A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

or POPLI'CULA, or POPLI'COLA, a Roman cognomen, signified "one who courts the people" (from populus and colo,) and thus "a friend of the people." The form Poplicula or Poplicola was the most ancient. Poplicola generally occurs in inscriptions, but we also find Poplicula (Orelli, Inscr. No. 547). Publicola was the more modern form, and seems to have been the one usually employed by the Romans in later times. We find it in the best manuscripts of Livy, and in the palimpsest manuscript of Cicero's De Republica.