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

PONTIA. PONTIUS. 495
POMPO'NIUS LABEO. [LABEO.] Martial, ii. 34, iv. 42. 5.) The scholiast on Juve.
POMPO'NIUS MARCELLUS. [MARcEL- nal states that she was the wife of P. (C.?) Pe.
LUS.] tronius, who was condemned as one of the conPOMPO'NIUS MELA. [MELA.] spirators against Nero; that having been convicted,
POMPO'N1US RUFUS. [RuFus.] after her husband's death, of destroying her own
POMPO'NIUS SABI'NUS. [SABINUS.] children by poison, she partook of a sumptuous
POMPO'NIUS SECUNDUS. [SECUNDUS.] banquet, and then put an end to her life by openPOMPOINIUS SILVA'NUS. [SILVANUS.] ing her veins. In an inscription published by
T. POMPO'NIUS VEIANTA'NUS, com- Gruter (p. 921. 6), recording this act of villany,
mander of some of the allied troops in Southern she is called the daughter of T. Pontius; but we
Italy in B. c. 213, ventured to attack Hanno, the may, with Heinrich (ad Juv. 1. c.), question the
Carthaginian general, was defeated and taken pri- genuineness of this inscription, as it was probably
soner. He had formerly been one of the publicani, manufactured out of this passage of Juvenal.
and had earned a bad character by cheating 2. PONTIA POSTUMIA, was slain by her lover,
both the state and the farmers of the revenue Octavius Sagitta, tribune of the plebs, A.D. 58,
with whom he was in partnership. (Liv. xxv. because she refused to marry him after promising
1, 3.) to do so. Sagitta was accused by the father of
POMPOSIA'NUS ME'TTIUS. [METTIUS.] Pontia, and condemned under the lex Cornelia de
C. POMPTI'NUS, is first mentioned in B.C. Sicariis to the severest form of banishment (de71, when he served as legate under M. Crassus, portatio in insulam). In the civil wars following
in the Servile war. (Frontirl. Strat. ii. 4. ~ 8.) the death of Nero, Sagitta returned from banishHe was praetor B. C. 63, in which year he ren- ment, but was again condemned by the senate, in
dered important service to Cicero in the suppres- A. D. 70, to his former punishment. (Tac. Ann. xiii.
sion of the Catilinarian conspiracy, especially by 44, Hist. iv. 44.)
the apprehension of the ambassadors of the Allo- PO'NTIA GENS, plebeian, was originally
broges. He afterwards obtained the province of Samnite. It never attained much eminence at
Gallia Narbonensis, and in B. c. 61 defeated the Rome during the republic, but under the empire
Allobroges, who had invaded the province. In some of its members were raised to the consulship.
consequence of this victory he sued for a triumph During the republican period AQUILA is the only
on his return to Rome; but as it was refused by cognomen borne by the Roman Pontii; but in the
the senate, he remained for some years beyond imperial times we find various surnames, of which
the pomoerium, urging his claim. At length, in an alphabetical list is given below, after PONTIUS,
B. C. 54, his friends made a final attempt to procure where the Samnite Pontii are also mentioned.
him the long-desired honour. He was opposed PONTIA'NUS. 1. Mentioned in one of
by the praetors, M. Cato and P. Servilius Isau- Cicero's letters (ad Att. xii. 44. ~ 2), appears to
ricus, and by the tribune Q. Mucius Scaevola, who have been a friend of Mustela, and to have been
urged that he was not entitled to the privilege, defended upon some occasion by Cicero.
because he had not received the imperium by a 2. P. AUFIDIUS PONTIANUS, of Amiternum,
lex curiata; but he was supported by the consul spoken of by Varro. (R. R. ii. 9. ~ 6.)
Appius, and by most of the praetors and tribunes; 3. SER. OCTAVIUS LAENAS PONTIANUS, consul
and as there was no hope of prevailing upon the A. D. 131, with M. Antonius Rufinus.
senate to grant the favour, his former legate, Serv. 4. PONTIANUS, consul suffectus in A.D. 135.
Sulpicius Galba, brought the matter before the 5. PRocvLUS PONTIANUS, consul A. D. 238.
people, and obtained from them a resolution, passed PO'NTICUS, a Roman poet, and a contempocontrary to law before daylight, in virtue of which rary of Ovid and Propertius, wrote an heroic
Pomptinus at length entered the city in triumph. poem on the Tlheban war, and hence is compared
(Sall. Cat. 45; Cic. in Cat. iii. 2, de Prov. Cons. to Homer by Propertius (Ovid, Trist. iv. 10. 47;
13, in Pison. 14, ad Att. iv. 16, v. 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, Propert. i. 7, i. 9. 26.)
10, 14, ad Q. Fr. iii. 4. ~ 6; Dion Cass. xxxvii. PONTI'DIA is mentioned twice in Cicero's
47, xxxix. 65; Liv. Epit. 103.) letters (ad Atlt. v. 21. ~ 14. vi. 1. ~ 10), from
In B.C. 51 Pomptinus accompanied Cicero as which it appears that Cicero had entered into
legate to Cilicia, but he did not remain there negotiations with her for the marriage of his
longer than a year, according to the stipulation he daughter Tullia to her son.
had previously made with Cicero. (Cic. ad Att. PONTI'DIUS. 1. C. PONTIDIUS, is mentioned
v. 21. ~ 9, vi. 3, ad Famr. ii. 15. ~ 4, iii. 10. ~ 3, by Velleius Paterculus (ii. 16) as one of the
xv. 4. ~ 9.) There is considerable variation in leaders in the Social or Marsic war, B. C. 90. There
the orthography of the name. We find him called can be no doubt that he is the same person as
Pomnptinius, Pomtinins, Pomtinus and Pontinius, Appian calls (B. C. i. 40) C. Pontilius; and as the
as well as Ponmptinus, which seems the preferable name of Pontidius occurs elsewhere, the orthoform. graphy in Velleius seems preferable.
PO'MPYLUS (IIou7rvn os), a slave of Theo- 2. M. PONTIDIUS, of Arpinunm, was an orator
phrastus, who also became celebrated as a philo- of some distinction, speaking with fluency, and
sopher. (Diog. LaiSrt. v. 36; Gell. ii. 18; Macrob. acute in the management of a case, but vehement
Sat. i. 11.) and passionate (Cic. Brut. 70, comp. de Orat.
PONNA'NUS, the author of an epigram in the ii. 68.)
Latin Anthology (No. 539, ed. Meyer) on a TI. PONTIFI'CIUS, a tribune of the plebs,
picture respecting the death of Cleopatra, but of B. C. 480, attempted to introduce an agrarian law.
whom nothing is known. (Liv. ii. 44.)
PO'NTIA. 1. A woman in the reign of Nero, PONTI;LIUS. [PONTIDIus, No. 1.]
who obtained an infamous notoriety as the mur- PONTI'NIUS. [POMPTINUS.]
derer of her own children (Juv. vi. 638, &c.; PO'NTIUS. 1. A friend of Scipio Africanus