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Name of a Roman gens. The patrician bearers of the name from the 5th and 4th cents. BC that have come down to us are of disputed historicity, in any case the early family history has been embellished in the late Republic.  It is these Minucii that later membesrs (from the 3rd century BC) trace themselves back to. A prominent cognomen is Augurinus (M. [I 1-3] and [I 5 and 6]), deriving from the first plebeian augur M. [I 7], applied only subsequently to the early Republican members. The political zen…

Name of a Roman family. According to tradition, its members of the 5th cent. BC (Atratini, S. [I 3-8]) are supposed to have been patricians and champions of patrician privileges (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 10,41,5; 10,42,3), an assumption that may have been a retrospective invention (the Sempronii only became patricians under Caesar or Augustus); in the historical period, we know only of plebeian branches of the family during the Republic (Asellio, Blaesus, Gracchus, Longus, Tuditanus) who played an important role in the 3rd and 2nd cents. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican Period …

[German version] Etruscan nomen gentile; most famous bearer: Lars T., king of the Veii, who in 437 BC brought about the killing of Roman ambassadors by the Fidenati (Fidenae), who had defected to him. In the subsequent war, he was killed in single combat by Cornelius [I 20] Cossus (Liv. 4,17,1-5; 4,19,1-5); the year of this single combat was already disputed in ancient tradition (Liv. 4,20,5-11; cf. [1. 563 f.]. Cossus dedicated T.' armour as spolia opima (War booty III.) to Iuppiter Feretrius (for the political role of this under Augustus cf. Licinius [I 13]). The h…

Latin name of an ancient dynasty from Tusculum (in manuscripts frequently confused with Manilius and Manlius). Because the city was considered a foundation of Telegonus, the son of Odysseus and Circe, the Mamilii, from the early 2nd cent. BC at the latest, traced their lineage to Odysseus, via Mamilia, the daughter of Telegonus (coins: RRC 149; 362; in literature, from the Augustan period: Fest. 116f. L; Liv. 1,49,9; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 4,45,1). In the 5th cent. BC, with M. [I 1] the family was accepted in Ro…

(In an older form also Peinarius, CIL I2 1357; 2469f.). Name of a patrician gens. According to tradition, they maintained a cult for Hercules at the Ara Maxima together with the Potitii (further evidence there). Hercules himself - or Evander [1] - is said to have transferred the cult to them at an extremely early time. The derivation of the name from πεινᾶν ( peinân, 'starve') is a scholarly construction based on the P. having had the smaller share in the sacrifices for Hercules (Serv. Aen. 8,270, i.a.). The family was also traced back to Pinus, the ostensib…

[German version] [1] V., Ap. Livy (3,54,13) lists V. as peoples' tribune in 449 BC among those who, after the end of the D ecemviri [1], had been voted into this office "more due to the hopes (that had been put into them) than due to their merits". Müller, Christian (Bochum) [German version] [2] V. Annalis, L. As peoples' tribune in 180 BC, he introduced a law about age limits that regulated the competition for offices and thus proved fundamental in the development of the cursus honorum [1]. In this, he had the consent of the Senate, which earned him and his…

[German version] The tradition portrays S. (sometimes different nomina gentilia in the sources) as a plebeian whose self-confident demeanour, originating in his own military achievements, created enemies and who, as a consequence, was perfidiously eliminated. Thus, S. only narrowly escaped a plan of Romilius [1], cos. in 455 BC (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 10,36-49; 52,2; 56,2), to dispose of him by conferring upon him a military command doomed to failure, after which occurrence, as people's tribune in 454, he had Romilius convicted. Afterwards, h…

(also frequently Popilius). Name of a Plebeian gens attested from the 4th cent. BC. The family maintained a joint funeral cult (Cic. Leg. 2,55). Its most famous branch was the Laenates (with regard to the cognomen Laenas); insignificant from the early Imperial period onwards. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] P. Laenas Augur, in 44 BC adviser of the murderers of Caesar Augur (Cic. Att. 12,13,2), in 44 BC was the adviser of the murderers of Caesar and may perhaps have been tempted to betray them to the dictator (App. B Civ. 2,484; 487). Fündling, Jörg (B…

Name of an originally Etruscan plebeian family (Etruscan form Velimna) that was significant in the early Republic. The Volumnii of the 1st cent. BC are not its descendants. The tomb of the V. in Perusia (modern Perugia) with bilingual inscriptions (CIL XI 1963 - CIE 3763) was used from the 2nd cent. onwards. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [1] V., P. Fought in 42 BC as a friend of M. Iunius [I 10] Brutus in the battle of Philippi, and wrote about it in a now lost work (Plut. Brutus 48; 51). Possibly identical to V. [4]? Bartels, Jens (Bonn) [German version] [2] V. Amintinus Gallus…

