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PONTIA.
POMPONIUS LABEO. [labeo.] POMPO'NIUS MARCELLUS. [marcel-
LUS.]
POMPONIUS MELA. [mela.] POMPO'NIUS RUFUS. [rufus.] POMPO'NIUS SABI'NUS. [sabinus.] POMPO'NIUS SECUNDUS. [secundus.] POMPO'NIUS SILVA'NUS. [silvanus.] T. POMPO'NIUS VEIANTA'NUS, 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. xxv. 1,3.)
POMPOSIANUS METTIUS. [mettius.] C. POMPTFNUS, is first mentioned in b.c. 71, when he served as legate under M. Crassus, in the Servile war. (Fronthl. Strat. ii. 4. § 8.) He was praetor b. c. 63, in which year he rendered important service to Cicero in the suppression of the Catilinarian conspiracy, especially by the apprehension of the ambassadors of the Allo-broges. He afterwards obtained the province of Gallia Narbonensis, and in b. c. 61 defeated the Allobroges, who had invaded the province. In consequence of this victory he sued for a triumph on his return to Rome ; but as it was refused by the senate, he remained for some years beyond the pomoerium, urging his claim. At length, in B. c. 54, his friends made a final attempt to procure him the long-desired honour. He was opposed by the praetors, M. Cato and P. Servilius Isau-ricus, and by the tribune Q. Mucius Scaevola, who urged that he was not entitled to the privilege, because he had not received the imperium by a lex curiata ; but he was supported by the consul Appius, and by most of the praetors and tribunes ; and as there was no hope of prevailing upon the senate to grant the favour, his former legate, Serv. Sulpicius Galba, brought the matter before the people, and obtained from them a resolution, passed contrary to law before daylight, in virtue of which Pomptinus at length entered the city in triumph. (Sail. Cat. 45 ; Cic. in Cat. iii. 2, de Prov. Cons. 13, in Pison. 14, ad Att. iv. 16, v. 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 14, ad Q. Fr. iii. 4. § 6 ; Dion Cass. xxxvii. 47, xxxix. 65 ; Liv. Epit. 103.)
In b. c. 51 Pomptinus accompanied Cicero as legate to Cilicia, but he did not remain there longer than a year, according to the stipulation he had previously made with Cicero. (Cic. ad Att. v. 21. § 9, vi. 3, ad Fam. ii. 15. § 4, iii. 10. § 3, xv. 4. § 9.) There is considerable variation in the orthography of the name. We find him called Pomptinius, Pomtinius^ Pomtinus and Pontinius, as well as Pomptinus^ which seems the preferable form.
POMPYLUS (IIo(u7nJAos), a slave of Theo-phrastus, who also became celebrated as a philosopher. (Diog. Lae'rt. v. 36 ; Gell. ii. 18 ; Macrob. Sat. i. 11.)
PONNANUS, the author of an epigram in the Latin Anthology (No. 539, ed. Meyer) on a picture respecting the death of Cleopatra, but of whom nothing is known.
PONTIA. 1. A woman in the reign of Nero, who obtained an infamous notoriety as the murderer of her own children (Juv. vi. 638, &c.;
495
Martial, ii. 34, iv. 42. 5.) The scholiast on Juvenal states that she was the wife of P. (C.?) Pe-tronius, who was condemned as one of the conspirators against Nero ; that having been convicted, after her husband's death, of destroying her own children by poison, she partook of a sumptuous banquet, and then put an end to her life by opening her veins. In an inscription published by Gruter (p. 921. 6), recording this act of villany, she is called the daughter of T. Pontius ; but we may, with Heinrich (ad Juv. I. c.), question the genuineness of this inscription, as it was probably manufactured out of this passage of Juvenal.
2. pontia postumia, was slain by her lover, Octavius Sagitta, tribune of the plebs, a. d. 58, because she refused to marry him after promising to do so. Sagitta was accused by the father of Pontia, and condemned under the lex Cornelia de Sicariis to the severest form of banishment (de-portatio in insulam). In the civil wars following the death of Nero, Sagitta returned from banishment, but was again condemned by the senate, in a. d. 70, to his former punishment. (Tac. Ann. xiii. 44, Hist. iv. 44.)
PONTIA GENS, plebeian, was originally Samnite. It never attained much eminence at Rome during the republic, but under the empire some of its members were raised to the consulship. During the republican period aqujla is the only cognomen borne by the Roman Pontii; but in the imperial times we find various surnames, of which an alphabetical list is given below, after pontius, where the Samnite Pontii are also mentioned.
PONTIANUS. 1. Mentioned in one of Cicero's letters (ad Att. xii. 44. § 2), appears to have been a friend of Mustela, and to have been defended upon some occasion by Cicero.
2. P. aufidius pontianus, of Amiternum, spoken of by Varro. (R. R. ii. 9. § 6.)
3. ser. octavius laenas pontianus, consul A. d. 131, with M. Antonius Rufinus.
4. pontianus, consul suffectus in a.d. 135.
5. proculus pontianus, consul a.d. 238.
PONTICUS, a Roman poet, and a contemporary of Ovid and Propertius, wrote an heroic poem on the Theban war, and hence is compared to Homer by Propertius (Ovid, Trist. iv. 10. 47 ; Propert. i. 7, i. 9. 26.)
PONTFDIA is mentioned twice in Cicero's letters (ad Att. v. 21. § 14. vi. 1. § 10), from which it appears that Cicero had entered into negotiations with her for the marriage of his daughter Tullia to her son.
PONTFDIUS. 1. C. pontidius, is mentioned by Velleius Paterculus (ii. 16) as one of the leaders in the Social or Marsic war, b. c. 90. There can be no doubt that he is the same person as Appian calls (B. C. i. 40) C. Pontilius ; and as the name of Pontidius occurs elsewhere, the orthography in Velleius seems preferable.
2. M. pontidius, of Arpiimm, was an orator of some distinction, speaking with fluency, and acute in the management of a case, but vehement and passionate (Cic. Brut. 70, comp. de Orat. ii. 68.)
TI. PONTIFI'CIUS, a tribune of the plebs, b. c. 480, attempted to introduce an agrarian law. (Liv. ii. 44.)
PONTFLIUS. [pontidius, No. 1.]
PONTFNIUS. [pomptinus.] PO'NTIUS. 1. A friend of Scipio African™
