Robert Scipio Lentulus

Robert Scipio, Freiherr von Lentulus (18 April 1714 – 26 December 1786) was a military officer, first in Austrian service, later in Prussian service. He was among Frederick the Great's trusted officers, and served him not only in military capacity but as a diplomat and, later, a governor of Neuchâtel. He was proprietor of a Prussian cavalry regiment in the years 1758–1778.

Early life and Austrian service Robert Scipio, Freiherr von Lentulus, descended from an old Roman noble family (formerly called Linser) that emigrated to the city of Bern in approximately 1592. His father, Caesar Joseph von Lentulus (died 1744) served in the Austrian military and Robert Scipio received his education at the Viennese Jesuit school. He entered the Austrian imperial military in 1728 as a Fähnrich (cadet) in the Dragoon Regiment Philippi.

In the War of Polish Succession Lentulus participated in the 1734 campaign in Italy as the adjutant of the Field marshal, Count Claude Florimond de Mercy, who fell on 28 June in the Battle of San Pietro (sometimes called the Battle of Parma). In 1735, he joined the campaign in the Rhineland. He fought later in the Austro-Turkish War of 1737–39 and from 1742–44 in the campaigns in Bavarian and Bohemia during the War of Austrian Succession. Lentulus was also consulted on military-diplomatic negotiations after the armistice of 1735 and the border regulation between the Banat and Serbia after the Belgrade Peace. When the opportunity arose, Lentulus undertook lengthy journeys in Italy and the Orient. This impressed the Prussian King Frederick II so much that he wanted to take Lentulus into his service. In April 1758, he took part in the Siege of Schweidnitz with seven cuirassier regiments and then moved with Frederick's army to Moravia. In the battles of Zorndorf and Hochkirch, he again led by example. In 1759 he served in Silesia. In 1760, he fought at the head of two dragoon regiments in the Battle of Liegnitz, and commanded the post roads in Silesia in the following winter. The end of his service in this war was, for Lentulus, the Battle of Reichenbach on 16 August 1762. Lentulus gave up the office in 1779.