A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

15. L.ManliusTorquatus, son of No. 13, accused of bribery, in B. C. 66, the consuls elect, P. Cornelius Sulla and P. Autronius Paetus, as is related above, and thus secured the consulship for his father. He was closely connected with Cicero during the praetorship (B. C. 65) and consulship (B. C. 63) of the latter. In B. C. 62 he brought a second accusation against P. Sulla, whom he now charged with having been a party to both of Catiline's conspiracies. Sulla was defended by Hortensius and by Cicero in a speech which is still extant, and through the eloquence of his advocates, and the support of the aristocratical party, he obtained a verdict in his favour. In B. C. 54 Torquatus defended Gabinius when he was accused by Sulla. Torquatus, like his father, belonged to the aristocratical party, and accordingly opposed Caesar on the breaking out of the civil war in B. C. 49. He was praetor in that year, and was stationed at Alba with six cohorts; but on the fall of Corfinium he abandoned Alba and his soldiers went over to Caesar. He subsequently joined Pompey in Greece. In the following year (B. C. 48) he had the command of Oricum intrusted to him, but was obliged to surrender both himself and the town to Caesar, who, with his usual magnanimity, dismissed Torquatus uninjured. Torquatus, however, forthwith joined Pompey, and fought under him against Caesar at Dyrrhachium (Oros. 5.15). After the battle of Pharsalia he went to Africa, and upon the defeat of his party in that country, in B. C. 46, he attempted to escape to Spain along with Scipio and others, but was taken prisoner by P. Sittius at Hippo Regius and slain together with his companions. (Cic. pro Sull. 1, 8, 10, 12, ad Att. 4.16.11, ad Q. Fr. 3.3.2, ad Att. 7.12, 23, 9.8; Caes. Civ. 1.24, 3.11; Hirt. B. Afr. 96 ; Oros. 6.16, where he is erroneously called Titus.) Torquatus was well acquainted with Greek literature, and is praised by Cicero as a man well trained in every kind of learning. Although he expressed himself with elegance and force, he was not much of an orator. He belonged to the Epicurean school of philosophy, of which he was one of the most distinguished disciples at that time at Rome ; and he is introduced by Cicero as the advocate of that school in his dialogue De Finibus, the first book of which is called Torquatus in Cicero's letters to Atticus. (Cic. Brut. 76, de Fin. 1.5, ad Att. 13.5, 19, 32.)