Balbus

BALBUS, literally "stammerer," the name of several Roman families. Of the Acilii Balbi, one, Manius Acilius, was consul in 150 B.C., another in 114. To another family belonged T. Ampius Balbus, a supporter of Pompey; afterwards pardoned by Julius Caesar (cf. Cic. ad Fam. vi. 12 and xiii. 7o). We know also of Q. Antonius Balbus, praetor in Sicily in 82 B.C., and Marcus Atius Balbus, who married Julia, a sister of Caesar, and had a daughter Atia, mother of Augustus. The most important of the name were the two Cornelii Balbi, natives of Gades (Cadiz).

I. LUCIUS CORNELIUS BALBUS (called Major), was born early in the last century B.c. Pompey conferred Roman citizenship on him and his family for his services against Sertorius in Spain. Be coming friendly with all parties, he had much to do with the formation of the First Triumvirate, and was one of the chief financiers in Rome. He won the favour of Caesar, and went with him as praefactus fabrum (chief engineer) to Spain (6r) and Gaul (58). His position as a naturalized foreigner, his influence and his wealth naturally made Balbus many enemies, who in 56 put up a native of Gades to prosecute him for illegally assuming the rights of a Roman citizen, a charge directed against the trium virs equally with himself. Cicero, Pompey and Crassus all spoke on his behalf, and he was acquitted. During the civil war he tried to get Cicero to mediate between Caesar and Pompey. Balbus be came Caesar's private secretary, and after Caesar's murder at tached himself to Octavian; in 43 or 42 he was praetor, and in 4o consul—an honour then for the first time conferred on an alien. The year of his death is not known. Balbus kept a diary of the chief events in his own and Caesar's life (Suetonius, Caesar, 81). The 8th book of the Bell. Gall., which was probably written by his friend Hirtius at his instigation, was dedicated to him.

See Cicero, Letters (Ed. Tyrrell and Purser, iv. introd. p. 62) and Pro Balbo (ed. J. S. Reid, 1878, with introduction) ; see also E. Jullien, De L. Cornelio Balbo Maiore (i886).

2.

Lucius CORNELIUS BALBUS (called Minor), nephew of the above, received the Roman citizenship at the same time as his uncle. During the civil war, he served under Caesar. He also took part in the Alexandrian and Spanish wars. He was rewarded by being admitted into the college of pontiffs. In 43 he was quaestor in Further Spain, where he made a fortune by plundering the in habitants. In the same year he crossed over to Bogud, king of Mauretania, and is not heard of again until 21, when he was pro consul of Africa. In 19 Balbus defeated the Garamantes, and on March 27 in that year celebrated a triumph, which was then for the first time granted to one who was not a Roman citizen by birth, and for the last time to a private individual. He built a theatre, which was dedicated at Rome in 13 (Dio Cassius liv. 25; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 12. 6o). Balbus wrote a play on his visit to Lentulus in the camp of Pompey at Dyrrhachium, and, accord ing to Macrobius (Saturnalia, iii. 6), a work called Exegetica, dealing with the gods and their worship.

See Velleius Paterculus ii. 51; Cicero, ad Att. viii. 9; and on both the above the exhaustive articles in Pauly-Wissowa, Realen cyclopadie, iv. pt. i. (19oo).