2. The wife of Lentulus, the flamen Martialis. (Macr. 2.9.)
PUBLI'CIA GENS, plebeian. The ancient form of the name was Publicius. which we find on coins and in the Fasti Capitolini. This gens rose into importance in the time between the first and second Punic wars, and the first member of it who obtained the consulship was M. Publicius Malleolas, in B. C. 232. During the republic it was divided into two families, that of MALLEOLUS, which was the most important, and that of BIBULUS, which has been accidentally omitted under that head, and is therefore given below. Besides these names, there are a few cognomens of freedmen and of persons in the imperial period, which are likewise given below. The cognomen Malleolus is the only one that appears on coins of this gens, and there are also other coins which bear no surname. Of the latter we subjoin a specimen. The obverse represents a female head covered with a helmet, the reverse Hercules strangling a lion, with the legend C. POBLICI C. F. It is not known who this C. Poblicius was. (Eckhel, vol. v. p. 279.)