'Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus', son of
Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus (consul 122 BC), was
tribune of the people 104 BC, in which capacity he brought forward a law (''lex Domitia de Sacerdotiis'') by which the priests of the superior colleges were to be elected by the people in the ''
comitia tributa'' (seventeen of the tribes voting) instead of by co-optation; the law was repealed by
Sulla, revived by
Julius Caesar and (perhaps) again repealed by
Mark Antony, the triumvir (
Cicero, ''De Lege Agraria,'' ii. 7;
Suetonius, ''Nero,'' 2).
Ahenobarbus was elected
pontifex maximus in
103 BC (succeeding
Lucius Caecilius Metellus Dalmaticus). He was then elected consul in
96 BC and
censor in
92 BC with
Lucius Licinius Crassus the
orator, with whom he was frequently at variance. They took joint action, however, in suppressing the recently established Latin rhetorical schools, which they regarded as injurious to public morality (
Aulus Gellius xv. 11).
He apparently died in 88 BC in the consulship of
Lucius Cornelius Sulla (later Dictator of Rome), and was succeeded by
Quintus Mucius Scaevola Pontifex.
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