Question: What is the name sometimes given to the first period of the Roman Empire when Publius Cornelius Lentulus Scipio worked as a Roman senator?

Context paragraphs:
Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus: Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus (3rd century BC–aft.  183 BC) was a Roman general and statesman.  He was the son of Publius Cornelius Scipio and the younger brother of Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus.  He was elected consul in 190 BC, and later that year led (with his brother) the Roman forces to victory at the Battle of Magnesia.

Publius Cornelius Rufinus (consul 290 BC): Publius Cornelius Rufinus was a Roman politician of the third century BC.  He may have been the son of Publius Cornelius Rufinus, who briefly served as dictator in 334 BC.  He was the grandfather of the first Sulla, Publius Cornelius Sulla and thus an ancestor of the 1st century BC dictator and reformer Lucius Cornelius Sulla.

Publius Cornelius Lentulus Scipio: Publius Cornelius Lentulus Scipio was a Roman senator active during the Principate.  He was suffect consul in the "nundinium" of July-December 24, as the colleague of Gaius Calpurnius Aviola.  His name combines the two most famous branches of the "gens" Cornelia, the Lentuli and the Scipiones.

Gaius Calpurnius Aviola: Gaius Calpurnius Aviola was a senator of the Roman Empire.  He was "suffect consul" in AD 24 with Publius Cornelius Lentulus Scipio as his colleague.  Aviola is also recorded as being governor of Asia in 37/38.  Aviola has been identified as the father of Manius Acilius Aviola, consul in 54.

Lentulus: Lentulus, the name of a Roman patrician family of the Cornelian gens, derived from lentes (lentils), which its oldest members were fond of cultivating (according to Pliny, Nat.  Hist.  xviii.  3, 10).  The word Lentulitas ("Lentulism"; cf. Appietas) is coined by Cicero (Ad Fam.  iii.  7, 5 ) to express the attributes of a pronounced aristocrat.  The three first of the name were L. Cornelius Lentulus (consul 327 BC), Servius Cornelius Lentulus (consul 303) and L. Cornelius Lentulus Caudinus (consul 275).  Their connection with the later Lentuli (especially those of the Ciceronian period) is very obscure and difficult to establish.  The following members of the family deserve mention.

Caecilia Metella (daughter of Metellus Celer): Caecilia Metella was daughter of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer by his wife, the notorious Clodia.  In 53 BC, Metella Celer was married to Publius Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, a conservative politician, allied to her father's family.  Like her mother, Metella did not content herself with a simple married life.  Briefly after the wedding she started an affair with Publius Cornelius Dolabella, a man of the opposite political spectrum.  Spinther divorced her in 45 BC in the midst of a huge scandal.  Cicero bitterly discusses the affair in his letters, because at the time, his daughter Tullia was Dolabella's wife.

Publius Cornelius Scipio (consul 16 BC): Publius Cornelius Scipio (b. 48 BC) was the son of Publius Cornelius Scipio and Scribonia.  He was elder brother to Cornelia Scipio and the elder half-brother to Julia the Elder, who was the daughter of Emperor Augustus.  Scipio claimed to be a descendent of Scipio Africanus and boasted himself about this.

List of Romans named Publius Cornelius Scipio: The name Publius Cornelius Scipio was regularly, though not always, given by the Scipio branch of the "gens Cornelia" to the eldest son in each generation.  At first most of the Scipios who became consuls were not named Publius, probably because the eldest son rarely survived to adulthood.  The first Scipio to become consul was named Lucius, the first to become censor was also Lucius.  The first Publius to become consul was Scipio Africanus's father.  At least eleven men bearing this name have been identified in Livy and Polybius, of whom eight men were consuls (and a ninth consular tribune at a time when there were no consuls).  Of the eight men, three were censors.  Of these three, two were famous generals.  Two of the men, father and son, became Pontifex Maximus successively.

Principate: The Principate is the name sometimes given to the first period of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in 27 BC to the end of the Crisis of the Third Century in 284 AD, after which it evolved into the so-called "Dominate".

Publius Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus: Publius Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus (fl.  1st century BC – 1st century AD) was a Roman Senator who was elected Roman consul in 18 BC.

Supporting paragraphs: Publius Cornelius Lentulus Scipio Principate
Answer: Principate