Sulpicia gens

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The gens Sulpicia was one of the most ancient patrician families at ancient Rome, and produced a succession of distinguished men, from the foundation of the Republic to the imperial period. The first member of the gens who obtained the consulship was Servius Sulpicius Camerinus Cornutus, in 500 BC, only nine years after the expulsion of the Tarquins, and the last of the name who appears on the consular list was Sextus Sulpicius Tertullus in AD 158. Although originally patrician, the family also possessed plebeian members, some of whom may have been descended from freedmen of the gens. [1]

Contents

Praenomina

The Sulpicii made regular use of only four praenomina: Publius, Servius, Quintus , and Gaius . The only other praenomen appearing under the Republic is Marcus , known from the father of Gaius Sulpicius Peticus, five times consul during the fourth century BC. The last of the Sulpicii known to have held the consulship, in the second century AD, was named Sextus , a praenomen otherwise unknown in this gens. [1]

Branches and cognomina

During the Republic, several branches of the Sulpician gens were identified by numerous cognomina, including Camerinus, Cornutus, Galba, Gallus, Longus, Paterculus, Peticus, Praetextatus, Quirinus, Rufus, and Saverrio. In addition to these cognomina, we meet with some other surnames belonging to freedmen and to other persons under the Empire. On coins we find the surnames Galba, Platorinus, Proclus, and Rufus. [1]

Camerinus was the name of an old patrician family of the Sulpicia gens, which probably derived its name from the ancient town of Cameria or Camerium, in Latium. Many of them bore the agnomen Cornutus, from a Latin adjective meaning "horned". The Camerini frequently held the highest offices in the state in the early times of the Republic; but after 345 BC, when Servius Sulpicius Camerinus Rufus was consul, we do not hear of them again for upwards of three hundred years, till Quintus Sulpicius Camerinus obtained the consulship in AD 9. The family was reckoned one of the noblest in Rome in the early times of the Empire. [2]

The Praetextati appear in the second half of the fifth century BC. The family appears to have been a small one, descended from the Camerini. It probably derived its name from one of several related meanings. Praetextus commonly referred to clothing with a decorative border, and especially to the toga praetexta, a toga with a purple border worn by boys and magistrates. Something veiled or concealed could also be described as praetextatus. [3] [4]

The Sulpicii Longi flourished during the fourth century BC, from the time of the Gallic sack of Rome in 390 to the period of the Samnite Wars. The cognomen Longus may have been bestowed upon the ancestor of this family because he was particularly tall. [5] [6]

The surname Rufus, meaning "red", probably referred to the color of the hair of one of the Sulpicii, and may have begun as a cadet branch of the Camerini, as both cognomina were united in the consul of 345 BC. [7] Several Sulpicii bearing this surname appear towards the end of the Republic, but as some appear to have been patricians and others plebeians, they may have constituted two distinct families. [8] [9]

The Sulpicii Galli were a family of the second and third centuries BC. Their cognomen may refer to a cock, or to a Gaul. The greatest of this family, Gaius Sulpicius Gallus, was a successful general and statesman, as well as an orator and scholar much admired by Cicero. [10]

The Sulpicii Galbae first came to prominence during the Second Punic War, and remained distinguished until the first century AD, when Servius Sulpicius Galba claimed the title of Emperor. [11] Suetonius gives four possible explanations of this surname: that the first of the family burnt a town he had besieged, using torches smeared with galbanum, a type of gum; or that, chronically ill, he made regular use of a type of remedy wrapped in wool, known as galbeum; or that galba was a Gallic word for someone very fat; or instead that he resembled a galba, a grub or caterpillar. [12] The surname may also share a common root with the adjective galbinus, a greenish-yellow color. [13]

Members

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

Sulpicii Camerini

Sulpicii Praetextati

Sulpicii Petici

Sulpicii Longi

Sulpicii Saverriones

Sulpicii Paterculi

Sulpicii Galli

Sulpicii Galbae

Sulpicii Rufi

Others

Christian figures

See also

Footnotes

  1. In one passage, Livy refers to him as Publius.
  2. Broughton gives Gaius Sulpicius Geminus.
  3. His surname is attested only by Valerius Maximus, leading some scholars to question its authenticity, as this Sulpicius was a plebeian, and presumably unrelated to the jurist Servius Sulpicius Rufus, a patrician. [8] [9]
  4. Sometimes referred to as "Servius Sulpicius Lemonia Rufus, although "Lemonia" was his voting tribe, rather than his personal name.
  5. Broughton gives Publius Sulpicius Rufus, and does not mention either in 36.

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Bibliography