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Ahenobarbus
Ahenobarbus ("brazen-bearded" or "red-haired"), the name of a plebeian
Roman family of the gens Domitia. The name was derived
from the red beard and hair by which many of the family were
distinguished. Amongst its members the following may be mentioned:
Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, tribune of the people 104 BC,
brought forward a law (lex Domitia de Sacerdotiis) by which
the priests of the superior colleges were to be elected by
the people in the comitia tributa (seventeen of the tribes
voting) instead of by co-optation; the law was repealed by
Sulla, revived by Julius Caesar and (perhaps) again repealed by Marcus Antonius, the triumvir (Cicero, De Lege Agraria, ii. 7; Suetonius, Nero, 2). Ahenobarbus was elected pontifex maximus in 103 BC, consul in 96 BC and censor in 92 BC with Lucius Licinius Crassus[?] the orator, with whom he was frequently at
variance. They took joint action, however, in suppressing
the recently established Latin rhetorical schools, which they
regarded as injurious to public morality (Aulus Gellius xv. 11).
Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, son of the above, husband of
Porcia the sister of Cato Uticensis, friend of Cicero and
enemy of Caesar, and a strong supporter of the aristocratical
party. At first strongly opposed to Pompey, he afterwards sided
with him against Caesar. He was consul in 54 BC, and in 49
he was appointed by the senate to succeed Caesar as governor of
Gaul. After the outbreak of the civil war he commanded the
Pompeian troops at Corfinium, but was obliged to surrender.
Although treated with great generosity by Caesar, he stirred
up Massilia (Marseilles) to an unsuccessful resistance against
him. After its surrender, he joined Pompey in Greece and was
slain in the flight after the battle of Pharsalus, in which he
commanded the right wing against Antony (Caesar, Bellum Civile,
i., ii., iii.; Dio Cassius xxxix., xli.; Appian, B.C. ii. 82).
Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, son of the above.
See also: Roman Republic -- Cursus honorum
Initial text from 1911 encyclopedia -- Please update as needed
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