What is "balbus"

Balbus, literally " stammerer", was a cognomen of several ancient Roman gentes.

Of the Acilii Balbi, one Manius Acilius Balbus was consul in 150 BC, another in 114 BC. To another family belonged T. Ampius Balbus, a supporter of Pompey, but afterwards pardoned by Julius Caesar (cf. Cic. ad Fam. vi. 12 and xiii. 70). We know also of Q. Antonius Balbus, praetor in Sicily in 82 BC, and Marcus Atius Balbus, who married Julia Minor, a sister of Caesar, and had a daughter Atia, mother of Augustus.

The most important of the name were the two Cornelii Balbi, natives of Gades ( Cádiz):

• Lucius Cornelius Balbus (major)
• Lucius Cornelius Balbus (minor)

Others with the cognomen include:

• Marcus Atius Balbus (105 BC-51 BC)
• Decius Laelius Balbus (c. 6 BC)
• Gaius Norbanus Balbus (died c. 81 BC), Roman consul
• Quintus Bruttius Balbus, of the gens Bruttia
• Manius Acilius Balbus, of the gens Acilia

• (c. 111 BC), author of the agrarian law known as the Thoria Lex

Balbus may refer to:

• A cognomen of several ancient Romans; see Balbus (cognomen)
  • Theatre of Balbus, built by Lucius Cornelius Balbus the Younger
• Johannes Balbus (died c. 1298), Italian lexicographer
• Steven Balbus, Savilian Professor of Astronomy, Oxford University
• Balbus, a character in The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw
• Balbus, a character in the Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot
• Mixophyes balbus, "Stuttering Frog" species
• ST Balbus, a Nigerian Government tugboat