1. A Gaul by birth, who was taken prisoner in war, and became a slave of Julius Caesar, whose confidence he gained so much as to be made his dispensator or steward. Caesar gave him his freedom, perhaps in his testament, as he is called by some writers the freedman of Augustus, who, we know, carried into execution the will of his uncle. Licinus gained the favour of Augustus, as well as of Julius Caesar, and was appointed by the former, in B. C. 15, governor of his native country, Gaul. He oppressed and plundered his countrymen so unmercifully, that they accused him before Augustus, who was at first disposed to treat his favourite with severity, but was mollified by Licinus exhibiting to him the immense wealth which he had accumulated in Gaul, and offering him the whole of it. Licinus thus escaped punishment, and seems, moreover, to have been permitted by Augustus to retain his property. His fortune was so great that his name was used proverbially to indicate a man of enormous wealth, and is frequently coupled with that of Crassus. To gratify his imperial master, Licinus, like many of his contemporaries, devoted part of his property to the erection of a public building, the " Basilica Julia," which he called after the name of his former master. He lived to see the reign of Tiberius. (D. C. 54.21; Suet. Aug. 67; Juv. 1.109, with Schol. 14.306; Pers. 2.36, with Schol.; Macr. 2.4; Senec. Ep. 119.10, 120 § 20; Sidon. Ep. 5.7.) There was a splendid marble tomb of Licinus on the Via Salaria, at the second milestone from the city; in reference to which the following pointed epigram is preserved :-- Marmoreo Licinus tumulo jacet, at Cato parvo,Pompeius nullo; quis putet esse deos ?

(Meyer, Anthol. Lat. vol. i. No. 77, with Meyer's note, p. 31). This tomb is also alluded to by Martial (8.3. 6). For an account of this Licinus, see Madvig, Opuscula altera, pp. 202-205.