Pomponius

Pompōnĭus, i, m., and Pompōnĭa, ae, f., name of a Roman gens.

• I L. Pomponius, an Atellane poet of Bononia, Gell. 12, 10, 7.—
• II T. Pomponius Atticus, a friend of Cicero, whose life is written by Nepos, Cic. Att. 1, 5; Nep. Att. 1 sqq.—
• III P. Pomponius Secundus, a tragedian, Quint. 8, 3, 31; 10, 1, 98.—
• IV Sex. Pomponius, a lawyer, Lampr. Alex. Sev. 68.—
• V M. Pomponius Matho, a praetor, Liv. 22, 7; and augur, id. 29, 38.—
• VI Pomponius Mela, a geographer of the first century, author of a treatise De Situ Orbis.—In fem.: Pompōnĭa.
• • • 1 Daughter of T. Pomponius Atticus, and wife of Q. Cicero, Cic. Att. 5, 1, 3; id. Q. Fr. 3, 5, 2.—
    • 2 The mother of Scipio Africanus, Sil. 13, 615.
• —Hence, Pompō-nĭānus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to a Pomponius, Pomponian: nomina, Cic. Q. Fr. 2, 2, 1: pira, Plin. 15, 15, 16, § 54: versus, of the Atellane poet L. Pomponius, Gell. 10, 24, 5.

Pompōnius, a, um, Name einer röm. gens, aus der am bekanntesten T. Pomponius Atticus, Freund Ciceros, dessen Leben Kornelius Nepos beschrieben hat, Nep. Att. 1 sqq., oft bei Cic., s. Orelli Onomast. Tull. 2. p. 481 sq. – L. Pomponius, aus Bononia, ein Atellanendichter, Zeitgenosse des Katull, Gell. 12, 10, 7; 16, 6, 7 u.a. – P. Pomponius Secundus, ein Tragödiendichter zur Zeit des Kaligula u. Klaudius, Quint. 8, 3, 1; 10, 1, 98. – Dav. Pompōniānus, a, um, pomponianisch, des Pomponius, nomina, Cic.: pira, Plin.: versus, des Atellanendichters P., Gell.

Pompōnĭus, (10) ĭī, m. , poète de Bologne, auteur dʼatellanes, contemporain de Lucrèce : Gell. 12, 10, 7 || Pomponius Atticus, ami de Cicéron : Cic. Att. 1, 5 || Pomponius Secundus, poète tragique, sous Claude : Quint. 8, 3, 31 || Pomponius Méla, géographe || célèbre jurisconsulte : Lampr. Al. Sev. 68 || -ĭānus, a, um, Pomponien : Cic. Q. 2, 2, 1 || subst. m. , Flavius Pomponien, grammairien.

Pompo'nius, T. A'tticus or Herodes Atticus or Atticus Herodes

was born at Rome, B. C. 109, three years before Cicero, and was descended from one of the most ancient equestrian families in the state. His proper name after his adoption by Q. Caecilius, the brother of his mother, was Q. Caecilius Q. F. Pomponianus Atticus, by which name Cicero addressed him when he congratulated him on his accession to the inheritance of his uncle. (Ad Att. 3.20.) His surname, Atticus, was probably given him on account of his long residence in Athens and his intimate acquaintance with the Greek language and literature.