Roman nomen gentile, in its older form, Papisius (Cic. Fam. 9,21,3), from which one of the 16 old rural tribes ( tribus ) took its name. The patrician gens formed several branches at an early time (5th/4th cents. BC: Crassi, Cursores, Mugillani, 3rd cent.: Masones) who played a significant role in the military successes of the Republic, but became either extinct no later than the 2nd cent. BC or politically insignificant. The younger plebeian branch of the Carbones rose in the 2nd half of the 2nd cent. and gained notoriety…

Name of a Roman family (also often given as Vetusius; on the origin of the gens Veturia [1. 284]), for which the tribus Voturia was named [2. 42]. The Veturii played a prominent political role in various phases of the Republic: from the beginning of the Republic to the leges Liciniae Sextiae (367 BC) with the Veturii [I 3-6] Cicurini, in the time between 334 and 321 with V. [I 1], and in the time of the 2nd Punic War with the Veturii [I 7-8] Philones. While the patrician status of the Cicurini and Philones can be regarded as certain (but cf. [3.…

Name of an old, patrician family, which had already died out in the 5th cent. BC, for which the tribus Romilia on the ager Vaticanus (cf. Vaticanus as cognomen for R. [1]) is named. [German version] [1] R. Rocus Vaticanus, T. Consul in 455 BC and decemvir in 451 BC According to tradition, cos. in 455 and decemvir (Decemviri [1]) in 451 BC (MRR 1,42; 45 f.; InscrIt 13,1,24 f.; 93; 362-65). Livius (3,31,3-6) and Dion. Hal. (Ant. Rom. 10,44-46; 48,2-49,6; cf. Plin. HN 7,102) report that, after his consulate in which he achieved a victory over the Aequi,…

Rare Roman nomen gentile (epigraphically Numesius, ILS 9231). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican era [German version] [I 1] One of the praetors of the Latin league in 340 BC One of the two chief magistrates ( praetores) of the Latin League, who, with his colleague L. Annius [I 3], attempted to enforce perfect equality between the Latins and the Romans in 340 BC, firstly through negotiations and then by means of war; he also continued the war after the defeat of the Latins on Mt. Vesuvius (Liv. 8,3,9; 11,5-12). Müller, Christian (Bochum) [German version] [I 2] N. (?) Nucula Membe…

Name of a patrician gens, of Etruscan origin, which brought forth two figures of significance in the early Republican period. Only in the 1st cent. BC does evidence appear for further bearers of the name. I. Republican era [German version] [I 1] L. (Flavus or Rufus ?), T. Consul in 501 and 498 BC, first dictator of Rome Consul in 501 and 498 BC (InscrIt 13,1,88; 350-53). The written record, up to Festus (216 L.), names L. as the first dictator of Rome (MRR I 9f.; 11f.), but it is divided on whether L. occupied the office during his 1st (Liv. 2,18,4-7 …

Roman nomen gentile, sometimes confused with Sextius. The family surfaced as patrician with S. [1] and [5] in the mid 5th cent. BC. In the late Republic, it had only (politically insignificant) plebeian members. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [1] S., L. In order to illustrate the just administration of the first collegium of decemviri , especially the justice of C. Iulius [I 13] Iullus, Livy (3,33,9 f.) and Cicero (Rep. 2,61) tell the anecdote that after a corpse was found buried in the house of S., Iulius - who,…

(in Greek usually Μάλλιος/ Mállios, often confused in MSS with Mallius and Manilius). Name of a Roman patrician family, probably of Etruscan origin [1. 227]. It attained an early political zenith in the 5th and 4th cents. BC with the Vulsones and Capitolini branches (continued by the Torquati). Sources connect the family's history primarily with the repelling of the Celts ( M. [I 8] and [I 12]. Stemmata, details of which are uncertain: [2. 1157f., 1166]). A period of decline ended in about 260 BC wi…

Plebeian family, which produced a succession of important representatives in the 4th cent. BC (family tree in [1]). [German version] [1] P., Q. Decemvir in 450 BC As a member of the second collegium of the decemviri in 450 BC (MRR 1, 46f.) he is said to have been sent into battle against an incursion by the Sabines (Liv. 3,41,9; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 11,23,1). Müller, Christian (Bochum) [German version] [2] P. Libo, M. Consul 314 BC As consul in 314 BC, P. achieved a victory with his counterpart Sulpicius Longus against the Samnites (Liv. 9,24-26; Diod. Sic. 19,76,1-5). Ac…

