Ahenobarbus

Ahenobarbus later Aenobarbus, ‘bronze-beard’, the cognomen (see NAMES) of a distinguished branch of the Roman gens, the Domitii. Legend relates that the Dioscuri had announced to an early member of the family the victory of Lake Regillus (496 BC), and to prove their supernatural powers had stroked his black beard, which immediately turned bronze-coloured. One Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, after fighting against Julius Caesar in 49 BC and being subsequently pardoned by him, was one of the republican leaders after Caesar's death, and commanded a fleet against the triumvirs. He was later reconciled to Mark Antony, accompanied him in his expedition against the Parthians in 36, and was with him in Egypt. Abandoning Antony he joined the cause of Octavian before the battle of Actium in 31, and died soon afterwards. He figures in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra.

Another Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, consul in AD 32, married Agrippina (3), daughter of Germanicus, and was father of the emperor Nero. Suetonius described him as ‘wholly despicable’. The timely death of the emperor Tiberius saved him from being charged with treason, adultery, and incest. According to Suetonius, the family possessed a streak of vicious cruelty. Of one member the orator Licinius Crassus remarked, ‘Should his bronze beard really surprise us? After all, he has a face of iron and a heart of lead.’