Scaptia gens

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The gens Scaptia was a minor plebeian family at ancient Rome. Few members of this gens are mentioned in history, but they gave their name to the Scaptian tribe, established in 332 BC. [1]

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.

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 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.

Contents

Praenomina

The Scaptii used a variety of common praenomina, including Gaius , Marcus , Lucius , Publius , and Quintus , all of which were among the most common names throughout all periods of Roman history, as well as the more distinctive Manius , and at least one instance of Statia , an Oscan praenomen sometimes found among freedwomen at Rome, but in this case belonging to a woman in one of the Spanish provinces, who was evidently born free, perhaps descended from a Sabine or Samnite family that had settled in Spain.

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.

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.

Marcus is a Latin praenomen, or personal name, which was one of the most common names throughout Roman history. The feminine form is Marca or Marcia. The praenomen was used by both patrician and plebeian families, and gave rise to the patronymic gens Marcia, as well as the cognomen Marcellus. It was regularly abbreviated M.

Members

This list includes abbreviated praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see filiation.
  • Publius Scaptius, said to have been the arbiter chosen to decide the ownership of land disputed between the people of Aricia and Ardea, in 466 BC. As a Roman, Scaptius was expected to be neutral, but he decided that the land in question should belong to Rome. Niebuhr suggested that Scaptius be regarded as a figure of folklore, since the land in question was probably included in the original allotment of the Scaptian tribe. [2] [3] [4]
  • Marcus Scaptius, a negotiator, or money-lender, in Cilicia, whom Appius Claudius Pulcher had appointed prefect of Salamis, and placed in charge of a cavalry troop, which Scaptius used to enforce his claims. Cicero considered this a scandalous grant of authority to a private citizen, notwithstanding the recommendation of Brutus, and canceled the appointment on becoming governor of Cilicia. [5] [6]
  • Marcus Scaptius, appointed military tribune of Cappadocia by Cicero during his government of Cilicia. [7] [8]
  • Scaptia M. l. Hilara, a freedwoman, and the wife of the freedman Marcus Ceppuleius Bito, with whom she was buried at Verteneglio in Venetia and Histria, in a tomb built by their son, Marcus Ceppuleius Pudens, dating to the late first century BC or early first century AD. [9]
  • Scaptia M'. f. Paulla, the wife of Tiberius Terentianus, was buried at Ephesus in Asia, together with her son-in-law, Lucius Cusinius, in a tomb built by her daughter, Claudia Firmilla, some time in the first half of the first century AD. [10]
  • Lucius Scaptius Primus, dedicated a tomb dating to the reign of Nero at the present site of Tresigallo, formerly part of Venetia and Histria, to his wife, Gellia Urbana, and Gaius Trebius Anteros, a freedman. [11]
  • Manius Scaptius Q. f. Pius, buried at Ephesus, in a tomb dating to the latter half of the first century AD. [12]
  • Scaptia, dedicated a tomb at Rome to her daughter, Atticilla, aged twenty. [13]
  • Scaptia M. f., named in an inscription from Saturnia in Etruria. [14]
  • Gaius Scaptius C. f. Atticus, buried in a family sepulchre at Bonna in Germania Inferior. [15]
  • Gaius Scaptius Nucerinus, buried at Bonna. [15]
  • Statia Scaptia L. f. Phia, buried at Carthago Nova in Hispania Citerior. [16]
  • Scaptia Phyllis, buried at Bonna. [15]
  • Scaptia Prisca, buried at Bonna. [15]
Ariccia Comune in Lazio, Italy

Ariccia is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, central Italy, 16 miles (25 km) south-east of Rome. It is in the Alban Hills of the Lazio (Latium) region and could be considered an extension of Rome's southeastern suburbs. One of the Castelli Romani towns, Ariccia is located in the regional park known as the "Parco Regionale dei Castelli Romani".

Ardea, Lazio Comune in Lazio, Italy

Ardea is an ancient town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, 35 kilometres south of Rome and about 4 kilometres from today's Mediterranean coast.

Barthold Georg Niebuhr Danish-German statesman and historian

Barthold Georg Niebuhr was a Danish-German statesman, banker, and historian who became Germany's leading historian of Ancient Rome and a founding father of modern scholarly historiography. Classical Rome caught the admiration of German thinkers. By 1810 Niebuhr was inspiring German patriotism in students at the University of Berlin by his analysis of Roman economy and government. Niebuhr was a leader of the Romantic Era and symbol of German national spirit that emerged after the defeat at Jena. But he was also deeply rooted in the classical spirit of the Age of Enlightenment in his intellectual presuppositions, his use of philologic analysis, and his emphasis on both general and particular phenomena in history.

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, pp. 734, 735 ("Scaptius").
  2. ↑ Livy, iii. 71, 72.
  3. ↑ Dionysius, xi. 52.
  4. ↑ Niebuhr, History of Rome, vol. ii, p. 449, note 985.
  5. ↑ Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, v. 21, vi. 1–3, xv. 13, Epistulae ad Brutum, i. 18.
  6. ↑ Broughton, vol. II, p. 239.
  7. ↑ Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, vi. 3.
  8. ↑ Broughton, vol. II, p. 252.
  9. ↑ Inscriptiones Italiae, x. 3, 72.
  10. ↑ IK, xvii. 2, 4120.
  11. ↑ AE 1999, 714.
  12. ↑ IK, xvii. 2, 4121.
  13. ↑ CIL VI, 34569.
  14. ↑ Minto, Saturnia Etrusca e Romana, 3.
  15. 1 2 3 4 CIL XIII, 8116.
  16. ↑ CIL II, 5933.

Bibliography

Cicero 1st-century BC Roman philosopher and statesman

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman statesman, orator, lawyer and philosopher, who served as consul in the year 63 BC. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the Roman equestrian order, and is considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.

Epistulae ad Atticum is a collection of letters from Roman politician and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero to his close friend Titus Pomponius Atticus. The letters in this collection, together with Cicero's other letters, are considered the most reliable sources of information for the period leading up to the fall of the Roman Republic. The letters to Atticus are special among Cicero's works in that they provide a candid view into his personal character — containing confession, frank self-revelation, and a record of his moods from day to day, without alteration. Traditionally spanning 16 books, the collection features letters from 68 to 44 BCE. A notable absence of early references to these particular letters suggest that they may not have been published until the middle of the first century CE, significantly later than Cicero's other letters and quite some time after the deaths of both Cicero (43 BCE) and Atticus (32 BCE).

Dionysius of Halicarnassus Greek historian

Dionysius of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Caesar Augustus. His literary style was Atticistic — imitating Classical Attic Greek in its prime.

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