Denarius of Quintus Labienus, minted in Anatolia, 40 BC. Inscription "Q. Labienus Parthicus Imp." The horse on the reverse alludes to Labienus' Parthian cavalry.[1]
The gens Labiena was a plebeian family at Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned during the final century of the Republic.[2]
Origin
The Labieni were long supposed to have been part of the Atia gens, of which Labienus was supposed to be a cognomen. This first seems to have been proposed by the Ciceronian scholar Paulus Manutius, but his conjecture is not clearly supported by any ancient author, nor is there any other evidence that the Labieni were part of another gens.[3] Notwithstanding the lack of evidence, many other scholars have continued to regard the Labieni as a family of the Atii.[4][2]
Members
This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation.
Quintus Labienus, one of the supporters of the tribuneLucius Appuleius Saturninus, who took refuge in the Capitol when Appuleius was declared a public enemy, and was stoned to death, along with Appuleius and his other supporters after their arrest.[5]
Titus Labienus, the historian, was probably the son or grandson of Caesar's legate. He was a skilled orator, and an ardent opponent of Augustus, who did little to hinder his activities, although Labienus carefully avoided publishing materials that the emperor might deem libelous. Eventually the Senate decreed that all of his works should be burnt, and rather than suffer this indignity, he shut himself in his family's tombs, and perished.
Labienus, who had taken part in the proscriptions of Sulla, was proscribed by the triumvirs in 43 BC. Rather than going into hiding, he sat in front of his house, and waited for his assassins.[15]
Labienus, likewise proscribed, concealed himself from the triumvirs. His freedmen refused to reveal his hiding place, even under torture.[16]
Florus, Epitome de T. Livio Bellorum Omnium Annorum DCC (Epitome of Livy: All the Wars of Seven Hundred Years).
Appianus Alexandrinus (Appian), Bellum Civile (The Civil War).
Marcus Junianus Justinus (Justin), Epitome de Cn. Pompeio Trogo Historiarum Philippicarum et Totius Mundi Originum et Terrae Situs (Epitome of Trogus' Philippic History and Origin of the Whole World and all of its Places).
Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus (Cassius Dio), Roman History.
Ezekiel, Freiherr von Spanheim, Disputationes de Usu et Praestantia Numismatum Antiquorum (Arguments concerning the Knowledge and Superiority of Ancient Coins), Rome, (1664).
Joseph Hilarius Eckhel, Doctrina Numorum Veterum (The Study of Ancient Coins, 1792–1798).