Atia gens

Last updated

The gens Atia, sometimes written Attia, was a plebeian family at Rome. The first of the gens to achieve prominence was Lucius Atius, a military tribune in 178 BC. Several of the Atii served in the Civil War between Caesar and Pompeius. The gens Attia may be identical with this family, although the individuals known by that name lived nearly a century after the more notable Atii, and are not known to have been related. [1]

Contents

Origin

The gens does not appear to have been of any great antiquity, and none of its members ever attained the consulship; but, since Augustus was connected with it on his mother's side, the flattery of the poets derived its origin from Atys, the friend of Ascanius, the son of Aeneas. [2] [3] [4]

Praenomina

The Atii are known to have used several of the most common praenomina at Rome, including Lucius, Marcus, Gaius, Publius , and Quintus .

Branches and cognomina

The cognomina of the Atii are Balbus, Rufus, and Varus. The Atii Balbi were from the city of Aricia. The Venetian scholar Paulus Manutius conjectured that the family of the Labieni belonged to the Atia gens, which opinion has been followed by most modern writers. However, Spanheim pointed out that there was no authority for this. As Labienus is not found as the cognomen of any person named Atius, nor in any other gens, it is probably the nomen of a separate gens. [5]

Members

This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation.

Atii Balbi

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia gens</span> Ancient Roman family

The gens Julia was one of the most ancient patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the consulship was Gaius Julius Iulus in 489 BC. The gens is perhaps best known, however, for Gaius Julius Caesar, the dictator and grand uncle of the emperor Augustus, through whom the name was passed to the so-called Julio-Claudian dynasty of the first century AD. The nomen Julius became very common in imperial times, as the descendants of persons enrolled as citizens under the early emperors began to make their mark in history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Licinia gens</span> Ancient Roman family

The gens Licinia was a celebrated plebeian family at ancient Rome, which appears from the earliest days of the Republic until imperial times, and which eventually obtained the imperial dignity. The first of the gens to obtain the consulship was Gaius Licinius Calvus Stolo, who, as tribune of the plebs from 376 to 367 BC, prevented the election of any of the annual magistrates, until the patricians acquiesced to the passage of the lex Licinia Sextia, or Licinian Rogations. This law, named for Licinius and his colleague, Lucius Sextius, opened the consulship for the first time to the plebeians. Licinius himself was subsequently elected consul in 364 and 361 BC, and from this time, the Licinii became one of the most illustrious gentes in the Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Junia gens</span> Ancient Roman family

The gens Junia was one of the most celebrated families of ancient Rome. The gens may originally have been patrician, and was already prominent in the last days of the Roman monarchy. Lucius Junius Brutus was the nephew of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last King of Rome, and on the expulsion of Tarquin in 509 BC, he became one of the first consuls of the Roman Republic.

Marcus Atius Balbus was a 1st-century BC Roman who served as a praetor in 62 BC, he was a cousin of the general Pompey on his mother's side and a brother-in-law of the Dictator Julius Caesar through his marriage to Caesar's sister Julia Minor. Through Julia he became the maternal grandfather of Augustus the first Roman Emperor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia (grandmother of Augustus)</span> Sister of Julius Caesar and grandmother of Augustus

Julia was the second of two daughters of Gaius Julius Caesar and Aurelia. She was an elder sister of the dictator Julius Caesar, and the maternal grandmother of Rome's first emperor Augustus.

The gens Quinctilia, also written Quintilia, was a patrician family at ancient Rome, dating from the earliest period of Roman history, and continuing well into imperial times. Despite its great antiquity, the gens never attained much historical importance. The only member who obtained the consulship under the Republic was Sextus Quinctilius in 453 BC. The gens produced numerous praetors and other magistrates, but did not obtain the consulship again for over four hundred years.

The gens Octavia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, which was raised to patrician status by Caesar during the first century BC. The first member of the gens to achieve prominence was Gnaeus Octavius Rufus, quaestor circa 230 BC. Over the following two centuries, the Octavii held many of the highest offices of the state; but the most celebrated of the family was Gaius Octavius, the grandnephew and adopted son of Caesar, who was proclaimed Augustus by the senate in 27 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caecilia gens</span> Ancient Roman family

The gens Caecilia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are mentioned in history as early as the fifth century BC, but the first of the Caecilii who obtained the consulship was Lucius Caecilius Metellus Denter, in 284 BC. The Caecilii Metelli were one of the most powerful families of the late Republic, from the decades before the First Punic War down to the time of Augustus.

The gens Servilia was a patrician family at ancient Rome. The gens was celebrated during the early ages of the Republic, and the names of few gentes appear more frequently at this period in the consular Fasti. It continued to produce men of influence in the state down to the latest times of the Republic, and even in the imperial period. The first member of the gens who obtained the consulship was Publius Servilius Priscus Structus in 495 BC, and the last of the name who appears in the consular Fasti is Quintus Servilius Silanus, in AD 189, thus occupying a prominent position in the Roman state for nearly seven hundred years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hostilia gens</span> Ancient Roman family

The gens Hostilia was an ancient family at Rome, which traced its origin to the time of Romulus. The most famous member of the gens was Tullus Hostilius, the third King of Rome; however, all of the Hostilii known from the time of the Republic were plebeians. Several of the Hostilii were distinguished during the Punic Wars. The first of the family to obtain the consulship was Aulus Hostilius Mancinus in 170 BC.

The gens Sextilia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. The first member of this gens to achieve prominence was Gaius Sextilius, consular tribune in 379 BC. None of the family obtained the consulship, but they endured throughout Roman history from the early Republic into imperial times.

The gens Egnatia was a plebeian family of equestrian rank at ancient Rome. Only a few of the Egnatii held any magistracies, of whom the most important may have been Gnaeus Egnatius, who held the praetorship during the second century BC, and served as governor of Macedonia, shortly after its institution as a Roman province.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fonteia gens</span> Ancient Roman family

The gens Fonteia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned toward the end of the third century BC; Titus Fonteius was a legate of Publius Cornelius Scipio during the Second Punic War. The first of the Fonteii to obtain the consulship was Gaius Fonteius Capito, consul suffectus in 33 BC.

The gens Hortensia was an ancient plebeian family in Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned in the fifth century BC, but from that time somewhat infrequently until the final century of the Republic. The most illustrious of the gens was the orator Quintus Hortensius, a man of great learning, and a contemporary of Cicero. Under the Empire they seem to have sunk back into obscurity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Labiena gens</span>

The gens Labiena was a plebeian family at Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned during the final century of the Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nonia gens</span> Ancient Roman family

The gens Nonia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Its members first appear in history toward the end of the Republic. The first of the Nonii to obtain the consulship was Lucius Nonius Asprenas in 36 BC. From then until the end of the fourth century, they regularly held the highest offices of the Roman state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Munatia gens</span>

The gens Munatia was a plebeian family at Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned during the second century BC, but they did not obtain any of the higher offices of the Roman state until imperial times.

References

  1. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology , William Smith, Editor.
  2. Publius Vergilius Maro, Aeneid v. 568.
  3. Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita i. 3.
  4. Lee Fratantuono (2007). Madness Unchained: A Reading of Virgil's Aeneid. Lexington Books. pp. 147–. ISBN   978-0-7391-2242-6.
  5. Ézéchiel Spanheim, De Praestantia et usu Numismatum Antiquorum ii. 11, 12.
  6. Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xli. 7.
  7. Gaius Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Civili iii. 83.

PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Smith, William, ed. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology .{{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)