r Caesar's murder, Balbus seems to have attached
himself to Octavian; in 43 or 42 he was praetor, and in 40 consul--an
honour then for the first time conferred on an alien. The year of his death
is not known. Balbus kept a diary of the chief events in his own and
Caesar's life (Suetonius, _Caesar_, 81). The 8th book of the _Bell. Gall._,
which was probably written by his friend Hirtius at his instigation, was
dedicated to him.

Cicero, _Letters_ (ed. Tyrrell and Purser, iv. introd. p. 62) and _Pro
Balbo_; see also E. Jullien, _De L. Cornelia Balbo Maiore_ (1886).

2. LUCIUS CORNELIUS BALBUS (called _Minor_), nephew of the above, received
the Roman citizenship at the same time as his uncle. During the civil war,
he served under Caesar, by whom he was entrusted with several important
missions. He also took part in the Alexandrian and Spanish wars. He was
rewarded for his services by being admitted into the college of pontiffs.
In 43 he was quaestor in Further Spain, where he amassed a large fortune by
plundering the inhabitants. In the same year he crossed over to Bogud, king
of Mauretania, and is not heard of again until 21, when he appears as
proconsul of Africa. Mommsen thinks that he had incurred the displeasure of
Augustus by his conduct as praetor, and that his African appointment after
so many years was due to his exceptional fitness for the post. In 19 Balbus
defeated the Garamantes, and on the 27th of March in that year received the
honour of a triumph, which was then for the first time granted to one who
was not a Roman citizen by birth, and for the last time to a private
individual. He built a theatre in the capital, which was dedicated on the
return of Augustus from Gaul in 13 (Dio Cassius liv. 25; Pliny, _Nat.
Hist._ xxxvi. 12, 60). Balbus appears to have given some attention to
literature. He wrote a play of which the subject was his visit to Lentulus
in the camp of Pompey at Dyrrhachium, and, according to Macrobius
(_Saturnalia_, iii. 6), was the author of a work called [Greek: Exegetika],
dealing with the gods and their worship.

See Velleius Paterculus ii. 51; Cicero, _ad Att._ viii. 9; and on both the
above the exhaustive articles in Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopadie_, iv. pt.
i. (1900).

BALCONY (Ital. _balc[=o]ne_ from _balco_, scaffold; cf. O. H. Ger.
_balcho_, beam, Mod. Ger. _Balken_, Eng. _balk_), a kind of platform
projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console
brackets,