Cornelius

Cornēlĭus, a,

• subst., a designation of a Roman gens celebrated as embracing the most distinguished Roman men and women (the patrician Scipios, Sulla, the Gracchi and their mother, etc.; the plebeian Balbi, Mammulae, Merulae, etc.).—Also adj.; hence the numerous laws made by the different Cornelii, but esp. by L. Cornelius Sulla, were called Leges Corneliae; cf. Ernest. and Orell. Clav. Cicer. in Ind. Legum, p. 13 sq.; Dict. of Antiq.—Fŏrum Cornēlĭum, a town of the Lingones in Gallia Cisalpina, Cic. Fam. 12, 5, 2.—Hence,
• II Cornēlĭānus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to a Cornelius, Cornelian: oratio, the oration of Cicero in defence of a certain C. Cornelius, Cic. Brut. 78, 271; id. Or. 29, 103; 67, 225; 70, 232; its fragments, v. in Orell. IV. 2, pp. 446-454, and V. 2, pp. 56-81.—
• • B Cornēlĭāna Castra, a place on the African coast, in the vicinity of Bagradas, named after the camp of the elder Scipio pitched there in the second Punic war, now Ghellah, Caes. B. C. 2, 24 sq.; the same place was also called Castra Cornēlĭa, Mel. 1, 7, 2; Plin. 5, 4, 3, §§ 24 and 29.

Cornēlius, a, um, Name eines der wichtigsten röm. Geschlechter, bekannt durch die große Anzahl der dazu gehörigen Familien (außer den patrizischen Dolabellae, Maluginenses, Scipiones, Rufini, Sullae, Lentuli auch die plebejischen Balbi, Mammulae, Merulae etc.). – Bes. bekannt sind unter den Männern: P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus maior, Sieger über die Karthager in Spanien u. Afrika (Schlacht bei Zama 202 v. Chr.), berühmt durch wissenschaftliche Bildung u. Rednergabe (dah. Africani = Leute wie Korn. Scipio Afr. major, Cic. de or. 1, 210 u. 2, 290). – P. Cornel. Scipio Aemilianus Africanus minor, Sohn des L. Ämilius Paulus, Adoptivsohn des P. Kornel. Scipio (des Sohnes des Afrikanus major), einer der edelsten Römer der Republik, hochgebildet in Wissenschaft u. Kunst, tapferer Feldherr u. als solcher Zerstörer Karthagos (146 v. Chr.): Plur. Scipiones, Cic. Pis. 58 u. Sest. 143; de amic. 21. – unter den Frauen: Cornelia, die jüngste Tochter des Afrikanus major, Gemahlin des Tib. Sempronius Gracchus, die edle Mutter der beiden Gracchen. – u. Cornelia, die Tochter des Q. Metellus Scipio, zuerst Gemahlin des P. Licin. Krassus, dann des Pompejus. – Adi. kornelisch, leges C., die von verschiedenen Cornelii, bes. aber von L. Cornelius Sulla gegebenen kornelischen Gesetze in großer Anzahl (gegen Meuchelmörder u. Giftmischer usw.), Cic. u.a.: Forum Cornelium od. Cornelii, von Kornel. Sulla gegründete Stadt der Lingoner im cispadan, Gallien, j. Imola, Cic. u. Plin. – Dav. Cornēliānus, a, um, kornelianisch, subst., Corneliāna, ae, f., die von Cicero für einen gewissen C. Kornelius gehaltene Rede (die Cicero später bearbeitete u. als zwei Reden herausgab), nostra in Corneliana, Cic. or. 232: in Corneliana prima, Mart. Cap. 5. § 492: in Corneliana secunda, Cic. or. 225. – Castra Corneliana od. Cornelia, s. castrum no. II, A, 2, c (S. 1023 a. E.).

1 Cornēlĭus, (8) ĭī, m. , nom dʼune gens ayant de nombreux rameaux, v. Dolabella, Scipio, Sylla, etc. || Forum Cornelii, c. Forum Cornelium.

2 Cornēlius, (11) a, um, de Cornélius : Cornelia gens Cic. Leg. 2, 56, la famille Cornélia ; Cornelia lex Cic. Verr. 2, 1, 108, la loi Cornélia || Cornelia castra Plin. 5, 24, c. Corneliana || Forum Cornelium Cic. Fam. 12, 5, 2, ville de la Cisalpine, fondée par Cornélius Sylla.

