The gens Romania was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. No members of this gens appear in history, but many are known from inscriptions.
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.
In historiography, ancient Rome is Roman civilization from the founding of the 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, dating from the 8th century 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.
In ancient Rome, a gens, plural gentes, was a family consisting of all those individuals who shared the same nomen and claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a stirps. The gens was an important social structure at Rome and throughout Italy during the period of the Roman Republic. Much of an individual's social standing depended on the gens to which he belonged. Certain gentes were considered patrician, others plebeian, while some had both patrician and plebeian branches. The importance of membership in a gens declined considerably in imperial times.
The nomen Romanius belongs to a large class of gentilicia formed from surnames ending in the suffix -anus, typically derived from place-names. Here the name is derived from a cognomen, Romanus, referring to a resident of Rome itself. [1] [2]
The Romanii used a wide variety of common praenomina, including Lucius , Gaius , Marcus , Publius , Quintus , Titus , and Gnaeus . Other names are found occasionally, including Aulus , Numerius , Decimus , Servius , and Tiberius . The Oscan praenomen Salvius occurs in a filiation, suggesting that at least some of the Romanii were of Oscan descent.
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.
Lucius is a Latin praenomen, or personal name, which was one of the most common names throughout Roman history. The feminine form is Lucia. The praenomen was used by both patrician and plebeian families, and gave rise to the patronymic gentes Lucia and Lucilia, as well as the cognomenLucullus. It was regularly abbreviated L.
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.
In imperial times, the Romanii used a number of surnames, but all appear to have been personal cognomina, and the Romanii do not appear to have been divided into distinct families.
Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her slain husband, the divine king Osiris, and produces and protects his heir, Horus. She was believed to help the dead enter the afterlife as she had helped Osiris, and she was considered the divine mother of the pharaoh, who was likened to Horus. Her maternal aid was invoked in healing spells to benefit ordinary people. Originally, she played a limited role in royal rituals and temple rites, although she was more prominent in funerary practices and magical texts. She was usually portrayed in art as a human woman wearing a throne-like hieroglyph on her head. During the New Kingdom, as she took on traits that originally belonged to Hathor, the preeminent goddess of earlier times, Isis came to be portrayed wearing Hathor's headdress: a sun disk between the horns of a cow.
Aquileia is an ancient Roman city in Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about 10 kilometres (6 mi) from the sea, on the river Natiso, the course of which has changed somewhat since Roman times. Today, the city is small, but it was large and prominent in Antiquity as one of the world's largest cities with a population of 100,000 in the 2nd century AD. and is one of the main archeological sites of Northern Italy.
The Sodales or Sacerdotes Augustales, or simply Augustales, were an order (sodalitas) of Roman priests instituted by Tiberius to attend to the maintenance of the cult of Augustus and the Julii. Their establishment in 14 A.D. was described by Tacitus in his first book of the Annales.
The gens Accia was a Roman family during the late Republic. The gens is known primarily from two individuals, Lucius Accius, a tragic poet of the second century BC, and Titus Accius, best known for his prosecution of Aulus Cluentius Habitus in Cicero's oration Pro Cluentio. Other Accii are known from inscriptions.
The gens Acutia was a minor plebeian family at Ancient Rome. Members of this gens are mentioned from the early Republic to imperial times. The first of the Acutii to achieve prominence was Marcus Acutius, tribune of the plebs in 401 BC.
The gens Mutia was an obscure plebeian family at Rome. None of its members is known to have held any magistracy, but many are known from inscriptions, including a large number of freedmen.
The gens Occia was a minor plebeian family at Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned under Tiberius, but must have been at Rome for much longer; for Tacitus speaks of Occia, a Vestal Virgin who died in AD 19, after serving faithfully for fifty-seven years. A few of the Occii pursued political careers in this period, but most are known only from inscriptions.
The gens Orbia was a minor plebeian family at Rome. No members of this gens are known to have held any magistracies, but many of them are known from inscriptions. The most illustrious of the family may have been the jurist Publius Orbius, a contemporary of Cicero.
The gens Pescennia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned in the time of Cicero, but it was not until imperial times that they came to prominence. The Pescennii were of equestrian rank. The most illustrious of the family was Gaius Pescennius Niger, an able general, who was proclaimed emperor in AD 193, only to be defeated and put to death by Septimius Severus the following year.
The gens Petillia or Petilia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens first appear in history at the beginning of the second century BC, and the first to obtain the consulship was Quintus Petillius Spurinus in 176 BC.
The gens Pinnia was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. Few members of this gens are mentioned in history, and few of them attained any of the higher offices of the Roman state, although a few became local governors, and at least one, Lucius Pinnius Porphyrio, held the quaestorship. Many others are known from inscriptions.
The gens Pollia was a minor plebeian family at ancient Rome. The gens must have been very old, as one of the original Servian tribes was named after it, suggesting that the Pollii were important landowners during the Roman monarchy. However, few Pollii are mentioned in history, and none of them attained any of the higher offices of the Roman state. A number of Pollii are known from inscriptions.
The gens Quartia was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. No members of this gens appear in history, but several are known from inscriptions.
The gens Praecilia or Precilia, also written as Praecillia or Precillia, was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. Few members of this gens are mentioned in history, but a number are known from inscriptions.
The gens Proculeia was a minor plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned at the end of the Republic. Gaius Proculeius was one of the most trusted friends and advisers of Octavian, and one of those whom he considered a possible heir. None of the Proculei ever obtained the consulship, but a number are known from inscriptions.
The gens Racilia was a minor plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are mentioned as early as the fifth century BC, but few of them achieved any prominence in the Roman state.
The gens Rammia was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned in the period leading to the Third Macedonian War, but no Rammius attained a position of importance in the Roman state until Quintus Rammius Martialis, governor of Egypt early in the second century AD.
The gens Rasinia was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. Hardly any members of this gens are mentioned in history, but a number are known from inscriptions. In imperial times a Gaius Rasinius Silo was governor of Noricum.
The gens Safinia was a minor plebeian family at ancient Rome. Few members of this gens are mentioned in history, but a number are known from inscriptions.
The gens Saturia was an obscure plebeian family of equestrian rank at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned in the time of Cicero, and a number of them had distinguished military careers, but none of them attained any of the higher offices of the Roman State.
The gens Seccia, Secia, or Siccia was a minor plebeian family at ancient Rome. Few members of this gens occur in history, but a number are known from inscriptions. The best known members include Lucius Siccius Dentatus, who won martial fame in the fifth century BC, and Gaius Secius Campanus suffect consul under Domitian.
The gens Secundia was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. This gens is known almost entirely from inscriptions, as none of its members held any of the higher offices of the Roman state.
The gens Sellia or Selia was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are mentioned in the time of Cicero, but none of them attained any of the higher offices of the Roman state.
Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He was one of the greatest classicists of the 19th century. His work regarding Roman history is still of fundamental importance for contemporary research. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1902 for being "the greatest living master of the art of historical writing, with special reference to his monumental work, A History of Rome", after having been nominated by 18 members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. He was also a prominent German politician, as a member of the Prussian and German parliaments. His works on Roman law and on the law of obligations had a significant impact on the German civil code.
The Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL) is a comprehensive collection of ancient Latin inscriptions. It forms an authoritative source for documenting the surviving epigraphy of classical antiquity. Public and personal inscriptions throw light on all aspects of Roman life and history. The Corpus continues to be updated in new editions and supplements.
Giovanni Battista (Carlo) de Rossi was an Italian archaeologist, famous even outside his field for rediscovering early Christian catacombs.