In this case, the mystery, though short-lived, no doubt sparked more speculation and rumour than was usual. For not only was L. Cornelius Lentulus from an ancient patrician family and a wealthy man, he was also fond of money. Nothing relieved him more than to find new (and legal) ways to delay paying off his debts. Several creditors had a lot of money tied up in Lucius’ accounts. Could the murder of the proconsul in far-away Africa be linked to some shady financial dealing in Rome ? It was even speculated that one reason why he had so promptly accepted his assignment to the wilds of Africa was so that he could yet again evade his debtors. And yet, as will shortly be seen, Lucius was at heart an honest man, though honesty can sometimes ally itself with cunning malice.

Businessmen weren’t the only ones impatient to see the Lucius’ bank accounts opened. His daughter Cornelia was equally if not more eager to get her hands on what she considered to be her just deserts. Like her father, Cornelia enjoyed having money – to spend, but also to hoard. It is possible that she believed that her father acted meanly towards her by not allowing her to take part in the management of his money. Whether her recriminations were justified or not was irrelevant : it made a very suitable subject for snickering amongst the city’s idle rich.

It seems likely that Cornelia was informed of her father’s death immediately after the senators or even at the same time. What is certain is that she sent her father’s freedmen or some friends to conduct the formalities of the transfer of titles – she was confined to the house, mourning and decency oblige – and that they returned with the astounding news that the money was untouchable. One imagines the outrage the bereaved daughter must have felt. In Rome, interfering with an inheritance was an extremely grave affair. But her outrage must have paled in comparison to the shock she experienced on learning that the restraining order came from Augustus himself, and that she was soon to receive a summons to the imperial palace.

That news would have fired vehement gossiping at every dinner party that same evening. Those with a taste for playing detective will have leapt to the conclusion that somehow Cornelia must have sent an assassin to Africa to do away with her father. Motive : hasten the process of inheriting a considerable fortune.

But the rumours died in the next day or two when another military envoy arrived from Africa with a full report. While on what had been arranged as a diplomatic mission to representatives of the rebel tribes, Lucius had been killed in a perfidious attack on the Roman contingent in violation of the oath of truce that the Nasamones had sworn before Zeus.^[2] The report concluded with the decision of the legate of the legio III Augusta to deal with the revolt using the argument of force rather than through the force of argument.^[3]

The other revelation of the day was that the proconsul’s will, deposited at the temple of Vesta before his departure for Africa, contained a clause announcing future codicils that would complement the document. And true to his word, Lucius had in fact written a number of codicils over several days after his arrival in Africa ; they had arrived in Rome with his official papers. In them, various friends, his daughter Cornelia and the emperor Augustus were named as fiduciarii and charged with the task of repaying all outstanding debts, which the proconsul had diligently enumerated.

The procedure was not so much an irregularity as an innovation. In the past, codicils written in extremis by dying men were more often than not attempts to cheat the fiscus, and were considered illegal. However, as Augustus’ venerable legal advisor C. Trebatius Testa^[4] pointed out, the proconsul had provided for the codicils in his will.^[5] Furthermore, his intention was manifestly not to commit fraud but on the contrary to regularize his financial situation. To do that, he counted on the emperor’s intervention for, as it became clear through his personal documents, Lucius did not trust his daughter to treat his creditors equitably. In Roman legal custom, the ordinary procedure for modifying one’s last wishes was to make a new will duly witnessed by seven Roman citizens and to deposit it at the temple of Vesta. As it stood, this law precluded a change of will by anyone residing far from Rome. It was Trebatius’ opinion that Augustus should recognize the legality of the Lucius’ actions and consider the codicils as legally binding.

Augustus followed the jurist’s advice. Thus it was that Roman law was amended on the emperor’s auctoritas, as Justinian’s Institutiones testify.^[6] Codicils written after a testament had been sealed and deposited at the temple of Vesta were recognized as legal documents in cases where testaments confirmed the codicils (i.e. announced them) and where testators met with difficulties in following normal procedure for changing the will. The proconsul’s debts were paid off by the executors named, including his daughter Cornelia, who then inherited what was left over. History doesn’t say whether she considered the amount left over a substantial fortune.

1. In 4 or 5 C.E.
2. Dionysios Periegetes (of Alexandria), Periegesis, v. 210. This little-known second century C.E. geographer wrote a guide to the world (Periegesis) in 1168 hexameters.
3. Cossus Cornelius Lentulus, no doubt a relative of the murdered proconsul, successfully crushed the rebellion in 6 C.E. and was awarded with triumphal ornaments by Augustus.
4. Born circa 84 B.C.E., thus quite old at the time of Lucius’ death.
5.Scripsit codicillos testamento confirmatos, and propter magnas et longas peregrinations ; see following footnote.
6. The proconsul’s innovation is cited as a reference in the Corpus Juris Civilis, I, Institutiones, II, 25. The amendment states that si quis testamentum facere non posset, tamen codicillos posset. The text does not however name the proconsul whose innovation caused the amendment. Identification is deduced from snippets in Cassius Dio (LV, 28, 2-3), surviving fragments of Dionysios Periegetes and especially the commentary on the latter’s work by Eustathios of Thessalonica (12^th century). Eustathios misspells the name of the Roman strategos using a rhô in place of a lambda : Rentoulos. The correction is established by C. Müller, Geographi Graeci Minores, A. Firmin Didot, Paris, 1855, vol. II, p. 253.

Source : J. Desanges, “Un drame africain sous Auguste, le meurtre du proconsul L. Cornelius Lentulus,” Collection Latomus, 102 (Hommages à Marcel Renard II, 1969), pp. 197 - 213.
For Dionysios Periegetes, see this German Wikipedia entry, and answers.com.
For Trebatius Testa, see this German wikipedia entry.

Images : the blood-stained Roman official (Julius Caesar) from Greatbong blog ; Augustus in profile from the book cover of a novel by John Buchan ; detail of a map of the world known to Herodotus from the book cover of a collection of essays by R. Kapuscinski.