Menenia (gens)

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The gens Menenia was a very ancient and illustrious patrician house at Rome from the earliest days of the Roman Republic to the first half of the fourth century BC. The first of the family to obtain the consulship was Agrippa Menenius Lanatus in 503 BC. The gens eventually drifted into obscurity, although its descendants were still living in the first century BC. [1]

The patricians were originally a group of ruling class families in ancient Rome. The distinction was highly significant in the early Republic, but its relevance waned after the Conflict of the Orders, and by the time of the late Republic and Empire, membership in the patriciate was of only nominal significance.

Ancient Rome History of Rome from the 8th-century BC to the 5th-century

In historiography, ancient Rome is Roman civilization from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, encompassing the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and Roman Empire until the fall of the western empire. The civilization began as an Italic settlement in the Italian Peninsula, conventionally founded in 753 BC, that grew into the city of Rome and which subsequently gave its name to the empire over which it ruled and to the widespread civilisation the empire developed. The Roman Empire expanded to become one of the largest empires in the ancient world, though still ruled from the city, with an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants and covering 5.0 million square kilometres at its height in AD 117.

Roman Republic Period of ancient Roman civilization (509–27 BC)

The Roman Republic was the era of classical Roman civilization beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom, traditionally dated to 509 BC, and ending in 27 BC with the establishment of the Roman Empire. It was during this period that Rome's control expanded from the city's immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world.

Contents

Origin

During the first secession of the plebs in 493 BC, Agrippa Menenius Lanatus, the former consul, was despatched by the Senate as an emissary to the plebeians, who were gathered on the Mons Sacer. He said that he was sprung from the plebs, although he and several generations of his descendants held the consulship at a time when it was open only to the patricians. This suggests that the Menenii must have been made patricians, probably during the reign of one of the later Roman kings. [2] [3]

Secessio plebis was an informal exercise of power by Rome's plebeian citizens, similar to a general strike taken to the extreme. During a secessio plebis, the plebs would simply abandon the city en masse and leave the patrician order to themselves. Therefore, a secessio meant that all shops and workshops would shut down and commercial transactions would largely cease. This was an effective strategy in the Conflict of the Orders due to strength in numbers; plebeian citizens made up the vast majority of Rome's populace and produced most of its food and resources, while a patrician citizen was a member of the minority upper class, the equivalent of the landed gentry of later times. Authors report different numbers for how many secessions there were. Cary & Scullard state there were five between 494 BC and 287 BC.

The plebs were, in ancient Rome, the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census. The precise origins of the group and the term are unclear, though it may be that they began as a limited political movement in opposition to the elite (patricians) which became more widely applied.

King of Rome the chief magistrate of the ancient Roman Kingdom (for the medieval German title, use Q782985)

The King of Rome was the chief magistrate of the Roman Kingdom. According to legend, the first king of Rome was Romulus, who founded the city in 753 BC upon the Palatine Hill. Seven legendary kings are said to have ruled Rome until 509 BC, when the last king was overthrown. These kings ruled for an average of 35 years.

Praenomina

The Menenii are known to have used the praenomina Agrippa, Gaius, Titus and Lucius . Together with the gens Furia , they were amongst the only patrician families to make regular use of the praenomen Agrippa, which was later revived as a cognomen in many families. For this reason, later sources erroneously refer to members of this gens as Menenius Agrippa.

The praenomen was a personal name chosen by the parents of a Roman child. It was first bestowed on the dies lustricus, the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the birth of a boy. The praenomen would then be formally conferred a second time when girls married, or when boys assumed the toga virilis upon reaching manhood. Although it was the oldest of the tria nomina commonly used in Roman naming conventions, by the late republic, most praenomina were so common that most people were called by their praenomina only by family or close friends. For this reason, although they continued to be used, praenomina gradually disappeared from public records during imperial times. Although both men and women received praenomina, women's praenomina were frequently ignored, and they were gradually abandoned by many Roman families, though they continued to be used in some families and in the countryside.

Agrippa is a Latin praenomen, or personal name, which was most common during the early centuries of the Roman Republic. It was sometimes abbreviated Agr., or occasionally Agripp.; both forms are found in the Fasti Capitolini. Despite ending in -a, it is a masculine name. The feminine form was probably Agrippina, which is also found as a cognomen, or surname, but no examples of its use as a praenomen have survived.

