Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus

Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, consul in 54 BC, was an enemy of Julius Caesar and a strong supporter of the aristocratic party in the late Roman Republic. Biography Ahenobarbus was born as the son of consul Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus. His grandfather Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus was a general and consul who led a campaign to conquer southern Gaul against the Allobroges. He is first mentioned in 70 BC by Cicero as a witness against Verres. In 61, he was curule aedile, when he exhibited a hundred Numidian lions, and continued the games so long that the people were obliged to leave the circus before the exhibition was over, in order to take food, which was the first time they had done so. This pause in the games was called diludium. He married Porcia, the sister of Cato the Younger, and in his aedileship supported the latter in his proposals against bribery at elections, which were directed against Pompey, who was purchasing votes for Afranius. The political opinions of Ahenobarbus coincided with those of Cato; throughout his life he was one of the strongest supporters of the aristocratic party. He took an active part opposing the measures of Julius Caesar and Pompey, and in 59 was accused, at the instigation of Caesar, of being an accomplice to the pretended conspiracy against Pompey's life.