Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus (c. 90 BC – c. 48 BC) was a Roman statesman and consul of 56 BC. He was married at least twice. His first wife is unknown but his second wife was probably Scribonia, at least twenty years his junior, who later became the second wife of Augustus.
Biography Early life He was the son of Cornelia (the daughter of Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica) and Publius Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus.Ronald Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy (Oxford: Clarendon, 1986), pp. 249f
Career We know several offices Marcellinus held over the course of his life. First he was quaestor, in the same year his brother Publius was quaestor for the province of Cyrenaica. After serving as a plebeian tribune, Marcellinus appears in the historical record as a legate of Pompey in 67 BC.Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy, p. 249 After his praetorship, Marcellinus was appointed governor of Syria for the term 59/58 BC.Appian, The Syrian Wars, 8.51
Family By his first wife he was the father of Lentulus Marcellinus, Caesar's quaestor put in command of his fortifications at Dyrrhachium in 48 BC. By Scribonia he was father of two children, a boy and a girl.Suetonius, Life of Augustus, 62 The boy was Cornelius Marcellinus.: Libertorum et familiae Scribonae Caes. et Corneli Marcell. f. eius Some authorities, such as Ronald Syme, believed Cornelius Marcellinus died young;Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy, pp. 247-249 however, John Scheid has persuasively argued that he should be identified with Publius Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus, consul of 18 BC.Scheid, "Scribonia Caesaris et les Cornelii", Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 100 (1976), p. 490
The girl was Cornelia, who married Paullus Aemilius Lepidus (suffect consul in 34 BC), only to die the year her brother ascended to the consulate.Sextus Propertius, IV.11
Marcellinus died before 47 BC. Scribonia remarried Augustus and became mother to his only child, Julia the Elder.
References
Primary sources Suetonius, Life of Augustus (62.) Appian, The Syrian Wars (8.51)
Secondary sources Fantham, Elaine, Julia Augusti, Routledge Schied, John, "Scribonia Caesaris et les Cornelii Lentuli", Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, 100 (1976), pp. 485–491. Syme, Ronald, The Roman Revolution, (Oxford: 1986)