A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology
William Smith, Ed.

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P. COMINIUS and L. COMINIUS or C. COMINIUS

5, 6. two brothers, who are described by Cicero as men of character and eloquence, accused Staienus, about B. C. 74. (Cic. Clu. 36.) In B. C. 66, these two brothers accused of majestas C. Cornelius, the tribune of the preceding year [C. CORNELIUS], but on the day appointed for the trial, the praetor, L. Cassius, did not appear, and the Cominii were driven away by a mob, and were eventually obliged to quit the city. They renewed the accusation in the following year, B. C. 65; Cornelius was defended by Cicero, who was then praetor, and acquitted. The speech which P. Cominius delivered on this occasion was extant in the time of Asconius, who says that it was worth reading, not only because of Cicero's speech, bat for its own merits. P. Cominius was a native of Spoletium. He died shortly before Cicero composed his "Brutus," namely B. C. 45, in which he calls Cominius his friend, and praises his wellarranged, lively, and clear style of speaking. (Ascon. in Cornel.; Cic. Brut. 78.)