His father, T. Pomponius, was a man of cultivated mind; and as he possessed considerable property, he gave his son a liberal education. He was educated along with L. Torquatus, the younger C. Marius, and M. Cicero, and was distinguished above all his school-fellows by the rapid progress which he made in his studies. His father died when he was still young; and shortly after his father's death the first civil war broke out. Atticus was connected by ties both of affinity and friendship with the Marian party; for his cousin Anicia had married the brother of the tribune, P. Sulpicius Rufus, one of the chief opponents of Sulla, and Atticus himself was a personal friend of his old school-fellow, the younger Marius. He resolved, however, to take no part in the contest, and accordingly withdrew to Athens in B. C. 85, with the greater part of his moveable property, under the pretext of prosecuting his studies. The determination which he came to on this occasion, he steadily adhered to for the rest of his life. Contented with his equestrian rank, he abstained from suing for public honours, and would not mix himself up with any of the political parties into which all classes were divided for the next fifty years. But notwithstanding this, he lived on the most intimate terms with the most distinguished men of all parties; and there seems to have been a certain charm in his manners and conversation which captivated all who had intercourse with him. Though he had assisted the younger Marius with money in his flight, Sulla was so much pleased with him on his visit to Athens in B. C. 84, after the Mithridatic war, that he wished to take him with him to Rome; and on Atticus desiring to remain in Athens, Sulla presented him with all the presents he had received during his stay in that city. Atticus enjoyed also the friendship of Caesar and Pompey, Brutus and Cassius, Antony and Octavianus. But the most intimate of all his friends was Cicero, whose correspondence with him, beginning in the year B. C. 68 and continned down to Cicero's death, supplies us with various particulars respecting the life of Atticus, the most important of which are given in the article Cicero. Atticus did not return to Rome till B. C. 65, when political affairs had become more settled; and the day of his departure was one of general mourning among the Athenians, whom he had assisted with loans of money, and benefited in various ways. During his residence at Athens, he purchased an estate at Buthrotum in Epeirus, in which place, as well as at Athens and afterwards at Rome, he spent the greater part of his time, engaged in literary pursuits and commercial undertakings. He died in B. C. 32, at the age of 77, of voluntary starvation, when he found that he was attacked by an incurable illness. His wife Pilia, to whom he was married on the 12th of February, B. C. 56, when he was fifty-three years of age, bore him only one child, a daughter, Pomponia or Caecilia, whom Cicero sometimes calls Attica and Atticula. (Ad Att. 6.5, 12.1, 13.5, &c.) Through the influence of Antony, Pomponia was married in the life-time of her father, probably in B. C. 36, to M. Vipsanius Agrippa, the minister of Augustus; and the issue of this marriage, Vipsania Agrippina, was married to Tiberius, afterwards emperor, by whom she became the mother of Drusus. The sister of Atticus, Pomponia, was married to Q. Cicero, the brother of the orator; but the marriage was not a happy one, and the quarrels of Pomponia and her husband gave considerable trouble and vexation to Atticus and M. Cicero.

The life of Atticus by Cornelius Nepos, of which the greater part was composed while Atticus was still alive (Nepos, 19), is to be regarded rather as a panegyric upon an intimate friend (Nepos, 13, &c.; comp. Cic. Att. 16.5, 14), than strictly speaking a biography. According to Nepos, the personal character of Atticus was faultless; and though we cannot trust implicitly to the partial statements of his panegyrist, yet Atticus could not have gained and preserved the affection of so many of his contemporaries without possessing amiable qualities of no ordinary kind.

In philosophy Atticus belonged to the Epicurean sect, and had studied it under Phaedrus, Zenon, and Patron, in Athens, and Saufeius, in Rome. His studies, however, were by no means confined to philosophy. He was thoroughly acquainted with the whole circle of Greek and Roman literature ; he spoke and wrote Greek like a native, and was a thorough master of his own language. So high an opinion was entertained of his taste and critical acumen, that many of his friends, especially Cicero, were accustomed to send him their works for revision and correction, and were most anxious to secure his approbation and favour. It is therefore the more to be regretted that none of his own writings have come down to us. Of these the most important was one in a single book, entitled Annalis, which contained an epitome of Roman history from the earliest period to his own time, arranged according to years. (Cic. Att. 12.23, Orat. 34; Ascon. in Pison. p. 13, in Cornel. p. 76, ed. Orelli; Nepos, Hannib. 13, Attic. 8.) This work was particularly valuable for the history of the ancient Roman families; and he had such an intimate acquaintance with this subject, that he was requested by many of his contemporaries to draw up genealogical tables of their families, specifying with dates the various public offices which each had held. He accordingly drew up such tables for the Junii, Marcelli, Fabii, Aemilii, and others; and he also wrote inscriptions in verse to be placed under the statues of distinguished men, in which he happily described in four or five lines their achievements and public offices. In addition to these, we have frequent mention of his letters, and of a history of Cicero's consulship, in Greek, written in a plain and inartificial style. (Cic. ad Att. 2.1.)

