[1][2] Lupus was a member of the Lentuli branch of the gens Cornelia, an elite patrician family.
The Latin author Lucilius criticizes Lupus for a decadent and corrupt lifestyle.
In 162 BC, Lentulus was sent with Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus as ambassadors to Greece and Asia Minor to ascertain the reaction of countries to the return of Demetrius, heir to the Seleucid Empire from exile.
[6] The secondary purpose of the mission was to negotiate an end to the war between Greece and Galatia.
Ariarathes V, King of Cappadocia, received the envoys and rejected an alliance with Demetrius.