Cornificius
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CORNIFICIO proper-name adjective neuter dative singular, proper-name adjective masculine ablative singular, proper-name adjective masculine dative singular, proper-name adjective neuter ablative singular of Cornificius
- I Q. Cornificius, friend of Cicero and author of rhet. and gram. works, Cic. Fam. 12, 17, 2; Quint. 3, 1, 21 al.; Cic. Att. 1, 13, 3 al.—
- II A Latin poet, Cat. 38, 1; Ov. Tr. 2, 436; Macr. S. 6, 5; cf. Don. Vit. Verg. 67.
- 1. Q. ~, pretor in 67 v. Chr.;
- 2. Q. ~, zoon van
- 1. , pretor in 46 v. Chr.; redenaar en dichter.
1. Cornificius, secretary (scriba) of Verres in his praetorship, B. C. 74. (Cic. in Verr. 1.57.)
2. Q. Cornificius, was one of the judices on the trial of Verres, and tribune of the plebs in the following year, B. C. 69. He probably obtained the praetorship in 66, and was one of Cicero's competitors for the consulship in 64. His failure, however, did not make him an enemy of the great orator; he seems to have assisted him in the suppression of the Catilinarian conspiracy, and it was to his care that Cethegus was committed upon the arrest of the conspirators. Subsequently in B. C. 62, Cornificius was the first to bring before the senate the sacrilege of Clodius in violating the mysteries of the Bona Dea. He probably died soon afterwards, as we hear nothing further of him. He is called by Asconius "vir sobrius ac sanctus." (Cic. in Verr. Act. 1.10; Ascon. in Tog. Cand. p. 82; Cic. Att. 1.1; Sal. Cat. 47; Appian, App. BC 2.5; Cic. Att. 1.13.)
3. Q. Cornificius, son of No. 2, is first mentioned in B. C. 50, as betrothing himself to the daughter of Aurelia Orestilla, the beautiful but profligate widow of Catiline. (Cic. Fam. 8.7.) In the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, he served in 48 as the quaestor of the former, by whom he was sent into Illyricum with the title of propraetor. By his prudence and military skill, Cornificius reduced the province to a state of obedience, and rendered no small service to Caesar's cause. (Hirt. B. Alex. 42.) He seems to have returned to Rome in the following year, and was then probably rewarded by Caesar with the augurate, as we find, from Cicero's letters, that he was in possession of that office in the next year. He also formed an intimate friendship with Cicero, several of whose letters to him are extant. (Ad Fam. 12.17-30.)
Cornificius did not remain long in Rome. In B. C. 46, we find him in Syria, where he was observing the movements of Caecilius Bassus, and in the beginning of the following year he was appointed by Caesar governor of Syria. (Cic. Fam. 12.18, 19.) This office, however, he did not hold long, for on the death of Caesar, in B. C. 44, be was in possession of the province of Old Africa. This he maintained for the senate against L. Calvisius Sabinus, and continued to adhere to the same party on the formation of the triumvirate, in 43. He sent troops to the assistance of Sex. Pompey, and gave shelter and protection to those who had been proscribed by the triumvirs. He refused to surrender his province to T. Sextius, who commanded the neighboring province of New Africa, and who had ordered him, in the name of the triumvirs, to do so. Hereupon a war broke out between them. The details of this war are related somewhat differently by Appian and Dio Cassius; but so much is certain, that Cornificius at first defeated T. Sextius, but was eventually conquered by the latter, and fell in battle. (Appian, App. BC 3.85, 4.36, 53-56; D. C. 48.17, 21; Liv. Epit. 123.)
Cornificius was a man of literary habits and tastes. Cicero speaks highly of his judgment when he sends him in B. C. 45 a copy of his "Orator," but seems to banter him somewhat respecting his oratory. (Cic. Ad Fam. 12.17, 18.) Many have attributed to him the authorship of the " Rhetorica ad Herennium." Some remarks are made on this subject below.
The following coin refers to this Cornificius. It bears on the obverse the head of Ammon, and on the reverse Juno holding a shield and crowning a man who has a lituus in his right hand, with the legend Q. Cornvfici Avgvr Imp. From the head of Ammon, it would appear to have been struck in Africa, and the title of Imperator was probably given him by his soldiers after his victory over T. Sextius.
4. L. Cornificius, was one of the accusers of Milo in B. C. 52, after the death of Clodius. (Ascon. in Milon. pp. 40, 54, ed. Orelli.) The P. Cornificius, a senator, also mentioned by Asconius (In Milon. p. 37), is probably the same person.
