Lucius Lucilius Balbus was a jurist of the Lucilia gens of ancient Rome who lived in the 1st century BCE.
Balbus was one of the four notable pupils of the jurist Quintus Mucius Scaevola Pontifex, and one of the legal instructors of Servius Sulpicius Rufus, the eminent lawyer and distinguished friend of the writer Cicero, who was said to have clearly surpassed his teacher. [1]
He was probably the father of the Lucilius who was the companion of Appius Pulcher in Cilicia, and the brother of Quintus Lucilius Balbus, the Stoic philosopher. [2] [3] Cicero speaks of both the two Balbi as Stoics. [4] The 18th century jurist Johann Gottlieb Heineccius, among others, proposed that the jurist Lucius has been confounded with Quintus the Stoic philosopher, and that it was just Quintus who was the Stoic philosopher and not Lucius. [5]
The jurist was occasionally quoted in the works of Sulpicius; and, in the time of the 2nd century jurist Sextus Pomponius, his writings were on the verge of being lost, and either did not exist in a separate form, or, at least, were in the hands of few. [6] In giving advice and pleading causes his manner was slow and deliberate. [7]
Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a literary standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It formed parallel to Vulgar Latin around 75 BC out of Old Latin, and developed by the 3rd century AD into Late Latin. In some later periods, the former was regarded as good or proper Latin; the latter as debased, degenerate, or corrupted. The word Latin is now understood by default to mean "Classical Latin"; for example, modern Latin textbooks almost exclusively teach Classical Latin.
Servius Sulpicius Rufus, was a Roman orator and jurist. He was consul in 51 BC.
The gens Sulpicia was one of the most ancient patrician families at ancient Rome, and produced a succession of distinguished men, from the foundation of the Republic to the imperial period. The first member of the gens who obtained the consulship was Servius Sulpicius Camerinus Cornutus, in 500 BC, only nine years after the expulsion of the Tarquins, and the last of the name who appears on the consular list was Sextus Sulpicius Tertullus in AD 158. Although originally patrician, the family also possessed plebeian members, some of whom may have been descended from freedmen of the gens.
The gens Lucilia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. The most famous member of this gens was the poet Gaius Lucilius, who flourished during the latter part of the second century BC. Although many Lucilii appear in Roman history, the only one known to have obtained any of the higher offices of the Roman state was Lucilius Longus, consul suffectus in AD 7.
Quintus Mucius Scaevola "Pontifex" was a politician of the Roman Republic and an important early authority on Roman law. He is credited with founding the study of law as a systematic discipline. He was elected Pontifex Maximus, as had been his father and uncle before him. He was the first Roman Pontifex Maximus to be murdered publicly, in Rome in the temple of the Vestal Virgins, signifying a breakdown of historical norms and religious taboos in the Republic.
Ancient Roman philosophy is philosophy as it was practiced in the Roman Republic and its successor state, the Roman Empire. Roman philosophy includes not only philosophy written in Latin, but also philosophy written in Greek in the late Republic and Roman Empire. Important early Latin-language writers include Lucretius, Cicero, and Seneca the Younger. Greek was a popular language for writing about philosophy, so much so that the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius chose to write his Meditations in Greek.
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, also known as the Moral Epistles and Letters from a Stoic, is a letter collection of 124 letters that Seneca the Younger wrote at the end of his life, during his retirement, after he had worked for the Emperor Nero for more than ten years. They are addressed to Lucilius Junior, the then procurator of Sicily, who is known only through Seneca's writings.
Rufus is one of the most common of the ancient Roman cognomina.
De Natura Deorum is a philosophical dialogue by Roman Academic Skeptic philosopher Cicero written in 45 BC. It is laid out in three books that discuss the theological views of the Hellenistic philosophies of Epicureanism, Stoicism, and Academic Skepticism.
The gens Octavia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, which was raised to patrician status by Caesar during the first century BC. The first member of the gens to achieve prominence was Gnaeus Octavius Rufus, quaestor about 230 BC. Over the following two centuries, the Octavii held many of the highest offices of the state; but the most celebrated of the family was Gaius Octavius, the grandnephew and adopted son of Caesar, who was proclaimed Augustus by the senate in 27 BC.
Balbus is Latin for "stammerer", and may refer to:
Quintus Lucilius Balbus was a Stoic philosopher and a pupil of Panaetius.
Lucius Licinius Murena was a Roman politician and soldier. He was an officer (legate) in the Third Mithridatic War, a governor (propraetor) of Gallia Transalpina from 64 to 63 BC and a consul in 62 BC. He stood trial because of charges of electoral bribery. Cicero, who defended him, immortalized him in one of his published speeches.
The gens Juventia, occasionally written Jubentia, was an ancient plebeian family at Rome. After centuries of obscurity, the gens emerges into history with the appearance of Titus Juventius, a military tribune, in the beginning of the second century BC. The first of the Juventii to obtain the consulship was Marcus Juventius Thalna in 163 BC. But the family is renowned less for its statesmen than for its jurists, who flourished during the second century AD.
The gens Laelia was a plebeian family at Rome. The first of the gens to obtain the consulship was Gaius Laelius in 190 BC.
Lucius Atilius, of the Atilia gens, was a jurist of ancient Rome, who lived around the 2nd century BCE.
Gaius Juventius was a jurist of the Juventia gens of ancient Rome who lived in the 1st century BCE.
Gaius Aquilius Gallus was a jurist of the Aquillia gens of ancient Rome who lived in the 1st century BCE.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Graves, John Thomas (1870). "Balbus, L. Lucilius". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology . Vol. 1.