Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, consul in 54 BC, was an enemy of Julius Caesar and a strong supporter of the aristocratic (optimates) party in the late Roman Republic.
[7] He married Porcia, the sister of Cato the Younger,[8] and in his aedileship supported the latter in his proposals against bribery at elections, which were directed against Pompey, who was purchasing votes for Afranius.
Ahenobarbus was the elected magistrate presiding over the trial against Titus Annius Milo in 52 for the murder of Publius Clodius, as related by Asconius' summary of Cicero's "Pro Milone".
In 50, he was a candidate for the place in the college of augurs left vacant by the death of Quintus Hortensius, but was defeated by Mark Antony through the influence of Caesar.
He threw himself into Corfinium with about thirty cohorts, expecting to be supported by Pompey; but as the latter did nothing to assist him, his own troops compelled him to surrender to Caesar after a seven day siege.
Ahenobarbus then proceeded east and joined Pompey in Thessaly, and proposed that, after the war, all senators who had remained neutral should be brought to trial.
[disputed – discuss] Ahenobarbus was a man of great energy of character; he remained firm in his political principles, but was unscrupulous in the means he employed to maintain them.