Roman-Italian family name, etymologically presumably from the praenomen Maius [1. 185]; light defacement of the name in the MSS handed down, in Livy (2,58,2): L. Mecilius as member of the first people's tribune council in 471 BC (presumably subsequently added to the list). [German version] [1] M., Sp. People's tribune in 416 BC According to Livy (4,48), M. proposed an agricultural law as tr. pl. IV in 416 BC, which made provisions for distributing the land conquered by Rome and occupied by the nobility ‘man for man’ ( viritim), but it failed by a veto of six people's tribunes, won …

Seltener röm. Gentilname, in der historischen Überl. nur im 5. und 4. Jh.v.Chr. bezeugt. [English version] [1] M., Q. Volkstribun 320 v. Chr., gab sein Amt auf Mitverantwortlich für den Caudinischen Vertrag, gab M. als tr. pl. 320 v.Chr. sein Amt auf und wurde an die Samniten ausgeliefert (Liv. 9,8,13-10,2; Cic. off. 3,109). Müller, Christian (Bochum) [English version] [2] hatte 440/39 v. Chr. Ambitionen auf eine Königsherrschaft in Rom Nach Liv. 4,12,6-16,1 und Dion. Hal. ant. 12,1-4 gewann M., ein reicher Plebeier, in einer Hungersnot 440/39 v.Chr. durch Aufka…

Roman patrician gentilic name (from the praenomen Postumus ), found in the highest offices from the 5th cent. BC on and politically significant until the 2nd cent. BC. As dictator in 499 or 496 BC, an A. P. is supposed to have decided the battle at Lacus Regillus (Liv. 2,19-20). The Albi or Albini (Regillenses), who withdrew from politics with P. [I 9]'s military failure in the Jugurthine War at the end of the 2nd cent. BC, are his descendants. I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] P., C. Etruscan haruspex, even consulted by Sulla Etruscan haruspex ( haruspices …

Name of a Roman patrician family (epigraphically also Serveilius), said to have migrated to Rome from Alba Longa under king Tullus Hostilius [4] (Liv. 1,30,2; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 3,29,7). The oldest branches are the Ahalae and Fidenates in the 5th and 4th cents. BC; the Caepiones and Gemini, from whom the Vatiae (Isaurici) descended, appear in the 3rd cent. The last prominent member of the Servilii Caepiones was the murderer of Caesar, M. Iunius [I 10] Brutus, son of Servilia [1], and himself adopted into the family. I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] A fleet commander in the B…

Roman nomen gentile, also confused with Sestius . According to tradition, the family achieved prominence in the 4th cent. BC with S. [I 6] who obtained access to the consulate for plebeians. The family was unimportant under the Republic, with the exception of S. [1 3]; the branch which was best known into the 3rd cent. AD originated with Caesar's follower S. [I 2], but it made spurious claims to be descended from the first plebeian consul S. [I 6] (hence the epithets Africanus and Laterensis). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] S., Q. Founder of t…

Name of a patrician Roman family, derived from the praenomen Quintus (comparable to Sextus/ Sextius, etc.), often also Quintius in inscriptions and MSS. The origin of the family is unknown; its great age is suggested by its connection with the festival of the Lupercalia (Ov. Fast. 2,378 has Quintilii) and the unusual praenomen of the family, Kaeso, encountered in this context ( v. Q. [I 1]). Livy counts them among the families that migrated to Rome from Alba with King Tullius Hostilius (1,32,2; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 3,29,7 mentions the Quinctilii). The Quinctii are mentioned many tim…

Old Roman nomen gentile, derived from the prename Marcus. Tradition knows of a patrician branch with the (mythical) king Ancus M. [I 3] and Cn. M. Coriolanus as its most important members. The younger members of the family (from the 3rd cent.) were plebeian without a link to the patrician Marcii being evident. Important families included the Rutili, later also the Censorini, Tremuli, Reges and Rallae. In the Late Republic the family claimed descent from the kings Ancus M. and Numa Pompilius (therefore the cognomen Rex, see M. [I 5]; RRC 346; 425; Suet. Iul. 6,1; [4. 154]) as wel…

[German version] [1] Vitruvius Vaccus, Marcus According to Livy (8,19,4-8,20,10), V. was an influential citizen of Fundi (Fondi) who led the revolt against Rome that was undertaken by Privernum (Piperno) with the support of Fondi in 330/329 BC.  After the failed insurrection he was executed in Rome.  It is difficult to explain V's role in this revolt, given that he was clearly not an unimportant figure in Rome and owned a house there, which was then destroyed by decree of the Senate (Cic. Dom. 101 sti…

