5. L.FuriusPhilus, was consul B. C. 136 with Sex. Atilius Serranus. He received Spain as his province, and was commissioned by the senate to deliver up to the Numantines C. Hostilius Mancinuls, the consul of the preceding year. [MANCINUS, No. 3.] On that occasion Philus took with him as legati Q. Pompeius and Q. Metelluts, two of his greatest enemies, that they might be compelled to bear witness to his uprightness and integrity.
A contemporary of the younger Scipio and ot Laelius, Philus participated with them in a love for Greek literature and refinement. He cultivated the society of the most learned Greeks, and was himself a man of no small learning for those times. He was particularly celebrated for the purity witi which he spoke his mother-tongue. He is introduced by Cicero as one of the speakers in his dialogue De Republica, and is described by the latter as a man "moderatissimus et continentissimus." (Dio Cass. Fraqm. lxxxv. p. 36, ed. Reimar.; V. Max. 3.7.5; Cic. de Off. 3.30, de Rep. 3.11, Brut. 28, de Or. 2.37, pru Arch. 7, de Leg. Ayr. 2.24, de Rep. 1.11 ad Att. 4.16, Lael. 4, 6, 19, 27.) His praenomen was Lucius, and not Publius, as it is erroneously given in one passage of Cicero (Cic. Att. 12.5.3), and by many modern writers.