5. L. Cornificius, probably, from his praenomen, the son of No. 4, was the accuser of M. Brutus in the court by which the murderers of Caesar were tried. He afterwards commanded the fleet of Octavianus in the war against Sex. Pompey, and by his boldness and bravery saved the fleet when it was in great danger off the coast of Sicily (B. C. 38), and took the ship of Demochares, the admiral of the Pompeian squadron. Cornificius again distinguished himself in the canmpaign of B. C. 36. He had been left by Octavianus with the land forces at Tauromenium, where they were in circumstances of the greatest peril; but by a most bold and dangerous march he arrived at Mylae, and united his army with Agrippa's. For these services he was rewarded with the consulship in the following year, B. C. 35; and he considered himself entitled to such honour from saving the lives of the soldiers, that he was accustomed afterwards at Rome to ride home upon an elephant whenever he supped out. Like the other generals of Augustus, Cornificius was obliged afterwards to expend some of his property in embellishing the city, and accordingly built a temple of Diana. (Plut. Brut. 27; Appian, App. BC 5.80, 86, 111-115; D. C. 49.5_7; Vell. 2.79; D. C. 49.18; Suet. Aug. 29.) Works On Rhetoric
Quintilian speaks (3.1.21, 9.3. §§ 89, 98) of one Cornificius as the writer of a work on Rhetoric ; and, as some of the extracts which Quintilian gives from this work agree in many respects both in form and substance with the "Rhetorica ad Herennium," several critics have ascribed the authorship of the latter treatise to Cornificius. But the difficulties in which this matter is involved are pointed out under Cicero, p. 727b. ; and even if the " Rhetorica ad Herennium" were written by Cornificius, there is no reason to identify him either with Q. Cornificius, the father, or the son [No. 2 or 3], as is usually done. There are also chronological difficulties in this supposition which are pointed out in the Prolegomena to the first volume (p. lv.) of the complete edition of Cicero's works by Schütz. (Lips. 1814.) The author of the work on Rhetoric referred to by Quintilian may be (though the matter is quite uncertain) the same as the writer of the " Etyma," of which the third book is quoted by Macrobius (Macr. 1.9), and which must have been composed at least subsequently to B. C. 44, as it contained a quotation from Cicero's "De Natura Deorum," which was published in that year. The etymologies of Cornificius, frequently quoted by Festus, were taken undoubtedly from this work, and are rather worse than the usual wretched etymologies of the ancients. Thus, for instance, nare is derived from navis, because "aqua feratur natans ut avis ;" oscillare from os and caelure; nuptiae from novus " quod nova petantur conjugia," the word for marriage being of course of no consequence ! Poetry by a Cornificius
Again, there is a poet Cornificius mentioned by Ovid (Ov. Tr. 2.436), and also by Macrobius, who has preserved an hexameter line and a half of a poem of his, entitled "Glaucus." (Sat. 6.5.) Donatus, in his life of Virgil (§§ 67, 76), likewise speaks of a Cornificius who was an enemy and a detractor of the Mantuan bard; and Servius tells us, that Cornificius is intended under the name of Amyntas in two passages of the Eelogues. (Serv. ad Virg. Ecl. 2.39, 5.8.) Now, it seems probable enough that the poet mentioned by Ovid and Macrobius are the same; but his identity with the detractor of Virgil is rendered doubtful by the statement of Hieronymus (Chron. Euseb. Ol. 184. 4), that the poet Cornificius perished in B. C. 41, deserted by his soldiers. Heyne, who is followed by Clinton, remarks, that, if the date of Hieronymus is correct, the poet Cornificius must be a different person from the detractor of Virgil, as the latter had not risen to eminence so early as B. C. 41; but Weichert (Poetarum Latinorum Reliquiae, p. 167) observes, that as the "Culex" was written in B. C. 44 and some of the Eclognes before B. C. 41, the rising fame of Virgil may have provoked the jealousy of Cornificius, who is described by Donatus as a man " perverse naturee" At all events, it is likely enough that the poet Cornificius is the same as the Cornificius to whom Catullus addresses his 38th poem.
(1) Quintus, a contemporary of Cicero, distinguished for talents and literary acquirements, who attained to some of the highest offices in the State. Catullus and Ovid both speak of his poetic abilities, and he appears to have been the friend of both. Cornificius distinguished himself as propraetor in the Illyrian War, and also as governor of Syria and afterwards of Africa. In this latter province he espoused the cause of the Senate after Caesar's death, and received and gave protection to those who had been proscribed by the Second Triumvirate. He lost his life, however, while contending in that country against Sextius, who had been sent against him by Octavianus. Some scholars make this Cornificius to have been the author of the rhetorical treatise to Herennius commonly ascribed to Cicero. (See Quint. iii. 1. 21.) He is said also to have been an enemy of Vergil's, but this supposition violates chronology, since the poet only became eminent subsequent to the date when Cornificius died.
(2) Lucius, a partisan of Octavianus, by whom he was appointed to accuse Brutus, before the public tribunal at Rome, of the assassination of Caesar (Plut. Brut. 27). He afterwards distinguished himself, as one of Octavianus's lieutenants, by a masterly retreat in Sicily during the war with Sextus Pompeius. He was consul, B.C. 35.