Atticus was very wealthy. His father left him two millions of sesterces, and his uncle Caecilius about ten (Nepos, 5, 14); and this property he greatly increased by his mercantile speculations. Being a member of the equestrian order, he was able to invest large sums of money in the various corporations which farmed the public revenues; and he also derived great profits from advancing his money upon interest. In addition to this, he was economical in all his habits; his monthly expenditure was small, and his slaves brought him in a considerable sum of money. He had a large number carefully educated in his own house, whom he employed in transcribing books. He was thus enabled to procure a library for himself at a comparatively small cost, and to supply the public with books at a profit. Atticus, in fact, neglected no means of making money. We read, for instance, of his purchasing a set of gladiators, in order to let them out to magistrates and others who wished to exhibit games. (Cic. Att. 4.4, b.)

(Hüllemann, Diatribe in T. Pomponium Atticum, Traj. ad Rhen. 1838; Drumann's Rom, vol. v.)

Pompo'nius

1. M. Pomponius, one of the tribunes of the plebs, elected at the abolition of the decemvirate, B. C. 449. (Liv. 3.54.)

Pompo'nius

2. M. Pomponius, consular tribune, B. C. 399, perhaps either a son or grandson of the preceding. (Liv. 5.13.)

Pompo'nius

3. Q. Pomponius, perhaps a younger brother of the preceding, was tribune of the plebs, B. C. 395, in which year he supported the views of the senate by opposing, in conjunction with his colleague, A. Virginius, the proposition that a portion of the senate and people should settle at Veii. He and his colleague were, in consequence, accused two years afterwards, and compelled to pay a heavy fine. (Liv. 5.29, comp. cc. 24, 25.)

Pompo'nius or Pompo'nius Torquatus

4. M. Pomponius, tribune of the plebs, B. C. 362, brought an accusation against L. Manlius Imperiosus, who had been dictator in the preceding year, but was compelled to drop the accusation by the son of Manlius, afterwards surnamed Torquatus, who obtained admittance into the tribune's house, and threatened him with immediate death if he did not swear that he would abandon the impeachment of his father. (Liv. 7.4, 5; Cic. de Off. 3.30.; V. Max. 5.4.3; Appian, Samn. 2.) [Torquatus.]

Pompo'nius

5. SEX. POMPONIUS, legatus of the consul Ti. Sempronius Longus in the first year of the first Punic war, B. C. 218. (Liv. 21.15.)

Pompo'nius

6. M. Pomponius, tribune of the plebs, B. C. 167, opposed, with his colleague M. Antonius, the proposition of the praetor M'. Juventius Thalna, that war should be declared against the Rhodians. (Liv. 45.21.) Pomponius was praetor in B. C. 161, and in this year obtained a decree of the senate, by which philosophers and rhetoricians were forbidden to live in Rome. (Suet. de clar. Rhet. 1; Gel. 15.11.)

Pompo'nius

7. M. Pomponius, a Roman eques, was one of the most intimate friends of C. Gracchus, and distinguished himself by his fidelity to the latter on the day of his death, B. C. 121. When Gracchus, despairing of his life, had retired to the temple of Diana, and was going to kill himself there, Pomponius and Licinius took his sword, and induced him to fly. As they fled across the Sublician bridge, hotly pursued, Pomponius and Licinius turned round, in order to give their friend time for escape, and they allowed no one to pass till they fell pierced with wounds. This is the account of Plutarch; the details are related a little differently by other writers. (Plut. C. Gracch. 16, 17; Veil. Pat. 2.6; V. Max. 4.7.2; Aurel. Vict. de Vir. Ill. 65; comp. Cic. de Div. 2.29.)

Pompo'nius

8. M. Pomponius, aedile B. C. 82, in the consulship of the younger Marius. In the scenic games exhibited by him, the actress Galeria appeared, who was then a child of 12 years old, and who was again brought on the stage in A. D. 9, in her 104th year, in the votive games in honour of Augustus. (Plin. Nat. 7.49. s. 48.)

Pompo'nius

9. Cn. Pomponius, who perished in the civil war between Marius and Sulla, was an orator of some repute, and is reckoned by Cicero as holding the next place to his two great contemporaries, C. Aurelius Cotta and P. Sulpicius Rufus. His oratory was characterised by great vehemence, and he did not express his meaning very clearly. (Cic. Brut. 57, 62, 89, 90, de Orat. 3.13.)

