Lanatus

• a surname in the gens Menenia, Liv. 4, 13.

the name of a family of the Menenia gens, which was of great distinction in the earliest ages of the republic. Livy (2.332), speaking of Agrippa Menenius Lanatus [see below, No. 1], says that he was sprung from the plebs; but as this Agrippa had been consul, and this dignity was not yet open to the plebeians, it is certain that he must have been a patrician , and, consequently, if the statement of Livy is correct, the Lanati must have been made patricians, probably during the reign of one of the later Roman kings.

1. Agrippa Menenius Lanatus, C. F., consul, B. C. 503, with P. Postumius Tubertus, conquered the Sabines and obtained the honour of a triumph on account of his victory. In the struggles between the patricians and plebeians he is represented as a man of moderate views, who had the good fortune, rarely to be found in civil strifes, of being beloved and trusted by both parties. It was owing to his mediation that the first great rupture between the patricians and plebeians, when the latter seceded to the Sacred Mount, was brought to a happy and peaceful termination in B. C. 493; and it was upon this occasion he is said to have related to the plebeians his well-known foible of the belly and its members. He died at the latter end of this year, and as he did not leave sufficient property for defraying the expences of any but a most ordinary funeral, he was buried at the public expence in a most splendid manner: the plebeians had made voluntary contributions for the purpose, which were given to the children of Lanatus, after the senate had insisted that the expences of the funeral should be paid from the treasury. (Liv. 2.16, 32, 33; Dionys. A. R. 5.44_47, 6.49_89, 96; Zonar. 7.13, 14.)

2. T. Menenius Agrippae F. C. N. Lanatus, son of the preceding, was consul in B. C. 477 with C. Horatius Pulvillus. It was during this year that the Fabii were cut off by the Etruscans at Cremera, and T. Lanatus, who was encamped only a short way off at the time, allowed them to be destroyed in accordance with the wishes of the ruling party in the senate. He paid, however, dearly for this act of treachery. The Etruscans flushed with victory defeated his army, and took possession of the Janiculus: and in the following year the tribunes brought him to trial for having neglected to assist the Fabii. As they did not wish for the blood of the son of their great benefactor, the punishment was to be only a fine of 2000 asses. Lanatus was condemned; and he took his punishment so much to heart, that he shut himself up in his house and died of grief. (Liv. 2.51, 52; Dionys. A. R. 9.18-27; Diod. 11.53; Gel. 17.21.)

3. T. Menenius AGRIPPAE F. AGRIPPAE N. Lanatus, called by Livy Titus, and by Dionysius Lucius, but by the other authorities Tilus, was consul with P. Sestius Capitolinus Vaticanus, B. C. 452, the year before the first decenlvirate. (Liv. 3.32; Dionys. A. R. 10.54; Diod. 12.22.) It appears from Festus (s. v. peculatus) that the consuls of this year had something to do with the lex Aternia Tarpeia, which had been passed two years previously, but the passage in Festus, as it stands at present, is not intelligible.

4. L. Meneniuls Agrippae N. Lanatus, T. F., son of No. 2 and grandson of No. 1, was consul in B. C. 440, with Proculus Geganius Macerinus. During their consulship there was a great famine at Rome; and a praefectus annonae was for the first time appointed, in the person of L. Minucius Augurinus [Augurinus, No. 5], though it was not till the following year that the great struggle between the patricians and Sp. Maelius came to a head. (Liv. 4.12; Diod. 12.36.)

5. Agrippa Menenius AGRIPPAE N. Lanatus, T. F., a brother of No. 4, was consul in B. C. 439, with T. Quintius Capitolinus Barbatus; but they had little to do with the government, as T. Quintius was forced to nominate Cincinnatus as dictator, in order to crush Sp. Maelius. Lanatus was one of the consular tribunes in B. C. 419, and a second time in 417. (Liv. 4.13, 44, 47; Diod. 12.37, 13.7.)

6. L. Menenius Lanatus, was consular tribune four times, first in B. C. 387, secondly in 380, thirdly in 378, and fourthly in 376. (Liv. 6.5, 27; Diod. 15.24, 50, 71.)