Lentulus, Publius Cornelius

▪ Roman politician

byname  Sura (Latin: “Calf of the Leg”)  

died Dec. 5, 63 BC, Rome

      a leading figure in Catiline's conspiracy (63 BC) to seize control of the Roman government.

      In 81 Lentulus was quaestor to Lucius Cornelius Sulla. When Sulla later accused him of having squandered public funds, Lentulus scornfully held out the calf of his leg, a gesture normally used by ball-playing boys inviting punishment for an error. He was praetor in 74 and consul in 71. Although expelled from the Senate for immorality in 70, he was elected to a second praetorship in 63. It was while serving in this office that he joined Catiline. When Catiline fled from Rome after Cicero's speech In Catilinam, Lentulus assumed leadership of the remaining conspirators. He planned to murder Cicero and set fire to Rome, but the plot failed because of his indiscretion in communicating it to the ambassadors of the Allobroges, then in Rome, in the hope of securing armed assistance from them. The ambassadors betrayed him, and Lentulus and his co-conspirators were arrested, forced to confess, and then executed.

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