Pompo'nius

10. M. Pomponius, as he is called by Plutarch (Plut. Luc. 15.), the commander of the cavalry of Lucullus in the third Mithridatic war. His real name was Pompeius. [Pompeius, No. 29.]

Pompo'nius

11. M. Pomponius, one of the legates of Pompey in the war against the pirates, B. C. 67, to whom Pompey assigned the superintendence of the gulfs washing the south of Gaul and Liguria. (Appian, Aithr. 95.)

Pompo'nius

12. P. Pomponius, accompanied P. Clodius, when he was murdered by Milo, B. C. 52. (Ascon. in Mil. p. 33, ed. Orelli.)

Pompo'nius

13. M. Pomponius, commanded the fleet of Caesar at Messana, the greater part of which was burnt in B. C. 48, by C. Cassius Longinus (Caes. Civ. 3.101.)

Pompo'nius

14. Pomponius, was proscribed by the triumvirs in B. C. 43. He was in Rome at the time, but escaped by assuming the insignia of a praetor, and accompanied by his slaves as lictors, left Rome, travelled through Italy as a public magistrate, and eventually crossed over to Sex. Pompey in one of the triremes of the state. (Appian, App. BC 4.45.) Valerius Maximus relates (7.3.9) this circumstance of Sentius Saturninus Vetulio or Vetulo.

Pompo'nius, Sextus

Some writers are of opinion that there was only one jurist of this name : some think that there were two. (See the references in Zimmern, Geschichte des Römischen Privatrechts, vol. i. p. 338, n. 6.)

Pomponius is often cited by Julianus (Dig. 3. tit. 5. s. 6.6-8; Dig. 17. tit. 2. s. 63.9), and also under the name of Sextus.

Puchta (Cursus der Institutionen, vol. i. p. 444), says there is no reason for assuming that there were two Pomponii. As to the passage (Dig. 28. tit. 5. s. 41), at the head of which stands the name of Pomponius, he observes that the words "ut refert Sextus Pomponius," at the end of the extract, merely show that the compilers did not take the extract immediately from the work of Pomponius, but from some other work in which it was cited. He adds, that this kind of repetition is not unusual in the Digest; and he refers to another passage (Dig. 22. tit. 1. s. 26; Julianus, lib. vi. ex Minucio), in which the repetition is avoided, but in other respects it is exactly like Dig. 28. tit. 5. s. 41. As to the passage (Dig. 30. s. 32), "tam Sextus quam Pomponius," he observes that the expression would be highly inapt, if the name Pomponius belonged to both jurists. The weakest ground of all, as he considers it, for supposing that there were two Pomponii is that Julianus often cites Pomponius ; and it is supposed that as Pomponius was a younger man than Julianus, and of less note, that Julianus would not have cited him.

Pomponius is the author of a long extract in the Digest (Dig. 1. tit. 1. s. 2), which is taken from a work of his in one book, entitled Enchiridion. His period may be approximately determined from the fact that Julianus is the last of the jurists whom he mentions, and the period of the activity of Julianus belongs to the reign of Hadrianus.

The number of extracts from Pomponius in the Digest is 585. He was a Cassianus (Gaius 2.218), "sed Juliano et Sexto placuit :" where Sextus means Sextus Pomponius. In another passage he alludes to C. Cassius under the name of Caius noster (Dig. 45. tit. 3. s. 39); for in this passage, and in a passage of Julianus (Dig. 24. tit. 3. s. 59), Caius or Gaius means C. Cassius, and not the later jurist, now known by the name of Gains. The same remark applies to Dig. 46. tit. 3. s. 78, which is an extract front C. Cassius made by Javolenus.

The works of Pomponius are the Enchiridion, which is not mentioned in the Florentine Index ; Variae Lectiones, of which the Index mentions only fifteen books, though the twenty-fifth, the thirty-fourth, and even the fortieth and forty-first books are cited in the Digest (Dig. 8. tit. 5. s. 8.6); twenty books of Epistolae; five books of Fideicommissa; libri lectionum ad Q. Mucium ; libri ad Plautium; liber singularis regularum ; libri ad Sabinum; libri V. SCtorum; and the two books of an Enchiridion, which is mentioned in the Index. Some other writings of Pomponius are cited. The extract from the single book of the Enchiridion, De Origine Juris, is our chief authority for the Roman jurists, to the time of Julianus, and for our knowledge of the two sectae or scholae. [Capito.]

