Cornutus

• I Annaeus Cornutus, a grammarian, Gell. 2, 6.—
• II M. Cornutus, a praetor during the consulate of Hirtius and Pansa, Cic. Phil. 14, 14, 37.

occurs as an agnomen in the family of the Camerini, who belonged to the patrician Sulpicia gens [Camerinus], and also as a cognomen of several plebeians whose gens is unknown.

1. C. CORNUTUS, tribune of the plebs in B. C. 61, is described by Cicero as a well-meaning man, and resembling Cato in his character, whence he is called Pseudo-Cato. In 57 he held the office of praetor, and was among those who were active in bringing about the recall of Cicero from exile. (Cic. Att. 1.14, Post. Red. in Sen. 9.)

2. M. Cornutus, a praetorian, served, in B. C. 90, as legate in the Marsic war, and distinguished himself as an experienced officer. (Cic. Font. 15.) He is in all probability the same person with the Cornutus who, in B. C. 87, opposed Marius and Cinna, and was saved from destruction through the artifice of his slaves. (Appian, App. BC 1.73 ; Plut. Mar. 43.)

3. M. Cornutus, probably a son of No. 2, was praetor urbanus in B. C. 43, and, during the absence of the consuls Hirtius and Pansa, he supplied their place at Rome : after the death of the consuls, he was ordered by the senate to superintend their funeral. When Octavianus shortly after demanded the consulship for himself, and advanced towards Rome upon the senate refusing to grant it, the three legions stationed in the city went over to Octavianus, and M. Cornutus, who had the command of one of them, put an end to his life, (Cic. Fam. 10.12, 16, Philip. 14.14; V. Max. 5.2.10; Appian, App. BC 3.92.) [L.S]

a Roman historian, who, according to the account of Suidas (s. v. Κορνοῦτος, where, however, the account of the philosopher L. Annaeus Cornutus and the historian are jumbled together in one article), seems to have been a contemporary of Livy, but very inferior to him in point of merit. His great wealth and the circumstance of his having no children, attracted crowds of admirers around him, but no further particulars are known about him. (G. J. de Martini, Disput. lit. de L. Annaeo Cornuto, p. 8, &c.) [L.S]

(Ἀνναῖος Κορνοῦτος), one of the commentators on Aristotle, concerning whose life but few particulars are known. The work of Diogenes Laertius is believed to have contained a life of Cornutus, which, however, is lost. (Salmas. Exercit. Plin. p. 888, &c.) Our principal sources of information are Suidas (s. v. Κορνοῦτος)--where, however, only the last words of the article refer to the philosopher, and all the rest to Cornutus the historian--and Eudocia (p. 273). Cornutus was born at Leptis in Libya, and came, probably in the capacity of a slave, into the house of the Annaei, which was distinguished for its love of literary pursuits. The Annaei emancipated him (whence his name Annaeus), and he became the teacher and friend of the poet Persius, on whose intellectual culture and development he exercised a very great influence. He was sent into exile by Nero, for having too freely criticised the literary attempts of the emperor. (D. C. 62.29.) This happened, according to Hieronymus in his Chronicle, in A. D. 68. The account of Dio Cassius furnishes a characteristic feature of the defiance peculiar to the Stoics of that time, to whom Cornutus also belonged, as we see from the fifth satire of Persius. That he was a man of very extensive knowledge is attested by the authority of Dio Cassius, as well as by the works he wrote. Works On Aristotle's Categories

One of the most important of the philosophical productions of Cornutus was his work on Aristotle's Categories, which is referred to by the later cormmentators, Simplicius and Porphyrius. (Schol. Aristot. p. 48b. 13, p. 80a. 22, ed. Brandis; Simplic. fol. 5, a., ed. Basil.) Ἀντιγραφὴ πρ̀ος Ἀθηνόδωρον

