LENTULUS  , the name of a

Roman patrician family of the Cornelian gens, derived from lentes (" lentils "), which its oldest members were fond of cultivating (according to Pliny, Nat . Hist. xviii . 3, 1o) . The word Lentulitas (" Lentulism "; cf . ApJiietas) is coined by Cicero (Ad Farm iii . 7, 5 ) to express the attributes of a pronounced aristocrat . The three first of the name were L . Cornelius Lentulus (consul 327 B.C.), Servius Cornelius Lentulus (consul 303) and L . Cornelius Lentulus Caudinus (consul 275) . Their connexion with the later Lentuli (especially those of the Ciceronian period) is very obscure and difficult to establish . The following members of the family deserve mention .