Roman gens of the early Republic, to which R. [1] - if historical - and R. [2] may be attributed; however, the tradition in Dion. Hal. (R. [1]: tr. pl., R. [2]: patrician) is contradictory. If one considers R. [1] unhistorical as does [1. 29] it becomes likely to view the gens Rabuleia as patrician, but a plebeian origin cannot be excluded. [German version] [1] People's tribune in 486 BC, sought to mediate in the dispute over the agrarian law According to Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 8,72,1 ff., R. attempted to mediate as tr. pl. in 486 BC in the dispute between Cassius [I 19] and his co-consul…

Name of a patrician gens, whose last known representative N. ( tr. mil. 258 BC) is placed by tradition in the middle of the 3rd cent. BC. According to Varro (HRR II p. 9 = Serv. Aen. 2,166; cf. 3,407; 5,704) the ancestor of the gens was a companion of Aeneas by the name of Nautes, to whom Diomedes [1] surrendered the Palladion of Troy, which had been plundered by the Greeks, and this was the origin of a gentile cult for Minerva observed among the Nautii (cf. Fest. 164 L.; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 6,69,1). [German version] [1] N., Sp. Legate of the consul L. Papieius Cursor, contributed considera…

[German version] According to a legendary tradition of the early Republic, V. prevented her son Marcius Coriolanus from conquering his home city Rome with a Volscian army (Volsci). The best-known version of this often revisited subject matter is that of Livius [III 2] (2,40,1-12; cf. e.g. Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 8,39-54; Val. Max. 5,4,1; Plut. Coriolanus 33-36, but there, V. is called Volumnia [1]), who simultaneously provides an aetiology for the foundation of the temple of Fortuna Muliebris. Prototypes in Greek tragedy (e.g. Eur. Phoen.; Eur. Hec.) are unmistakable. A po…

Name of a Roman plebeian family, perhaps of Etruscan origin [1. 185; 187]. The most important bearer of the name is M. [I 3]; the family is politically unimportant in the 1st cent. BC. Lex Maenia is the title of a Menippean satire of Varro (Varro Men. 153-155). The law concerned the power of the paternal head of the house; content and dating are contested [3. 1085 - 1121]. A further lex Maenia probably passed before 290 BC directed that the ‘agreement of the Senate’ ( auctoritas patrum) for elections be obtained before proclaiming the election results (Cic. Brut. 55). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Boch…

[German version] [1] Vestal vergin, buried alive in 483 BC Vestal virgin, buried alive for unchastity in 483 BC. Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 8,89,4 calls her O., but her name is given differently elsewhere (e.g. Liv. 2,42,11); the name was probably established by ancient authors through associations between the vestal concerned, not known by name, and others whose names were recorded (perhaps O. [2]). Müller, Christian (Bochum) [German version] [2] Vestal virgin, buried alive in 216 BC As a Vestal virgin, she was convicted for unchastity and buried alive in 216 BC (Plut. Fabius…

[German version] [1] T. mons According to Varro (Ling. 5,41), term for the Capitolium, cf. Tarpeium Saxum. Zimmermann, Sylvia [German version] [2] Epithet of Iuppiter as lord of the Capitolium Epithet of Iuppiter as lord of the Capitolium, where the rock was from which traitors were thrown to their deaths in accordance with a law written by T. [4] (e.g. Ov. Fast. 6,34; Ov. Met. 15,866; Prop. 4,1,7). Zimmermann, Sylvia [German version] [3] T., Sp. Father of Tarpeia Father of Tarpeia, commander of the Capitoline fortress under Romulus [1] during the attack of the Sabine kin…

Roman family name (Etruscan Latini), a derivation from the ethnicon Latinus. I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] L., T. According to the legend, Jupiter told L. during the Latin War to instruct the consuls to have the Ludi Romani repeated According to Livy (2,36,2-8), who sets the legend that was originally probably not fixed in time in 491 BC, Jupiter told L. in a dream during the Latin War that he should instruct the consuls to have the ludi Romani ( ludi ) repeated; L. finally obeyed these instructions after initially ignoring them twice and…

Name of a Plebeian family (connection with the Campanian city of Pompeii is unclear). The family acquired political significance with P. [I 1]; he is the origin of the Rufi branch. With P. [I 8] a related branch attained consulship and with his son Cn. P. [I 3] Magnus supplied the most significant member of the gens. Both lineages continue until the early Imperial period (family trees: [1; 2; 3]). I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] P., Q. Consul 141 BC A homo novus and popular orator (Cic. Brut. 96), he became consul in 141 BC, despite resistance from the nobility a…