Corn'elius Scipio Calvus, Cn.

consul, B. C. 222. [Scipio.]

Corne'lius

Κορνήλιος Many plebeians of this name frequently occur towards the end of the republic without any cognomen. [Cornelia Gens.] Their great number is no doubt owing to the fact mentioned by Appian (App. BC 1.100), that the dictator Sulla bestowed the Roman franchise upon 10,000 slaves, and called them after his own name, " Cornelii," that he might always have a large number among the people to support him. Of these the most important are:--

Corne'lius

1. Cornelius, a secretary (scriba)in Sulla's dictatorship, lived to become city quaestor in the dictatorship of Caesar. (Sall. Hist. in Or. Lep. ; Cic. de Off. 2.8.)

Corne'lius

2. Cornelius Phagita, the commander of a company of soldiers, into whose hands Caesar fell when he was proscribed by Sulla in B. C. 82. It was with difficulty that Cornelius allowed him to escape even after receiving a bribe of two talents, but Caesar never punished him when he afterwards obtained supreme power. (Suet. Jul. 74; Plut. Caes. 1.

Corne'lius

3. C. Cornelius, tribune of the plebs, B. C. 67, whom Cicero defended. See below.

Corne'lius

4. C. Cornelius, a Roman knight, and one of Catiline's crew, undertook, in conjunction with L. Vargunteius to murder Cicero in B. C. 63, but their plan was frustrated by information conveyed to Cicero through Curius and Fulvia. When accused subsequently, he could obtain no one to defend him; but he escaped punishment probably on account of the information he gave respecting the conspiracy. When P. Sulla was accused in B. C. 62 of participation in the conspiracy, Cornelius caused his son to come frward as a witness against him. (Sal. Cat. 17, 28; Cic. pro Sull. 2, 6, 18.)

Corne'lius

5. P. Cornelius, tribune of the plebs, B. C. 51. (Cic. ad Fam 8.8.)

Corne'lius

6. Cornelius, a centurion in the army of young Octavianus, was at the head of the embassy sent to Rome in B. C. 43, to demand in the name of the army the consulship for their general. When the senate hesitated to comply with their demands, Cornelius threw back his cloak, and pointing to the hilt of his sword, exclaimed, "This shall make him consul, if you won't." (Suet. Aug. 26.)

Corne'lius, C.

of a plebeian branch of the Cornelia gens, was quaestor of Pompey the Great. In the year B. C. 67, he was tribune of the plebs, and proposed a law in the senate to prevent the lending of money to foreign ambassadors at Rome. The proposition was not carried, since many of the senators derived profit from the practice, which had led to shameful abuses by the bribery and extortions which it covered. He then proposed that no person should be released from the obligations of a law except by the populus. The senate had of late exercised a power, analogous to that of the British Parliament in passing private acts, which exempt individuals in certain cases from the general provisions of the law. This power the senate was unwilling to be deprived of, and the tribune Servilius Glolbulus, a colleague of Cornelius, was persuaded to interpose, and prohibit the reading of the rotation by the clerk. Cornelius thereupon read it himself, and a tumult followed. Cornelius took no part in the riot, and evinced his moderation by being content with a law, which made the presence of 200 senators requisite to the validity of a dispensing senatusconsultum. When his year of office was ended, he was accused of majestas by P. Cominius, for reading the rogation in defiance of the intercession of Globulus; the accusation was dropped this year, but renewed in B. C. 65. Cornelius was ably defended by Cicero (part of whose speech is extant), and was acquitted by a majority of votes. [Cominius, Nos. 5 and 6.]

In his tribuneship, he was the successful proposer of a law, of which the importance can scarcely be over-rated. In order to check the partiality of occasional edicts, it was enacted by the lex Cornelia " ut praetores ex edictis suis perpetuis jus dicerent." (Dict. of Ant. s. v. Edictum.)

