Cossutia gens

The gens Cossutia was a minor plebeian family of equestrian rank of ancient Rome. ^{[1] [2]} Only a few members of this gens appear in history, but many others are known from epigraphy. ^[2]

Origin

The Cossutianae tabulae, mentioned by Cicero near Caesena in Cisalpine Gaul, may indicate that the Cossutii were an Umbrian family of that area. ^{[2] [3]}

Branches and cognomina

Besides the architect Decimus Cossutius, other Cossutii lived throughout the Greek world during the first and second centuries BC, including at Erythrae and in Eretria, and on the islands of Delos, Ios, Kos, and Paros, the latter of which was known for its marble. These Cossuti often worked in the stone industry, in which the family was involved in various capacities until at least the second century. Three first-century BC statues from Italy were signed by freedmen of this gens; a late first- or early second-century funerary inscription for a member of this family from Rome shows stoneworkers' tools, and two of its members are known to been active at Chemtou in North Africa in the second century. ^[4]

Coins of the Cossutii include the cognomina Maridianus and Sabula, but nothing is known of the persons bearing these surnames. ^[2]

Members

• Decimus Cossutius, a Roman architect, was retained by Antiochus IV Epiphanes about 168 BC to rebuild the Temple of Olympian Zeus at Athens. Cossutius' reconstruction featured splendid decoration in the Corinthian style, but the temple was left unfinished after the death of Antiochus in 164. Parts of Cossutius' pillars were later removed by Sulla. ^{[5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]}
• Marcus Cossutius, an eques of Sicily, defended Xeno before Verres during the latter's administration of that province. Cicero describes him as and a man of great integrity and respectability. ^{[12] [13]}
• Cossutia, the fiancée and perhaps the first wife of Caesar, belonged to a very wealthy equestrian family. Caesar's parents arranged their marriage when he was but a child, but when he was sixteen, he either repudiated or divorced her in order to marry Cornelia. ^{[14] [15]}
• Gaius Cossutius Maridianus, triumvir monetalis under Caesar in 44 BC. ^[16]

See also

• List of Roman gentes
• Cossutianus Capito

References

1. Jiménez, Caesar Against Rome, p. 13.
2. William Smith, "Cossutia Gens", in Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 866.
3. Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, xvi. 27.
4. Russell, Economics of the Roman Stone Trade, p. 205.
5. Vitruvius, De Architectura, Praef., vii.
6. Livy, History of Rome, xli. 20.
7. Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, i. 10.
8. Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, v. p. 594, a.
9. Strabo, Geographica, ix. p. 396.
10. Pliny the Elder, Historia Naturalis, xxxvi. 5.
11. William Smith, "Cossutius", in Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 866.
12. Cicero, In Verrem, iii. 22, 80.
13. William Smith, "M. Cossutius", in Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 866.
14. Suetonius, "The Life of Caesar", 1.
15. William Smith, "Cossutia", in Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 866.
16. Sear, History and Coinage of the Roman Imperators, p. 76.

Bibliography

Ancient sources

• Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae (The Banquet of the Learned).
• Titus Livius (Livy), History of Rome .
• Gaius Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder), Historia Naturalis (Natural History).
• Strabo, Geographica .
• Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum (Lives of the Caesars, or The Twelve Caesars).
• Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares , In Verrem .
• Marcus Velleius Paterculus, Roman History.
• Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, De Architectura (On Architecture).

Modern sources

• Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology , William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849).
• Ramon L. Jiménez, Caesar against Rome: The Great Roman Civil War, Praeger, Westport (2000), ISBN   0-275-96620-8.
• Ben Russell, The Economics of the Roman Stone Trade, Oxford University Press (2013), ISBN   978-0-19-965639-4.
• David R. Sear, The History and Coinage of the Roman Imperators 49–27 BC, Spink (1998), ISBN   9780907605980.