Name of a Roman plebeian family, in the late Republic also often spelt Plotius, with no clear difference in use (cf. Claudius/Clodius). The earliest epigraphic evidence comes from Praeneste (among it the maker of the Ficoronian Cista, Novios Plautios, CIL I2 561), while the family in Rome achieved political eminence after 367 BC (Münzer therefore considers them to have migrated from Praeneste [1. 42; 44f.; 412]), providing seven consuls between 358 and 318; their migration may explain their interest in integrating Latini (cf. P. [I 5]…

Name of a Roman plebeian family, who probably came from Latium and was accepted into Roman nobility when Latium was integrated politically in 338 BC ( Latin law). The most important branches were first the Salinatores, then the Drusi (on the cognomen see Drusus). The third wife of Augustus and mother of the emperor Tiberius, Livia [2] Drusilla came from this branch (Stemma see Augustus; the family history of the branch is in Suet. Tib. 3). The line of the Salinatores was continued in the late Republic by the Livii Ocellae, who i.a. produced Livia Ocella, the stepmother of the emperor Galba [2]. E…

[German version] Patrician family. According to tradition, the P. provided for a cult of Hercules on the Ara Maxima in Rome - together with the Pinarii (Pinarius), with respect to whom they took precedence. Supposedly at an extremely early time Hercules himself or Evander [1] had entrusted the cult to them. In 312 BC, the censor Appius Claudius [I 2] Caecus converted it into a state cult (Verg. Aen. 8,268-72 with Serv. Aen. ad loc.; Liv. 1,7,8-15; 9,29,9-11; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1,40,1-5; Val. Max…

Name of a Roman gens, documented only since the 2nd cent. BC. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [1] N., L. People's tribune in 471 BC Member of the first college of people's tribunes (that of 471 BC) whose members are all known (Calpurnius Piso fr. 23 HRR = Liv. 2,58,1; Diod. Sic. 11,68,8). Müller, Christian (Bochum) [German version] [2] N., P. People's tribune in 449 BC, grandfather or great-uncle of Verginia According to tradition, N. was the grandfather or (great) uncle of Verginia; together with her betrothed, L. Icilius [1], he sought to protect he…

Name of a plebeian family, that probably already died out in the 4th cent. BC, according to the tradition known for its anti-patrician stance (Liv. 4,54,4). [German version] [1] I., L. People's tribune 456, 455 and 449 BC People's tribune in 456, 455, 449 BC (MRR 1,42; 48). In 456 he is said to have carried through the lex de Aventino publicando, which allocated the Aventine to the plebs (Liv. 3,31,1; 32,7; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 10,31,2-32,5); as the fiancé of  Verginia he bravely resisted the despotism of the decemvir Appius Claudius [I 5] (Liv. 3,44,3; 45,4-46,…

[German version] According to traditional legend, found in literature most notably in Livy's dramatic rendering (3:44-48; cf. Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 11:28-32), V. was the daughter of Verginius [I 3] and played a role in the demise of the Decemvirate ( decemviri [1]). Recognizing that he had no chance to win her, the decemvir Appius Claudius [I 5] induced one of his clients to claim V., asserting that she was originally his slave and that Verginius had merely been led to believe that she was his child. Not surprisingly, she was awarded to the client…

Oscan praenomen and Oscan/Lat. gentilic. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] Pontius, Gavius Samnite general, delivered Rome its defeat 321 BC at Caudium Samnite general who in 321 BC famously defeated the Romans at Caudium and sent them 'under the yoke' (Liv. 9,2,6-6,4). The fact that the Samnite leader in the Social War (Social Wars [3]), P. [I 4], had the same name is no proof that P.' name entered the tradition only later. The annalistic tradition (in Liv. 9, 15,8), however, of P.'…

Name of an old patrician family, which was said to have immigrated to Rome under King T. Tatius with V. [I 10] (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 2,46). The name, derived from the old personal name Valesus/ Valerus, was originally Valesios (cf. V. [I 7]; CIL XII p. 298g: Valesies; Fest. 22; Varro, Rerum divinarum fr. 66 Cardauns [4; 5]); the censor App. Claudius [I 2] introduced the new spelling in 312 BC (cf. Dig. 1,2, 2,36). Because in Antiquity the name was derived (etymologically correctly) from valere, 'to be strong', it was considered to be a good omen ( boni ominis nomen, Cic. Div. 1,102; Cic. Sca…