Cornelius was a man of blameless private life, and, in his public character, though he was accused of factiousness by the nobles, seems to have advocated usful measures. (Asconius, in Cic. pro Cornel. ; D. C. 36.21, 23; Drumann's Gesch. Roms, ii. p. 613.) [J.T.G]

Corne'lius

succeeded Fabianus as bishop of Rome on the 4th of June, A. D. 251. He is chiefly remarkable on account of the controversy which he maintained with Novatianus in regard to the readmission of the Lapsi, that is, Christians who after baptism, influenced by the terrors of persecution, had openly fallen away from the faith. Cornelius was disposed to be lenient towards the renegades upon receiving full evidence of their contrition, while Novatianus denied the power of the church to grant forgiveness under such circumstances and restore the culprits to her communion. The result of the dispute was, that, upon the election of Cornelius, Novatianus refused to acknowledge the authority of his opponent, who summoned a council, by which his own opinions were fully confirmed. Upon this the religious warfare raged more fiercely than ever; Novatianus was irregularly chosen bishop by some of his own partisans, and thus arose the schism of the Novatians. [Novatianus.] Cornelius, however, enjoyed his dignity for but a very brief period. He was banished to Civita Vecchia by the emperor Gallus, in A. D. 252, where he soon after died, or, according to some accounts, suffered martyrdom. He is known to have written several Epistles, two of which addressed to Cyprian will be found in the works of that prelate, and in Coustant's " Epistolae Pontificum," p. 125, while a fragment of a third is preserved in the ecclesiastical history of Eusebius. (6.43.) [Cyprianus.] [W.R]

Corne'lius, Se'rvius

In the Graeco-Roman Epitome Legum, composed about A. D. 945 by one Embatus, and preserved in MS. at Florence (Cod. Laurent. 80.6), it is stated, that Servius Cornelius was employed by the emperor Hadrian, in conjunction with Salvius Julianus, to collect, arrange, and remodel the edictum perpetuum. The passage (which, though the lateness of its date diminishes its value, is the most explicit of the few that relate to this obscure part of legal history) is given by Klenze. (Lehrbuch der Gesch. des Röm. Rcchts. p. 54.) [J.T.G]

Corne'lius Celsus

[Celsus.]

Corne'lius Chryso'gonus

[Chrysogonus.]

Corne'lius Fronto

[Fronto.]

Corne'lius Fuscus

[Fuscus.]

Corne'lius Laco

[Laco.]

Corne'lius Marcellus

[Marcellus.]

Corne'lius Martialis

[Martialis.]

Corne'lius Nepos

[Nepos.]

Corne'lius Ta'citus

[Tacitus.]

Corne'lius Tlepo'lemus

[Tlepolemus.]

Corne'lius Tuscus

[Tuscus.]

Corne'lius Nepos

was the contemporary and friend of Cicero, Atticus, and Catullus. He was probably a native of Verona, or of some neighbouring village, and died during the reign of Augustus. No other particulars, with regard to his personal history, have been transmitted to us. (Catull. 1.3; comp. Auson. praef. Epigramnm.; Cic. Att. 16.5; Plin. Nat. 5.1, 9.39, 10.23; Plin. Ep. 4.28; Hieron. Chron. Euseb. Olymp. clxxxv.) He is known to have written the following pieces, all of which are now lost. Lost works 1. Chronica.

An Epitome of Universal History, it would appear, in three books. For the name and some idea of the contents we are indebted to Ausonius (Epist. xvi.), A. Gellius (17.21.3, 8, 24), and Solinus (1.27, 44.1), while Catullus, when dedicating his poems to Cornelius Nepos, indicates, though obscurely, the object and extent of the production in question, Jam tum cum ausus es, unus Italorum, Omne aevum tribus explicare chartis, Doctis, Jupiter ! et laboriosis.

(See also Minucius Felix, 100.22.) 2. Exemplorum Libri

Of which Charisius (p. 119, ed. Putsch.) quotes the second book, and A. Gellius (7.18.11) the fifth. This was probably a collection of remarkable sayings and doings, of the same description as the compilation subsequently formed by Valerius Maximus. 3. De Viris Illustribus.

Gellius (11.8) tells an anecdote of Cato, adding Scriptum est hoc in libro Cornelii Nepotis De Illustribus Viris. (See also Serv. ad Virg. Aen. 372; Diomedes, p. 40(5, ed. Putsch.; and Charisius, pp. 113, 114, 195, ed. Putsch., who refers to books ii. xv. and xvi.) It is not impossible that it may be the same work as the preceding, quoted under a different title. 4. Vita Ciceronis,

an error in which is corrected by A. Gellius (15.28). 5. Epistolae ad Ciceronem,

from one of which Lactantius has preserved an extract (Instit. Div. iii 15; comp. Cic. Att. 16.5), but we cannot tell whether they were ever formally collected into a volume. The Epistolae Ciceronis ad Cornelium Nepotem are adverted to under Cicero, p. 743. 6. Poems?

