276 BC and ancestor of Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix the dictator) during which time he defeated both the Samnites and Sabines and celebrated two triumphs.

In 283, Dentatus filled the praetorship (or possibly the consulship) of L. Caecilius Metellus Denter after the latter was killed in the Battle of Arretium.

He was censor in 272, and in 270 he and Lucius Papirius Cursor were elected commissioners[4] to oversee construction of the Anio Vetus, Rome's second aqueduct, for which he used his personal share of the booty from his recent victories.

[6] Dentatus is described as having been incorruptible and frugal; the story was that when the Samnites sent ambassadors with expensive gifts in an attempt to influence him in their favor, they found him sitting by the hearth roasting turnips.

[7][8] Although the truth of this story is unclear — it may have been an invention of Cato — it was the inspiration for a number of paintings by Jacopo Amigoni, Govert Flinck, and others.