A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

censor B. C. 312 with Ap. Claudius Caecus, resigned his office at the end of eighteen months in accordance with the Aemilian law, which had limited the duration of the censorship to that time; while his colleague, Appius, continued to hold the censorship, in violation of the law, and thus gave his name to the Appian road and the Appian aquaeduct, which were completed by him. (Fasti Capit.; Liv. 9.29, 33; Frontin. de Aquaed. 5.) [CLAUDIUS, No. 10.] Frontinus states (l.c.) that Plautius obtained the surname of Venox from his discovering the springs which fed the aquaeduct (" ob inquisitatas aqua, venas Venocis cognomen "), and in the Fasti Capitolini it is said that he was called Venox during his censorship; but this explanation of the name, though repeated by Niebuhr (Hist. of Rome, vol. iii. p. 308), looks suspicious; and it is most likely that Venox is merely another form of Venno, which was borne before the time of the censor by other members of the gens. [VENNO.] The tale of Plautius bringing back the tibicines to Rome in his censorship, which is commemorated on a coin of Plautius Plancus, is related elsewhere. [Vol. III. p. 384b.]