Perhaps poems also, at least he is named in the same category with Virgil, Ennius, and Accius by the younger Pliny (Plin. Ep. 5.3). 7. De Historicis.

In the life of Dion (100.3). which now bears the name of Cornelius Nepos, there is the following sentence, "Sed de hoc in eo meo libro plura sunt exposita qui De Historicis conscriptus est." Vitae

In the year 1471 a quarto volume issued from the press of Jenson at Venice, entitled Aemilii Probi de Vita excellentium, containing biographies of twenty distinguished commanders, nineteen Greeks and one Persian, in the following order, which, it has been subsequently ascertained, obtains in all MSS.:-- 1. Miltiades. 2. Themistocles. 3. Aristides. 4. Pausanias. 5. Cimon. 6. Lysander. 7. Alcibiades. 8. Thrasybulus. 9. Conon. 10. Dion. 11. Iphicrates. 12. Chabrias. 13. Timotheus. 14. Datames. 15. Epaminondas. 16. Pelopidas. 17. Agesilaus. 18. Eumenes. 19. Phocion. 20. Timoleon. Next came three chapters headed De Regibus, presenting very brief notices of certain famous kings of Persia and Macedonia, of the elder Sicilian Dionysius, and of some of the more remarkable among the successors of Alexander. The volume concluded with a biography of Hamilcar, and a biography of Hannibal. A preface, or introduction to the lives, commenced with the words, " Non dubito fore plerosque, Attice, qui hoc genus scripturae, leve, et non satis dignum summorum virorum judicent," and prefixed to the whole was a dedication, in verse, to the emperor Theodosius, in which we find the couplet si rogat Auctorem, paulatim detege nostrum tunc Domino nomen, me sciat esse Probum.

A second edition, in quarto, of the same book, without date, was printed at Venice by Bernardinus Venetus. In this a biography of Cato is added. The title in one part of the volume is Aemilii Probi Historici excellentium Imperatorum Vitae, in another Aemilii Probi de Virorum Illustrium Vita. A third edition, in quarto, without date and without name of place or printer, but known to belong to Milan, and to be not later than 1496, was published as Aemilius Probus de Viris Illustribus; and here we have not only the biography of Cato, but a life of Atticus also. Numerous impressions appeared during the next half century, varying from the above and from each other in no important particular, except that in the Strasburg one of 1506, the life of Atticus is ascribed to Cornelius Nepos, a point in which it is supported by many MSS. But in 1569 a great sensation was produced among the learned by the edition of the celebrated Dionysius Lambinus (4to. Paris, 1569), who not only revised the text with much care, but strenuously maintained that the whole work was the production of that Cornelius Nepos who flourished towards the close of the Roman republic, and not of an unknown Aemilius Probus, living at the end of the fourth century. The arguments upon which he chiefly insisted were,--

1. The extreme purity of the Latinity, and the chaste simplicity of the style, which exhibit a striking contrast to the semi-barbarian jargon and meretricious finery of the later empire. Every critical scholar must feel the weight of this observation.

2. The person addressed in the preface or introduction must be Pomponius Atticus, the friend of Cicero. This is fully proved by a passage in the life of Cato (sub fin.) where we read, " Hujus de vita et moribus plura in eo libro persecuti sumus quem separatim de eo fecimus rogatu Pomponii Attici," words which are unquestionably perfectly decisive in so far as the memoir in which they occur is concerned, but this, as we have seen, was not included in the original edition, is wanting in some MSS., and, along with the Atticus, is separated, as it were, from the rest in all.

3. The lofty tone in which the grandeur and power of the Roman people are celebrated, the boldness of the comments on free institutions and tyrants, would have been totally out of place at an epoch of degradation and slavery. Allusions, also, it is affirmed, may be detected to the civil war between Caesar and Pompey. Upon a careful examination of all the quotations adduced it will be seen that no weight ought to be attached to this portion of the proof.

