1. Lucius Cornelius Cinna, brother of Julius Caesar's wife Cornelia, praetor in 44 BC. He had republican sympathies and expressed approval of Caesar's murder. He may have died in the later proscriptions. See also (2) below.
2. Gaius Helvius Cinna, Roman poet and friend of Catullus, whom he accompanied to Bithynia in 57 BC; his epyllion Zmyrna was greatly admired by his contemporaries for its vast erudition in the Alexandrian manner. He also wrote erotic poetry in various metres, of which only very small fragments survive. The ancient sources identify him with the tribune of 44 BC who, after the murder of Caesar, was lynched by the angry mob in mistake for Cornelius Cinna (see above) who had spoken publicly against the dictator on the previous day (or ‘for his bad verses’ according to Shakespeare).
