n the state, Cinna
allied himself with Marius, raised an army of Italians, and took
possession of the city. Soon after his triumphant entry and the massacre
of the friends of Sulla, by which he had satisfied his vengeance, Marius
died. L. Valerius Flaccus became Cinna's colleague, and on the murder of
Flaccus, Cn. Papirius Carbo. In 84, however, Cinna, who was still
consul, was forced to advance against Sulla; but while embarking his
troops to meet him in Thessaly, he was killed in a mutiny. His daughter
Cornelia was the wife of Julius Caesar, the dictator; but his son, L.
CORNELIUS CINNA, praetor in 44 B.C., nevertheless sided with the
murderers of Caesar and publicly extolled their action.

The hero of Corneille's tragedy _Cinna_ (1640) was Cn. Cornelius Cinna,
surnamed _Magnus_ (after his maternal grandfather Pompey), who was
magnanimously pardoned by Augustus for conspiring against him.

CINNA, GAIUS HELVIUS, Roman poet of the later Ciceronian age.
Practically nothing is known of his life except that he was the friend
of Catullus, whom he accompanied to Bithynia in the suite of the praetor
Memmius. The circumstances of his death have given rise to some
discussion. Suetonius, Valerius Maximus, Appian and Dio Cassius all
state that, at Caesar's funeral, a certain Helvius Cinna was killed by
mistake for Cornelius Cinna, the conspirator. The last three writers
mentioned above add that he was a tribune of the people, while Plutarch,
referring to the affair, gives the further information that the Cinna
who was killed by the mob was a poet. This points to the identity of
Helvius Cinna the tribune with Helvius Cinna the poet. The chief
objection to this view is based upon two lines in the 9th eclogue of
Virgil, supposed to have been written 41 or 40 B.C. Here reference is
made to a certain Cinna, a poet of such importance that Virgil
deprecates comparison with him; it is argued that the manner in which
this Cinna, who could hardly have been any one but Helvius Cinna, is
spoken of implies that he was then alive; if so, he could not have been
killed in 44. But such an interpretation of the Virgilian passage is by
no means absolutely necessary; the terms used do not preclude a
reference to a contemporary no longer alive. It has been suggested that
it was really Cornelius, not Helvius Cinna, who was slain at Caesar's
funeral, but this is not borne out by the authorities. Cinna's chief
work was a mythological epic poem ca