protected
and was one of ten commissioners who were sent him in an affray (Plut. Cat. Min. 28). In this
out to settle affairs in the countries conquered by consulship was passed the Lex Licinia Junia,
Lucullus. (Cic. ad Att. xiii. 6.) In B. C. 65, he which enacted that a lex should be promulgated
was praetor with Serv. Sulpicius, and had the for three nundinae before the people voted upon it.
jurisdictio, while Sulpicius had the unpopular There is no mention of Murena having a province'function of presiding at the quaestio peculatus after his consulship, and nothing more is said about
(Cic. pro Muren. 20). Murena expended con- him.
siderable sums on the public exhibitions (ludi His stepson, L. Natta, was the son of Murena's
Apollinares), which he had to superintend during wife by a previous husband, probably one Pinarius
his office. (Plin. H. N. xxxiii. 3; Cic. pro [Muren. Natta, as Drumann shows (vol. ii. p. 370).
18, 19.) After his praetorship (B. C. 64). he was 6. C. LICINIUS MURENA, the brother of No. 5,
propraetor of Gallia Cisalpina, where his brother and his legatus in Cisalpine Gallia, which he adCaius served under him, and he settled the disputes ministered in the year after his brother's adminisbetween, debtor and creditor in a satisfactory and tration, and seized some of the band of Catiline
equitable way, as Cicero says. (Sall. B. C. 42), before the defeat and death of
In B.c. 63 he was a candidate for the consulship, their leader.
and was elected with D. Junius Silanus. Serv. 7. A. TERENTIUS VARRO M URENA, was adopted
Sulpicius, an unsuccessful candidate, instituted a by A. Terentius Varro, whose name he took, acprosecution against Murena for bribery (ambitus), cording to the custom in such cases. Drumann
and he was supported in the matter by M. Porcius conjectures that he was the son of the consul, which
Cato, Cn. Postumius, and' Serv.' Sulpicius the seems probable. In the civil wars he is said to
younger (Plut. Cat. Min. 21, Cic. 35, and the have lost his property, and that C. Proculeius, a
oration of Cicero for Murena). Murena was de- Roman eques, gave him a share of his own profended by Q. Hortensius, M. Tullius Cicero, who perty. This Proculeius is called the brother of
was then consul, and M. Licinius Crassus. The Varro, but, if we take the words of Horace literally
speech of Clcero, which is extant, is of the same (Carm. ii. 2), Proculeius had more than one
class as his later speech in defence of Cn. Plancius, brother. Drumann conjectures that this Proculeius.
who was also tried for ambitus. The. time when was a son of C. Licinius Murena, the brother of
the speech for Murena was delivered is shown by the consul, who had been adopted by one Pro.the fact that Catiline had then left the city, but the culeius. This would make Proculeius the cousin
conspirators who remained behind had not been of Varro. It was common enough among the
punished * it was therefore delivered in the latter Romans to call cousins by the name of brothers
part of November of the unreformed calendar. (frater patruelis, and frater).
The orator handled his subject skilfully, by making Murena was sent by Augustus, in B. C. 25, to.
merry with the formulae and the practice of the attack the Salassi in the Alps: he reduced the
lawyers, to which class Sulpicius belonged, and with people to obedience, sold the male prisoners for
the paradoxes of the Stoics, to which sect Cato had slaves, and the chief part of the territory Was
attached himself. Yet he did not attack the cha- distributed among Praetorian soldiers, who founded
racter and motives of either Sulpicius or Cato, the town of Augusta, now Aosta, in the province
which would have been injurious to his client, for of Aosta, one of the eight divisions of the conboth the prosecutors were men above suspicion. tinental dominion of the king of Sardinia (Dion
But he defended the private character of Murena Cass. liii. 25; Strab. p. 206, ed. Casaub.). Murena
against the imputations that had been cast on him, was named consul suffectus for B. c. 23.- In B. C.
and he represents him as a man of merit in his 22 he was involved in the conspiracy of Fannius
public and private capacity, and with more virtues Caepio, and was condemned to death and executed,
than we can readily give him credit for. As in notwithstanding the intercession of Proculeius and
the oration for Cn. Plancius he says comparatively Terentia, the sister of Murena. Dion Cassius
little on the main charge, which, indeed, it was the (liv. 3), when speaking of the death of Murena,
business of the prosecutors to prove; and he rather calls him Licinius Murena, though. he had already
labours to show that there were sufficient reasons (liii. 25) called him Terentius Varro. Such confor his election without supposing that he had pur- fusion is common enough with the Roman writers,
chased votes. He shows that under present cir- when they are speaking of adopted persons.
cumstances, with Catiline at the head of an army Horace (Carm. ii. 10) addresses Murena by the
in the field, and his associates in the city, it was name of Licinius, and probably intended to give
necessary to have a vigorous consul to protect the him some advice as to being more cautious in
state in the coming year. Murena was acquitted. his speech and conduct.
(Plut. Cat. Min. 21.) The authorities for the. Licinii Murenae are