Much about the ancestry and career of Publius Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus is uncertain and is based on a great deal of supposition; what is certain is the praenomen of his father, Publius, which is attested in his filiation.
[3] Ronald Syme notes a number of implications if this identification is correct.
One is a long interval elapsed between Marcellinus' praetorship and consulship, which is unusual, especially for a member of the patrician class,[4] which, as Syme observes, "is not inconceivable in the first decade of the new order.
"[5] Even more important is Syme's observation, "In any event a praetor of 29 cannot be the son of a quaestor in 48.
"[5] It is possible that Marcellinus may be the Cornelius Lentulus appointed Legatus Augusti pro praetore in Pannonia in the first years of the 1st century AD.