A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

a Roman knight, born at Formiae, was the commander of the engineers (praefectus fabrrum) in Julius Caesar's army in Gaul. He amassed great riches, the greater part of which, however, he owed to Caesar's liberality. He is mentioned by Pliny as the first person at Rome who covered all the walls of his house with layers of marble, and also as the first, all of the columns in whose house were made of solid marble. In one of the poems of Catullus, addressed to Caesar (Carm,

xxix.), Mamurra is attacked, together with the dictator, with the severest invectives; but, instead of resenting the insult, Caesar simply retaliated by inviting the poet to dine with him. In another poem of Catullus (Carm. lvii.), Mamurra and Caesar are said to have lived on the most disgraceful terms; and the former is again alluded to in a third poem (Carm. 42.4), under the name of decoctor Formianus. (Plin. Nat. 36.6, s. 7; Suet. Cues. 73; Cic. Att. 7.7, 13.52.) Mamurra seems to have been alive in the time of Horace, who calls Formiae, in ridicule, Mamurrarum urbs (Sat. 1.5. 37), from which we may infer that his name had become a bye-word of contempt.