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

708 LAENAS. )LAERTES.
his brilliant career by a fourth consulship, a. c. he passed the bill that those magistrates who had
348. condemned a citizen without trial should be called
2. M. POPILLIUS, M. F. M. N. LAENAS, consul to account. Popillius withdrew himself, by volun.
B.C. 316. (Liv. ix. 21.) tary exile, from the vengeance of Gracchus, and
3. M. PoPILLIUS P. F. P. N. LAENAS, one of the did not return to Rome till after his death. (Vell.
tribunes for establishing a colony near Pisae (Liv. xl. Pat. ii. 7; Cic. Brut. 25; Plut. T. Gracch. 20.)
43), was chosen praetor B.C. 176 (Liv. xli. 18), but 8. C. POPILLIUS LAENAS, the son of the preobtained leave to stop at Rome instead of going ceding, is mentioned, as well as his father, by
into his province, Sardinia, the command of which Cicero (Brut. 25), as an eloquent speaker. Perhaps
was continued to the pro-praetor, Aebutius. Po- he is the same C. Popillius who is spoken of by
pillius was chosen consul B. c. 172, and sent with Cicero ( Verr. i. 13) as being convicted for embezan army against the Ligurian mountaineers. He zlement (peculatus).
conquered them in a pitched battle, after great 9. C. POPILLIUS (LAENAS?), served as legate
slaughter. The remainder of the whole tribe who in Asia, and commanded, along with Minucius
had escaped from the carnage determined on sur- Rufus, a Roman fleet in the war with Mithridates.
rendering themselves to the mercy of the Roman (Appian, Mith. 17.)
general; but they were all sold as slaves, and their 10. P. POPILLIUS LAENAS, tribune of the people
city plundered and destroyed. When this news B. C. 85, a furious partisan of Marius, had his prereached Rome, the senate disapproved of Popillius's decessor, Lucilius, thrown down from the Tarpeian
proceedings, and decreed, in spite of his haughty rock, and his colleagues banished. (Vell. Pat. ii.
and angry remonstrances, that he should restore 24.)
the Ligurians to liberty, to their country, and, as 11. POPILLIUS LAENAS, a senator who uninfar as possible, to their property. Popillius, how- tentionally frightened Brutus and his fellow-conever, acted in direct opposition to this decree. On spirators by his confidential conversation with
his return to Rome he was called to account, but Caesar in the senate on the day Caesar was murescaped through the influence of his family. (Liv. dered. (Appian, B. C. ii. 115, 116.)
xlii. 22.) Nevertheless, Popillius obtained (B. C. 12. C. POPILLIUS LAENAS, the military tribune
159) the most honourable office of Rome, that of who executed on Cicero the sentence of the triumcensor, which he exercised, as may be presumed, virs in cutting off his head and right hand, for
with vigour and severity. (Fast. Capitol.; Liv. which he was rewarded by Antonius with 1,000,000
Epit. 47; Gell. iv. 20; Nonius, s. v. Strigosus.) sesterces above the stipulated price. (Appian,
4. P. POPILLIUS LAENAS, brother to the pre- B. C. iv. 19.) [W. I.]
ceding, and with him triumvir coloniae deducendae. M. LAE'NIUS, or LE'NIUS FLACCUS, a
(Liv. xl. 43.) friend of Atticus, who, notwithstanding the strin5. C. POPILLIUS, P. F. P. N. LAENAS, brother gent edict of Clodius, B. C. 58 (" Lex Clodia in.
to the two preceding ones, was consul (B. C. Ciceronem," Pseud. Cic. pro Dom.. 17), sheltered
172) in the year after his brother Marcus had so Cicero in his country-house near Brundisium, until
shamefully treated the Ligurians. He supported he could securely embark for Epeirus. The father,
his brother, and warded off his punishment. He brother, and sons of Laenius were equally earnest
was the first plebeian consul who had a plebeian in befriending the exile. Laenius afterwards, B. C.
for a colleague (Fast. Capitol.); and he served 5l, met Cicero in Asia Minor, and applied to him
afterwards as legate in Greece. (Liv. xliii. 19, 24.) for a sub-prefecture in Cilicia, where Laenius, had
The haughtiness of his character is most apparent money at interest. Cicero, however, refused to
in his behaviour as ambassador to Antiochus, king gratify him, since he had made a rule to grant no
of Syria, whom the senate wished to abstain from money-lender (negotianti) office in his province.
hostilities against Egypt. Antiochus was just Yet in the same year, and for a similar purpose, he
marching upon Alexandria when he was met by highly recommended Laenius to P. Silius Nerva,
the three Roman ambassadors. Popillius trans- pro-praetor in Bithynia and Pontus. (Cic. pro:mitted to him the letter of the senate, which Anti- Plane. 41, ad Fanz. xiii. 63, xiv. 4, ad Alt, v. 20,
ochus read and promised to take into consideration 21, vi. 1, 3.)
with his friends. Then Popillius described with LAE'NIUS, STRABO. [STRABO.]
his cane a circle in the sand round the king, and LAERCES (Aaeppciar), a mythical artist in
ordered him not to stir out of it before he had given gold, mentioned by Homer, in a passage from
a decisive answer. This boldness so frightened which we learn that it was the custom, in offering
Antiochlus, that he at once yielded to the demand a sacrifice of the greatest solemnity, to gild the
of Rome. (Liv. xlv. 12; Polyb. Exe. Legat. 92; horns of the victim. (Hom. Od. iii. 425; see also
Val. Max. vi. 4; Vell. Pat. i. 10; App. Syr. 13].) Nitzsch's note and the Scholia.) [P. S.]
C. Popillius was consul a second time B. C. 158. LAERTES (AapT71rs), a son of Acrisius and
6. M. POPILLIUS, M. F. P. N. LAENAS, the son Chalcomedusa, and husband of Anticleia, by whom
of No, 3, was consul B. C. 139, and, as pro-consul he became the father of Odysseus and Ctimene.
in the following year, suffered a defeat from the (Hom. Od. iv. 755, xi. 85, xv. 362, xvi. 118;
Numantines. (Liv. Epit. 55; Frontin. Stratey. Eustath. ad Horn. p. 1791.) It should, however,
iii. 17; App. Hisp. 79.) be remembered that, according to others, Odysseus
7. P. POPILLIUS, C. F. P. N. LAENAS, was consul was the son of Sisyphus. (Hygin.'Oab. 201; Schol.
B. C. 132, the year after the murder of Tib. Grac- ad Sop/h. P/siloct. 417.) In his youth Laertes had
chus. He was charged by the victorious aristo- conquered Nericum, a coast town in Cephalenia
cratical party with the prosecution of the accomplices (Hom. Od. xxiv. 376), and he is also said to have
of Gracchus; and in this odious task he showed all taken part in the Calydonian hunt, and in the exthe hard-heartedness of his family. (Cml. Lael. 20; pedition of the Argonauts. (Hygin. Fab. 173;
Val, Max. iv. 7; Plut. T. Gracch. 20.) C. Grac- Apollod. i. 9. ~ 16.) At the time when Odysseus
chus afterwards aimed at him in particular, when returned from Troy, Laertes lived in rural retire