M. Laenius
or LE'NIUS FLACCUS, a friend of Atticus, who, notwithstanding the stringent edict of Clodius, B. C. 58 (" Lex Clodia in Ciceronem." Pseud. Cic. pro Dom. 17), sheltered Cicero in his country-house near Brundisium, until he could securely embark for Epeirus. The father, brother, and sons of Laenius were equally earnest in befriending the exile. Laenius afterwards, B. C. 51, met Cicero in Asia Minor, and applied to him for a sub-prefecture in Cilicia, where Laenius had money at interest. Cicero, however, refused to gratify him, since he had made a rule to grant no money-lender (negotianti) office in his province. Yet in the same year, and for a similar purpose, he highly recommended Laenius to P. Silius Nerva, pro-praetor in Bithynia and Pontus. (Cic. pro Planc. 41, ad Fam. 13.63, 14.4, ad Att. 5.20, 21, 6.1, 3.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.