Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus

Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus (died 88 BC) was tribune of the people in 104 BC. He was the son of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, and brother of Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus. The College of Pontiffs elected him in 103 (succeeding Lucius Caecilius Metellus Dalmaticus). He brought forward a law (lex Domitia de Sacerdotiis) by which the priests of the superior colleges were to be elected by the people in the Tribal Assembly (seventeen of the tribes voting) instead of by co-optation. The law was subsequently repealed by Sulla. Both during his tribunate and afterwards, he prosecuted several of his private enemies, such as Marcus Aemilius Scaurus (whom he blamed for not having been elected to the pontificate in the first place) and Marcus Junius Silanus. He was elected consul in 96 BC and censor in 92 BC with Lucius Licinius Crassus the orator, with whom he was frequently at variance. They took joint action, however, in suppressing the recently established Latin rhetorical schools, which they regarded as injurious to public morality; in the words of Cicero, these were seen as 'schools of impudence'.