Culleo

or Cu'lleo, the name of a plebeian family of the Terentia gens.

1. Q. Terentius Culleo, belonged to a family of praetorian rank, and was a senator of considerable distinction. (V. Max. 5.2.5.) He was taken prisoner in the course of the second Punic war, but at what time is uncertain, and obtained his liberty at the conclusion of the war in B. c, 201. To shew his gratitude to P. Scipio, he followed his triumphal car, wearing the pileus or cap of liberty, like an emancipated slave; and subsequently, on the death of Scipio, he attended his funeral, walking before the bier with the cap of liberty again on his head, and he likewise distributed mulsum, or sweet wine, among the attendants of the funeral.

In B. C. 195, Culleo was one of the three ambassadors who were sent to Carthage to complain that Hannibal was forming the design of making war upon the Romans in conjunction with Antiochus. In B. C. 187 Culleo was praetor peregrinus, and he was appointed by the senate in this year as the commissioner to conduct the inquiry respecting the money of Antiochus, which was said to have been misappropriated by L. Scipio Asiaticus and his legates. This appointment was made under a plebiscitum which had been carried chiefly through the influence of Cato the censor, and which referred to the senate to nominate a commissioner to inquire into the matter. The respect which Culleo had paid to P. Scipio was well known, and the friends of the Scipios probably supported his appointment for that reason; though it is stated, on the other hand, that his nomination to the office was brought about by the enemies of Scipio, because he was in reality an enemy to the family, and had been guilty of hypocrisy in the honours he had paid to his deliverer from captivity. But however this may be, L. Scipio and others were condemned by him; from which we may conclude, either that he was in reality in league with the party opposed to the Scipios, or that their guilt was so clear that he dared not acquit even his friends.

In B. C. 184, Culleo was an unsuccessful candidate for the consulship, and in 181 was one of the three ambassadors sent to Masinissa and Carthage to ask for assistance in the war against Perseus. (Liv. 30.43, 45, 33.47, 38.42, 55, 39.32, 42.35; V. Max. 5.2.5; Plut. Apophth. p. 196.)

2. Q. Terentius Culleo, was tribune of the plebs, B. C. 58, the year in which Cicero was banished. He was a friend of Cicero's, and did all in his power to prevent his banishment and afterwards to obtain his recall. He is mentioned by Cicero two years afterwards as one of the minor pontiffs. In the war which followed the death of Caesar we find Culleo in B. C. 43 passing over from the army of Antony to join Lentulus. Culleo was placed by Lepidus to guard the passage of the Alps; but he allowed Antony to cross them without offering any resistance. (Cic. Att. 3.15, de Harusp. Resp. 6, ad Fam. 10.34, comp. ad Qu. Fr. 2.2, ad Att. 8.12; Appian, App. BC 3.83.)