Cornutus seems to have been very partial to the study of Aristotle, for he wrote a work against Athenodorus, an opponent of the Aristotelian philosophy, which, according to Bake's emendation, bore the title Ἀντιγραφὴ πρ̀ος Ἀθηνόδωρον. (Simplic. p. 47b. 22, ed. Brandis; Porphyr. Expos. Arist. Categ. p. 21, ed. Paris; Simplic. fol. 15, b.) Ἐλληνικὴ Θεολογία

Cornutus also wrote a philosophical work, entitled Ἐλληνικὴ Θεολογία, which is probably still extant, and the same as the much mutilated treatise Περί τῆς τῶν Θεῶν Φύσεως, edited by Gale in his " Opusc. Mythol. Phys. Eth." p. 139. (Ritter, Gesch. d. Philos. iv. p. 202.) Others, however, consider this treatise as a mere abridgment of the original work of Cornutus. Other Works

The other philosophical productions of Cornutus, which were very numerous, are completely lost, and not even their titles have come down to us. He also wrote on rhetorical and grammatical subjects. Thus he made, for example, a commentary on all Virgil's poems, which he dedicated to the poet Silius Italicus. (Suringar, Hist. Crit. Scholiast. Lat. ii. p. 116, &c.)

According to the fashion of the time, he also tried his hand in tragedy, in conjunction with his friend Seneca and his pupils Lucan and Persius (Welcker, Griech. Trhg. iii. p. 1456, &c.); and he is even said to have made attempts at writing satires. (Wernsdorf, Poet. Lat. Min. iii p. 17.4.) Further Information

A minute account of his relation to the poet Persius, as well as of his pupils and his literary merits, is given by Ger. Jo. de Martini, Disputatio Litteraria de L. Annaeo Cornuto, Lugd. Bat. 1825, and in Otto Jahn's Prolegomena to his edition of Persius, Lipsiae, 1843, pp. viii.--xxvii. (Comp. Stahr, Aristoteles bei d. Römern, p. 71, &c.) [A.S]

a man of praetorian rank in the reign of Tiberius, who was implicated, in A. D. 24, in the affair between young Vibius Serenus and his father, and put an end to his life to escape an unjust verdict. (Tac. Ann. 4.28.) [L.S]

was consul suffectus in A. D. 101 together with Pliny the Younger, who mentions him several times as a person of great merit. (Epist. 4.17, 5.15, 7.21, 31.) [L.S]

A Greek philosopher, born at Leptis in Africa, who lived and taught at Rome during the reign of Nero. The appellation L. Annaeus appears to indicate a client or freedman of the Seneca family. His tenets were those of the Stoic sect, and his name was not without distinction in that school of philosophy. He excelled in criticism and poetry; but his principal studies were of a philosophical character. His merit as a teacher of the Stoic doctrine sufficiently appears from his having been the preceptor of the satirist Persius. Persius, dying before his master, left him his library, with a considerable sum of money; but Cornutus accepted only the books, and gave the money to the sisters of his pupil. The poet Lucan was also one of his students. Under Nero, Cornutus was driven into exile (A.D. 68) for his freedom of speech. The emperor having written several books in verse on the affairs of Rome, and his flatterers advising him to continue the poem, the honest Stoic had the courage to remark that he doubted whether so large a work would be read; and when it was urged that Chrysippus had written as much, he replied, “His writings were useful to mankind.” After so unpardonable an offence against imperial vanity, the only wonder is that Cornutus escaped with his life. He composed some tragedies, and a large number of other works, the only one of which that has come down to us is the “Theory concerning the Nature of the Gods” (Θεωρία περὶ τῆς τῶν Θεῶν Φύσεως); or, as it is entitled in one of the MSS., “Concerning Allegories” (Περὶ Ἀλληγορίων). Cornutus, in fact, in this production seeks to explain the Greek mythology on allegorical and physical principles. It has been edited by Lang (Leipzig, 1881). See Jahn's prolegomena to his Persius, p. viii.