Lucius Cornelius Balbus (consul 40 BC)
Lucius Cornelius Balbus (fl. 1st century BC) was born in Gades early in the first century BC. Lucius Cornelius Balbus was a wealthy Roman politician and businessman of Punic origin and a native of Gades in Hispania, who played a significant role in the emergence of the Principate at Rome. He was a prominent supporter of Julius Caesar and a close advisor to the emperor Augustus.
Biography
He served in
Sertorius. For his services against Sertorius, Roman citizenship was conferred upon him and his family by Pompey. He accompanied Pompey on his return to Rome in 71 BC, and was for a long time one of his most intimate friends. He also gained the friendship of Julius Caesar, who placed great confidence in him. Balbus' personal friendships with Pompey and Caesar were instrumental in the formation of the First Triumvirate. He was a chief financier in Rome. Balbus served under Caesar as chief engineer (praefectus fabrum) when Caesar was propraetor to Hispania in 61 BC, and proconsul to Gaul
in 58 BC.
His position as a naturalized foreigner, his influence, and his wealth naturally made Balbus many enemies, who in 56 BC put up a native of Gades to prosecute him for illegally assuming the rights of a Roman citizen, a charge directed against the triumvirs equally with himself.
Hirtius, Oppius, and Sulpicus Rufus on the night after his famous crossing over the Rubicon river into Italy, which took place on January 10, 49 BC.[3] He endeavored to get Cicero to mediate between Caesar
and Pompey, with the object of preventing him from definitely siding with the latter, and Cicero admits that he was dissuaded from doing so, against his better judgement.
Balbus attached himself to Caesar, and, in conjunction with
Suetonius, Caesar, 81). He took care that Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War should be continued; and accordingly the 8th book of the Commentarii de Bello Gallico (which was probably written by his friend Hirtius
at his instigation) is dedicated to him.
Notes
- ^ Cicero's speech: For Cornelius Balbus (English trans. Yonge, 1891). @ Perseus.tufts.edu. [1]
- ^ Cicero's speech: Latin text.
- ISBN 0-471-09570-2.
References
- Cicero, Letters (ed. Tyrrell and Purser, iv. introd. p. 62) and Pro Balbo.
- Heatley, Henry Richard and Herbert Napier Kingdon. (1882). Gradatim, an Easy Latin Translation Book, Oxford: Oxford University Press. OCLC 77762862
- E. Jullien, De L. Cornelio Balbo Maiore, 1886.
- Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopädie, iv. pt. i. 1900.
- Schork, R. J. (1997) Latin and Roman culture in Joyce. Gainesville: University of FLorida Press. ISBN 9780813014722; OCLC 243862657
- Smith, William. (1850). A New Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology and Geography. New York: Harper & Brothers. OCLC 5078784
- Rogerson, In Search of Ancient North Africa: A History in Six Lives [2]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