4. Lambinus was informed, upon what he considered good authority, that one MS. ended in this manner, "Completum est opus Aemilii Probi, Cornelii Nepotis." But even if we admit the accuracy of a statement vouched for so imperfectly, it leads to no result, for the first clause might be intended to assign the 20 biographies, the De Regibus, the Hamilcar and the Hannibal, to Probus; the concluding phrase to mark Nepos as the author of the Cato and the Atticus.

The question thus started has given rise to interminable discussions; but the leading hypotheses may be reduced to three.

I. Many of the contemporaries of Lambinus, unable or unwilling to abandon the belief in which they had been reared, and clinging to the verses addressed to Theodosius, doggedly maintained that the old opinion was after all true, and that all the lives, except perhaps those of Cato and Atticus, which stood upon somewhat different ground, were the property of Probus, and of no one else. This position is now very generally abandoned.

II. Lambinus, as we have seen, pronounced the lives to belong entirely to Cornelius Nepos. Those who support this hypothesis, which has been more widely received than any other, hold, that what we now possess may be regarded, either as a portion of the voluminous collection, De Viris Illustribus, or as an independent work, which, having fallen into oblivion, was brought to light by Aemilius Probus, who fraudulently endeavoured to palm it off as his own; or, perhaps, meant to do nothing more than claim the credit of having discovered and described it; or, that the verses in question, which are absent from several MSS., refer to some totally different production, and have by mere accident found their way into their present position.

III. Barthius, steering a middle course, threw out that the biographies, as they now exist, are in reality epitomes of lives actually written by Nepos, and that we ought to look upon Probus as the abbreviator; others, adopting the general idea, think it more likely that the abridgments were executed at an earlier period.

Without attempting to enter at large into the merits of these conflicting systems, and of the many minor controversies to which they have given rise, all of which will be found stated in the works noted down at the end of this article, we may remark that the third hypothesis, under one form or other, will, if properly applied, tend to remove many of the difficulties, and explain many of the anomalies by which the subject is embarrassed more effectually than either of the two others. It will enable us to account for the purity of the language, and for the graceful unaffected ease of the clauses, when taken singly, and at the same time to understand the harsh and abrupt transitions which so frequently occur in passing from one sentence or from one paragraph to another. But while we may safely admit that we hold in our hands the abridgment of some writer of the Augustan age, we must bear in mind that the evidence adduced to prove that writer to be Cornelius Nepos is miserably defective, an exception being always made in respect of the life of Atticus, which is expressly assigned to him in at least two of the best MSS. Editions

These biographies have, almost ever since their first appearance, been a favourite school-book, and hence editions have been multiplied without end. We have already described the earliest. After the labours of Lambinus, we may particularly notice those of Schottus, fol. Francf. 1609, of Gebhardus, 12mo. Amst. 1644, of Boeclerus, 8vo. Argentor. 1648, of Bosius, 8vo. Jen. 1675, of Van Staveren, 8vo. Lug. Bat. 1734, 1755, 1773, the last being the best, of Heusinger, 8vo. Krug. 1747, of Fischer, 8vo. Lips. 1759, of Harles, Hal. 1773, Lips. 1806, of Paufler, with useful notes written in German, 8vo. Lips. 1804, of Tzschucke, 8vo. Goetting. 1804, with an excellent commentary in a separate volume, of Titze, 8vo. Prag. 1813, of Bremi, 8vo. Zurich, 1820, of Bardili, 2 vols. 8vo. Stuttgard, 1820, of Daehne, 12mo. Lips. 1827, of Roth, who has brought back Aemilius Probus on his title page, Basil, 8vo. 1841, and of Benecke, 8vo. Berol. 1843, which is purely critical. The editions of Van Staveren, 1773, of Tzschucke, 1804, of Bremi, 1820, contain every thing that the student requires, and perhaps no single edition will be found more serviceable than that of Lemaire, 8vo. Paris, 1820. The dissertation prefixed to the editions of Lambinus, Titze, Bardili, Daehne, Roth, and Benecke, will yield full information on the controversy. The translations into different languages are countless; the first into English is, " The Lives of illustrious Men, written in Latin by Cornelius Nepos, done into English by several [twelve] gentlemen of the University of Oxford, Lond. 1684," and frequently reprinted. Sir Matthew Hale had previously translated " The Life of Atticus, with moral and political Observations," 8vo. Lond. 1677. [W.R]