Lucius Cornelius Balbus Minor

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Statue of the Balbus Minor in Cadiz , Spain

Lucius Cornelius Balbus (* 1st century BC on the Iberian Peninsula ), called Minor ( Latin the Younger ) to distinguish him from his uncle Lucius Cornelius Balbus Maior , was a politician and general in the late Roman Republic and the early imperial times .

Life

Balbus Minor came from the Phoenician city ​​of Gades (today Cádiz) and received around 70 BC. At the same time as his uncle he had Roman citizenship . During the Civil War he served under Gaius Iulius Caesar , who entrusted him with various important missions. He took part in the war in Egypt and Hispania and was rewarded for his achievements with acceptance into the college of pontifices . 43 BC He was a quaestor in Hispania, where he amassed a large fortune by plundering the inhabitants.

In the same year he moved to King Bogudes of Mauritania . His next documented activity is that of proconsul of Africa , probably in the year of office 21/20 BC. BC, if not a little earlier. Theodor Mommsen suspected that his administration as praetor had aroused the displeasure of Augustus , and that he had therefore received his appointment in Africa only after so many years. Balbus Minor proved his extraordinary aptitude for this task soon after his arrival in Africa. He opened the Fezzan based Garamantes and destroyed their capital Garama . For this he was born on March 27, 19 BC. Honored with a triumphal procession - the first triumphal procession granted to someone who was not a Roman by birth, and at the same time the last for a man who was not a member of the reigning imperial family.

His great wealth enabled him to build a theater on the Martian field in the capital, to commemorate the return of Augustus from Gaul in 13 BC. Was dedicated. This theater , which was more luxuriously equipped than the older theater of Pompeius and the theater of Marcellus , which was built around the same time , burned down in 80 AD. The new building probably served other purposes and housed workshops and shops. The remains of the theater are now one of the locations of the Museo Nazionale Romano under the name Crypta Balbi .

Balbus seems to have paid some attention to literature as well. He wrote a play whose theme his visit to Publius Cornelius Lentulus Spinther in the field camp in Dyrrhachium was and was - according to Macrobius - the author of Εξηγετικά ( Exegetika ), a work that deals with the gods and their worship.

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literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cassius Dio liv. 25; Pliny the Elder , Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 12. 60
  2. ^ Crypt Balbi
  3. ^ Macrobius: Saturnalia , iii. 6th
personal data
SURNAME Cornelius Balbus, Lucius Minor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Balbus, Lucius Cornelius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION roman senator
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH Iberian Peninsula
DATE OF DEATH 1st century BC BC or 1st century