Publius Cornelius Dolabella, born
70 BC, was a
Roman general, by far the most important of the
Dolabellae, a
plebian family of the
patrician Cornelii. He married
Cicero's daughter
Tullia Ciceronis.
In the civil wars he at first took the side of
Pompey, but afterwards went over to
Julius Caesar, and was present at the
Battle of Pharsalus.
To escape the urgent demands of his creditors, he introduced (as one of the
tribunes) a bill proposing that all debts should be cancelled. This was strongly resisted by his colleagues, and led to serious disturbances in the city. Caesar, on his return from
Alexandria, seeing the expediency of removing Dolabella from
Rome, took him as one of his generals in the expedition to
Africa and
Spain.
On Caesar's death, Dolabella seized the insignia of the
consulship (which had already been conditionally promised him), and, by making friends with
Marcus Junius Brutus and the other assassins, was confirmed in his office. When, however,
Mark Antony offered him the command of the expedition against the
Parthians and the province of
Syria, he changed sides at once. His journey to the province was marked by plundering, extortion, and the murder of
Gaius Trebonius, proconsul of
Asia, who refused to allow him to enter
Smyrna.
He was thereupon declared a public enemy and superseded by
Cassius (the murderer of Caesar), who attacked him in
Laodicea. When Cassius's troops captured the place (
43 BC), Dolabella ordered one of his soldiers to kill him. Throughout his life he was an extreme profligate.
