Horatia gens

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Oath of the Horatii
Jacques-Louis David, Louvre Museum (1785) Jacques-Louis David, Le Serment des Horaces.jpg
Oath of the Horatii
Jacques-Louis David, Louvre Museum (1785)

The gens Horatia was a patrician family at ancient Rome. In legend, the gens dates back to the time of Tullus Hostilius, the third King of Rome. One of its members, Marcus Horatius Pulvillus, was consul suffectus in 509 BC, the first year of the Republic, and again in 507. The most famous of the Horatii was his nephew, Publius Horatius Cocles, who held the Sublician bridge against the army of Lars Porsena circa 508 BC. [1]

Contents

Origin

The nomen Horatius is said to have been derived from the hero Horatus, to whom an oak wood was dedicated. The gens was certainly of Latin origin, although there was some uncertainty as to when they arrived at Rome. A legend relates that in the reign of Tullus Hostilius, the fate of the ancient city of Alba Longa was decided by combat between three brothers from that city and three from Rome. The historian Livy states that most sources assigned the Horatii to Rome, and their opponents, the Curiatii, to Alba Longa. The victory of the Horatii was a pretext for the destruction of Alba Longa, and the transfer of its noble families to Rome. [2] [3]

Praenomina

The patrician Horatii used the praenomina Publius , Marcus , Lucius , and Gaius . To these, the plebeian Horatii of the late Republic and imperial times added Quintus and Sextus . No other praenomina are found in epigraphic sources, with the possible exception of a single instance of Titus , but the reading of this inscription is uncertain.

Branches and cognomina

The Horatii of the Republic bore the surnames Barbatus, Cocles, and Pulvillus. [1] Of these, Barbatus and Pulvillus were cognomina designating different branches of the family, while Cocles appears to have been a personal surname, or agnomen, given to the hero of the Sublician bridge. Plutarch supposes that it was derived from the Greek cyclops, because he had lost an eye, or because the shape of his face made it appear as if he had but one eye. [4] [5] Cocles is said to have been the nephew of Marcus Horatius Pulvillus, and if he left any issue, they do not seem to have carried on his surname. Other surnames appearing amongst the Horatii in later times may have been adopted by freedmen of the gens; the poet Horace was the son of a libertinus, and the cognomen Flaccus is not otherwise found amongst the Horatii. [1]

Members

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

Early Horatii

Horatius Cocles defending the Bridge (1642-43) by Charles Le Brun Le Brun, Charles - Horatius Cocles defending the Bridge - Google Art Project.jpg
Horatius Cocles defending the Bridge (1642–43) by Charles Le Brun

