| Lucius Cornelius Balbus (minor) |
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During the Civil War , he served under Caesar , by whom he was entrusted with several important missions. He also took part in the Alexandria n and Spanish wars. He was rewarded for his services by being admitted into the college of pontiffs. In 43 BC he was Quaestor in Further Spain, where he amassed a large fortune by plundering the inhabitants. In the same year he crossed over to Bogud, king of Mauretania, and is not heard of again until 21 BC , when he appears as proconsul of Africa . Mommsen thinks that he had incurred the displeasure of Augustus by his conduct as Praetor , and that his African appointment after so many years was due to his exceptional fitness for the post. In 19 BC Balbus defeated the Garamantes , and on March 27 in that year received the honor of a triumph, which was then for the first time granted to one who was not a Roman citizen by birth, and for the last time to a private individual. He built a Theatre in the capital, which was dedicated on the return of Augustus from Gaul in 13 BC ( Dio Cassius liv. 25; Pliny , ''Nat. Hist.'' xxxvi. 12. 60). Balbus appears to have given some attention to literature. He wrote a play of which the subject was his visit to Lentulus in the camp of Pompey at Dyrrhachium , and, according to Macrobius (''Saturnalia'', iii. 6), was the author of a work called ''Εξηγητκα'' dealing with the gods and their worship. See Velleius Paterculus ii. 51; Cicero , ''ad Att.'' viii. 9; and on both the above the exhaustive articles in Pauly-Wissowa, ''Realencyclopadie'', iv. pt. i. (1900). REFERENCE |
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