Gaius['ɡa.jus] is a Latin praenomen, or personal name, which was one of the most common names throughout Roman history. The feminine form is Gaia. The praenomen was used by both patrician and plebeian families, and gave rise to the patronymic gens Gavia. The name was regularly abbreviated C., based on the original spelling of Caius, which dates from the period before the letters "C" and "G" were differentiated.

Licinus, the praenomen of one of the Menenii, was likewise a rare name, meaning upturned. [4] Like Agrippa, Licinus was later known primarily as a surname, but it is most frequently confused with the nomen Licinius , which was probably derived from it, although perhaps connected to the Etruscan lecne, which seems to have been its equivalent. Livy preserves the praenomen as Licinius, but later historians appear to have amended it to the more common praenomen Lucius. [3] [5]

Over the course of some fourteen centuries, the Romans and other peoples of Italy employed a system of nomenclature that differed from that used by other cultures of Europe and the Mediterranean, consisting of a combination of personal and family names. Although conventionally referred to as the tria nomina, the combination of praenomen, nomen, and cognomen that have come to be regarded as the basic elements of the Roman name in fact represent a continuous process of development, from at least the seventh century BC to the end of the seventh century AD. The names developed as part of this system became a defining characteristic of Roman civilization, and although the system itself vanished during the early Middle Ages, the names themselves exerted a profound influence on the development of European naming practices, and many continue to survive in modern languages.

Licinia (gens) families from Ancient Rome who shared the Licinius nomen

The gens Licinia was a celebrated plebeian family at 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.

Etruscan language ancient Mediterranean language

The Etruscan language was the spoken and written language of the Etruscan civilization, in Italy, in the ancient region of Etruria and in parts of Corsica, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Lombardy and Campania. Etruscan influenced Latin, but eventually was completely superseded by it. The Etruscans left around 13,000 inscriptions which have been found so far, only a small minority of which are of significant length; some bilingual inscriptions with texts also in Latin, Greek, or Phoenician; and a few dozen loanwords, such as the name Roma, but Etruscan's influence was significant. Attested from 700 BC to AD 50, the relation of Etruscan to other languages has been a source of long-running speculation and study, with its being referred to at times as an isolate, one of the Tyrsenian languages, and a number of other less well-known possibilities.

Branches and cognomina

The only cognomen associated with the Menenii is Lanatus. This surname is derived from the Latin adjective, meaning "wooly", and perhaps originally referred to a person with particularly fine, curly, or abundant hair. [6] [3]

Latin Indo-European language of the Italic family

Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets and ultimately from the Phoenician alphabet.

Members

Roman consul High political office in ancient Rome

A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic, and ancient Romans considered the consulship the highest level of the cursus honorum.

Titus Menenius Lanatus was a Roman patrician of the fifth century BC. He was elected consul for the year 477. He unsuccessfully fought the Veiientes, and was later prosecuted by the tribunes of the plebs for his failure to prevent the disaster of the Cremera.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Livy gives his praenomen as Licinius, apparently confusing the rare praenomen with the common nomen gentilicium. Diodorus, apparently unfamiliar with the name, amends it to Lucius, and in one passage to Gaius.

See also

List of Roman gentes

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References

  1. ↑ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 1040 ("Menenia Gens").
  2. ↑ Livy, ii. 32.
  3. 1 2 3 Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 716 ("Lanatus").
  4. ↑ Chase, p. 109.
  5. ↑ Lanzi, vol. II, p. 389.
  6. ↑ Chase, p. 110.
  7. ↑ Livy, ii. 16, 32, 33.
  8. ↑ Dionysius, v. 44–47, vi. 49–89, 96.
  9. ↑ Zonaras, vii. 13, 14.
  10. ↑ Broughton, vol. I, p. 8.
  11. ↑ Livy, ii. 51, 52.
  12. ↑ Dionysius, ix. 18–27.
  13. ↑ Diodorus Siculus, xi. 53.
  14. ↑ Aulus Gellius, xvii. 21.
  15. ↑ Livy, iii. 32.
  16. ↑ Dionysius, x. 54.
  17. ↑ Diodorus Siculus, xii. 22.
  18. ↑ Livy, iv. 12.
  19. ↑ Diodorus Siculus, xii. 36.
  20. ↑ Livy, iv. 13, 44, 47.
  21. ↑ Diodorus Siculus, xii. 37, xiii. 7.
  22. ↑ Livy, vi. 5, 27, 31.
  23. ↑ Diodorus Siculus, xv. 50, 57, 71.
  24. ↑ Appian, Bellum Civile, iv. 44.

Bibliography

PD-icon.svg  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Smith, William, ed. (1870). "article name needed". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology . 

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