Marcus Cornelius Cethegus

Marcus Cornelius Cethegus (-196 BC) was a Roman Republican consul and censor during the Second Punic War, best known as a political ally of his kinsman Scipio Africanus.

He was chosen curule aedile in 213 BC, with his young kinsman Scipio Africanus as his colleague (although Scipio was under-age, being only twenty two or twenty three compared to the usual mid-thirties). He was also Pontifex replacing the dead Pontifex maximus Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Caudinus.

In 211 BC, as praetor, he had charge of Apulia. In 209 BC, before he had been consul, he was elected censor with Publius Sempronius Tuditanus. During their censorship, Cethegus disagreed with his colleague about which senator should be elected Princeps Senatus; Tuditanus had the right of choice and chose Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucoses Cunctator, while Cethegus wanted the most senior censor Titus Manlius Torquatus to be the Princeps Senatus.

In 204 BC, he was elected consul, possibly to aid his kinsman Scipio, then in Africa. In 203 BC he was proconsul in Italia Superior, where, in conjunction with the praetor Publius Quintilius Varus, he gained a hard-won victory over Mago Barca, Hannibal's brother, in Insubrian territory, and obliged him to leave Italy.

He died in 196 BC during an epidemic in Rome.

He had a great reputation as an orator, and is characterized by Ennius as the quintessence of persuasiveness (suadae medulla). Horace calls him an authority on the use of Latin words.

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