Horatii Pulvilli

Horatii Barbati

Others

Undated Horatii

See also

Notes

  1. M. f. P. n., according to an Augustan-era inscription from the Alban Mount, but L. n. in the Fasti Triumphales . [33]
  2. Her surname should probably be Procula, as with another woman of the same place named Horatia Procula.
  3. August 28.
  4. November 1
  5. Meaning that he and his wife were manumitted by the same woman.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, p. 518 ("Horatia Gens").
  2. 1 2 Livy, i. 24–26.
  3. 1 2 Dionysius, iii. 12–22, 28–32; v. 14.
  4. 1 2 Plutarch, "The Life of Poplicola", 16.
  5. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, pp. 809, 810 ("Cocles, Horatius").
  6. Livy, i. 26.
  7. Zonaras, vii. 6.
  8. Dionysius, iii. 28–32.
  9. Cicero, Pro Milone, 3.
  10. Dionysius, iii. 21.
  11. Livy, i. 26.
  12. Florus, i. 3.
  13. Livy, i. 10.
  14. Dionysius, v. 24, 25.
  15. Valerius Maximus, iii. 2. § 1.
  16. Florus, i. 10.
  17. Aurelius Victor, De Viris Illustribus, 11.
  18. Seneca the Younger, Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, 120 ff.
  19. Fasti Capitolini , AE 1900, 83; 1904, 114.
  20. Livy, ii. 8.
  21. Dionysius, v. 19, 21.
  22. Broughton, vol. I, pp. 3, 6.
  23. Livy, ii. 51, iii. 30.
  24. Diodorus, xi. 53, 91.
  25. Broughton, vol. I, pp. 26, 27 (and note 1), 41 (and note 1).
  26. Dionysius, x. 53.
  27. Livy, iii. 32.
  28. Broughton, vol. I, pp. 43, 44 (and note 1).
  29. Livy, vi. 6.
  30. Broughton, vol. I, pp. 100, 101.
  31. Livy, vi. 31.
  32. Broughton, vol. I, p. 107 (and note 1).
  33. CIL XIV, 2236.
  34. Livy, iii. 55.
  35. Dionysius, xi. 5.
  36. Diodorus, xii. 26.
  37. Cicero, De Republica, ii. 54.
  38. Broughton, vol. I, pp. 47–50 (and note 1).
  39. Livy, iv. 35.
  40. Diodorus, xii. 81.
  41. Broughton, vol. I, p. 67 (and note 1).
  42. CIL V, 840.
  43. CIL XI, 6528.
  44. CIL X, 4169.
  45. AE 1965, 262.
  46. CIL XIV, 3778.
  47. AE 1999, 960.
  48. CIL IX, 528.
  49. AE 1985, 118.
  50. AE 2006, 282.
  51. CIL XI, 3254.
  52. CIL II, 2114.
  53. AE 2013, 549.
  54. CIL VI, 19514.
  55. CIL II, 4450.
  56. CIL IV, 9419.
  57. AE 2015, 453.
  58. AE 1992, 615.
  59. Hispania Epigraphica, 2012, 499.
  60. Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, 2283.
  61. CIL VI, 14614.
  62. 1 2 CIL V, 5289.
  63. CIL II, 4449.
  64. CIL II, 4451.
  65. 1 2 CIL II, 3804.
  66. CIL III, 13582.
  67. CIL VIII, 19766.
  68. Gsell, Inscriptions Latines de L'Algérie, ii. 1, 2712.
  69. Gsell, Inscriptions Latines de L'Algérie, ii. 1, 2701.
  70. CIL VIII, 19765.
  71. 1 2 3 CIL X, 2523.
  72. Gsell, Inscriptions Latines de L'Algérie, ii. 1, 2703.
  73. 1 2 CIL VIII, 3204.
  74. Gsell, Inscriptions Latines de L'Algérie, ii. 1, 2706.
  75. Gsell, Inscriptions Latines de L'Algérie, ii. 1, 2707
  76. Gsell, Inscriptions Latines de L'Algérie, ii. 1, 2710.
  77. Gsell, Inscriptions Latines de L'Algérie, ii. 1, 2711.
  78. CIL III, 633,1, CIL III, 633,2.
  79. Gsell, Inscriptions Latines de L'Algérie, ii. 1, 2705.
  80. Gsell, Inscriptions Latines de L'Algérie, ii. 1, 2713.
  81. AE 1995, 190.
  82. CIL XIV, 365.
  83. Gsell, Inscriptions Latines de L'Algérie, ii. 1, 2704.
  84. Hispania Epigraphica, 2000, 103.
  85. CIL III, 7810.
  86. CIL VIII, 7404.
  87. 1 2 CIL XIV, 367.
  88. AE 1916, 29.
  89. 1 2 CIL VIII, 3694.
  90. CIL VIII, 2757.
  91. Inscriptions Latines de L'Algérie, i. 1496.
  92. CIL II, 2513.
  93. Inscriptions antiques du Maroc, vol. 2, 122.
  94. CIL VI, 8282.
  95. 1 2 CIL VI, 9458.
  96. 1 2 CIL XIV, 4963.
  97. 1 2 CIL VI, 19513.
  98. CIL VIII, 8071.
  99. CIL VI, 35842.
  100. CIL VI, 35475.
  101. CIL VIII, 7402.
  102. CIL XIV, 2712.
  103. CIL VI, 10586.
  104. 1 2 CIL VIII, 4191.
  105. CIL V, 2965.
  106. CIL VIII, 4429.
  107. 1 2 3 4 CIL VIII, 7957.
  108. Inscriptiones Italiae, x. 1, 605.
  109. CIL XIII, 1827.
  110. CIL XI, 6699, CIL XIII, 10001,154a, b, CIL XV, 6480,05, CIL XV, 6480,06–9, CIL XV, 6480,11, CIL XV, 6480,12.
  111. CIL IX, 5667.
  112. CIL XIV, 3470.
  113. CIL VIII, 20684.
  114. CIL VIII, 5592.
  115. CIL VIII, 6939.
  116. CIL VIII, 14387.
  117. CIL VIII, 2403.
  118. EDCS 63400025.
  119. González Fernández, "La Campiña, Sevilla", 942.
  120. CIL VIII, 7694.
  121. CIL VIII, 3695.
  122. CIL VI, 19515.
  123. CIL VIII, 7403.
  124. CIL II, 1185.

Bibliography

PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Donne, William Bodham (1870). "Horatia Gens". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology . Vol. 2. p. 518.