The question of the two Pomponii is discussed by W. Grotius, Vitae Jurisconsultorum, with which may be compared the works of Zimmern and Puchta, which have been already referred to. [G.L]

Pompo'nius A'tticus

[Atticus.]

Pompo'nius Bassus

[Bassus.]

Pompo'nius Diony'sius, M.

a freedman of T. Pomponius Atticus, received his nomen from Atticus, his former master, according to the usual custom, but had the praenomen Marcus given him in compliment to M. Tullius Cicero (Cic. Att. 4.15, comp. 4.8, 11, 13). It is erroneously stated in Vol. I. p. 1039a. init. that his full name was T. Pomponius Dionysius.

Pompo'nius Festus

[Festus.]

Pompo'nius Flaccus

[Flaccus.]

Pompo'nius Graeci'nus, P.

consul suffectus, A. D. 16, was a friend and patron of Ovid, who addressed to him three of the epistles which were written by the poet from his place of banishment (ex Pont. 1.6, 2.6, 4.9). This Pomponius Graecinus was the brother of Pomponius Flaccus [Flaccus, Pomponius, No. 2], and probably also the father of the Pomponia Graecina, who lived in the reign of Claudius. [Pomponia Graecina.]

Pompo'nius Labeo

[Labeo.]

Pompo'nius Marcellus

[Marcellus.]

Pompo'nius Mela

[Mela.]

Pompo'nius Rufus

[Rufus.]

Pompo'nius Sabi'nus

[Sabinus.]

Pompo'nius Secundus

[Secundus.]

Pompo'nius Silva'nus

[Silvanus.]

Pompo'nius Veianta'nus, T.

commander of some of the allied troops in Southern Italy in B. C. 213, ventured to attack Hanno, the Carthaginian general, was defeated and taken prisoner. He had formerly been one of the publicani, and had earned a bad character by cheating both the state and the farmers of the revenue with whom he was in partnership. (Liv. 25.1, 3.)

Pomponius

(1) Lucius Pomponius Bononiensis, i. e. of Bononia (Bologna), a Latin writer who flourished about B.C. 90. He was the first to raise the hitherto improvised popular plays called Atellanae (q. v.) to a higher plane by the introduction of written composition in the metrical forms of the Greeks. He is particularly praised for richness of fancy, liveliness in plays upon words, and readiness in the use of rustic and farcical language (Vel. Pat. ii. 9. 6; Macrob. Sat. vi. 9. 4; Sen. Controv. vii. 18. 9). About seventy titles of plays by him are mentioned, a productiveness explained by the small compass of the Atellanae as being after-pieces. Some titles point to travesties of mythological subjects, such as the Agamemnon Suppositus and the Armorum Iudicium. The fragments are edited by Ribbeck in his Comicorum Romanorum Fragmenta (Leipzig, 1873). See Ribbeck, Röm. Dichter. i. 210.

(2) Titus Pomponius Attĭcus. See Atticus.

(3) Lucius Pomponius Secundus. The most important tragedian of the time of the Empire, probably the last who wrote for the stage. He lived under Tiberius and was a partisan of Seianus, after whose fall (A.D. 31) he had to submit to be kept in custody by his brother for six years, until Caligula gave him his freedom. In 44 he was consul; in 50 he fought with success against the Chatti, and received triumphal honours from Claudius. His poetical productions are highly spoken of by Tacitus (Ann. xii. 28) and Quintilian (x. 1. 98). We possess only very scanty remains of his tragedies.

(4) Pomponius Mela. See Mela.

(5) Sextus Pomponius. A distinguished jurist of the first half of the second century A.D. He composed, among other works, a history of law and jurisprudence down to the time of Hadrian, which is frequently quoted in the Digest.

(6) Pomponius Porphyrio. A Roman grammarian, who lived in the first half of the second century A.D., and composed a commentary on Horace, a fragmentary abridgment of which is still preserved, and is edited by Meyer (Leipzig, 1874).